About JST

Dear our customers,

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my message.

 

Please let me share my story about how I came to build this special company. 

 

The inspiration traces back to my student days when I started traveling on my own. After entering university, I took up snowboarding and surfing and soon fell in love with these outdoor activities. I spent a lot of time on snowy mountains and traveling to islands for surfing around Japan. Much of that time I had little money in my pocket, but I never hesitated to spend it all on the activities that I was passionate about.

 

Needless to say, I had a great time wherever I travelled and gained many invaluable experiences. But, in all honesty the most memorable and precious moments were with the people I met on the road and time spent with them. 

Meeting people who were passionate about their chosen activities and learning from them left a lasting impression on me. Their lifestyles impacted me greatly and influences my way of living to this day.

 

In 2001, I graduated a university, and chose a career as a Tour Leader. My ambition was to leave these shores, travel the world and experience life and nature outside of Japan firsthand. I found a position at an Outgoing Travel Company which focused on tours to international cultural heritage sites, natural heritage sites and the off-the-beaten track destinations for Japanese tourists. In my time with that company – almost 10 years – I was lucky enough to travel to nearly 100 countries. It was an incredible experience to visit so many countries and learn so much. 

 

It was not until I started traveling abroad that learnt to appreciate the charms of my own country. The travel, the people, the experiences opened my eyes to the world and its people opened my mind. I soon came to appreciate the rich beauty and culture of Japan.

This motivated me to introduce and deliver a genuinely great travel experience in Japan to foreign visitors and I made the big career switch from Outgoing Tourism to Incoming Tourism.

After transferring to Incoming Tourism, I worked at some of the leading Incoming Destination Management Companies (Incoming Tour Operators) in Japan and I established my own business Japan Story Travel in Summer 2019.

 

For the past couple of years, as a traveler, as worker and as a business owner in travel industry, I have had one question on my mind: “what is the biggest purpose to travel?” To see beautiful landscapes. To visit historic sites. To have great culinary experiences. There are a variety of reasons, depending on the traveler.

 

In my opinion the necessary element for an unforgettable journey is the“encounter”.

 

When I recall all my memorable trips, the “encounter” leaves the most lasting impression, whether it was an encounter with people, an encounter with art or nature. And the “encounter” need not always be external, sometimes within a new experience there is an encounter that is within ourselves. It can be a moment where you forget about yourself or learn a new aspect about yourself. I think it is not rare to rediscover yourself when traveling.

 

When we experience a great trip, also we encounter some unforgettable stories, a story that will enrich your life and last the rest of your life. Such an experience for myself was during a visit to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I started walking the corridors of the museum looking at paintings without an understanding or focus, just listening to the painter’s life story by audio-guide. I got to know about his life, its hardships and how he painted. This moved me very deeply and I soon felt a great understanding about the painter and my own personal interaction with his art and now I have become a big admirer of the man and his work. 

 

In Japan, we are culture rich, our land is blessed with beautiful nature, our people live an incredibly unique lifestyle which has developed over its long colorful history. My dream is for each our visitors to encounter a wonderful story here and leave with a great memory.

 

Life is a journey and all of us are travelers. Who will be the hero/heroin of our own life story? 

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A trip can be the highlight of lifetime story, and an encounter will be one page of that story. 

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The story, we discover while travelling, will often change us and enrich our lives. 

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With the wish to be the company, who assist our guests to have their great travel story, I named my company “Japan Story Travel”.

 

May all our guests encounter the best story in Japan.

 

We will do our best to provide the best memory for our guests.