Japan Travel Tips & Hidden Gems
As I sit down to write this, it’s 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning and I am traveling on a bullet train bound for Shiga Prefecture in western Japan. Prior to opening up a new story in my editor, I…
“Time is like a river that will take you forward into encounters with reality that will require you to make decisions. You can’t stop the movement down this river, you can’t avoid the encounters. You can only approach these encounters…
One day while I was on the Gram, someone asked me out of the blue why I spend such a staggering amount of money traveling around Japan and promoting my content. This person was a fellow creator here in Tokyo,…
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a daikon (lit. “big root”). Known internationally among culinary circles in English as the daikon radish, this mild-flavored winter radish originally hails from China’s northern reaches. Though common to many Asian countries, the vegetable is…
Update: Since originally writing this, I’ve come to realize that I am much better suited to being a mere freelance digital marketer and content creator… Today is November 21, 2020. As I sit down to write this, I am currently…
Man’s life is fifty years.In the universe, what is it but dreams or illusions?Is there any that is born and does not die? — Oda Nobunaga For the longest time, I have had a profound sense of respect for the Japanese warlord Oda…
Strange as this may sound, one of the most difficult challenges I contend with is figuring out how to explain that this site is actually not a real business. As I outlined in my controversial Rejecting My Ikigai piece, I’ve…
“Nothing tastes as good as fasting feels…” — Donny Kimball As I write this, I am thousands of meters up in the sky on a Japan Airlines flight back from Boston. Seeing as I’ve been visiting family for the past few…
“I just don’t get it. Why would you be willing to make us a marketing plan but not want to charge anything? What’s actually in it for you?” Sighing, I tried to remember whether it was the third or fourth…
As I sit down to write this, I’m many kilometers up in the sky aboard a Finnair flight bound for Helsinki. For the next few days, I’ll dutifully be escorting a group of Japanese journalists around the Finnish capital. While…
Warning: This post is NOT safe for work! — Donny Kimball “What the HELL am I doing?!?!” I asked myself, looking around at my bizarre surroundings. To my immediate right, a Japanese gentleman was enjoying the sight of his wife…
In the early summer of 2018, the world tragically lost the American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain. In the time since his baffling suicide, I have often brooded on how a man who seemingly had everything could…
“Are you really interested in such things?” she asked me, blinking her eyes a few times in bewilderment at my inquiry. In my mind, the question had not been all that out of left field or anything. I mean, what…
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of others; instead, seek what they sought.” — Matsuo Basho 2018 has been a very, very strange year for me. In many regards, it was by far the best year of my life. What…
“You what?!?!” Looking up across the table, I could see utensils paused halfway between plates and mouths as their holders stared at me, jaws agape. I was home in America for the holidays and I could tell that I had…