Picture book author Tupera Tupera's take on unplanned family travel

Leave the travel planning to others. Family trips relying on acquaintances and friends

OnTrip JAL Editorial Department (hereinafter referred to as JAL): Looking at your Twitter, it seems that you visit all over the country. Do you travel often?

Tatsuya Kameyama (hereinafter, Kameyama): To be honest, I haven't been able to take many private trips recently (laughs). That said, that doesn't mean I haven't been traveling at all. I often go on business trips to various places for workshops and lectures, so I take my children with me.

Atsuko Nakagawa (hereinafter, Nakagawa): That's right. Since my children started elementary school, it has become more difficult to find time to travel, so I often combine it with work and travel. Outside of work, I enjoy visiting various places when I get an opportunity, such as an invitation from an acquaintance. When it comes to private trips, I guess I go about twice a year.

JAL: You don't really have a clear boundary between work and leisure, and you visit many different places. How do you spend your time when you travel?

Kameyama: I basically leave it up to the people I meet when I travel. Locals are always kind enough to give me recommendations, like "If you come here, you should try this." They know a lot more than we do, and they guide us to the best places in a limited amount of time. So I thought I'd just leave it up to them. If I don't have any local acquaintances, I'll ask someone who knows about it for recommendations before I go on a trip.

Nakagawa: Even on private trips, I often go with friends, not just my family. For some reason, there are a lot of travel specialists around me (laughs). Even when it doesn't work out, I always ask them for recommendations on places they've visited before and enjoy them before going. When I visited Vietnam a few years ago, I left all of the travel planning to a friend's family who are Vietnam experts.

Kameyama: However, I really wanted to go to Suoi Tien Park, which became famous through the photo collection "Kikaigai Isan" (Exknowledge) by photographer Takehisa Sato, so I made the only request. Unfortunately, I was the only one who was infected with E. coli and ended up saying "It hurts, it hurts" the whole time I was there (laughs).

JAL: If you're working and traveling with children in tow, that must be a pretty busy schedule.

Kameyama: That's right. I feel bad when I ask my children to accompany me to work, but I often let them do what they want. But children are resilient, and if I let them do what they want at a workshop, for example, they'll make friends with the children they meet there, and before you know it, they'll be exchanging letters. I think children are just like children, and they'll expand their world on their own.

Nakagawa: Not just for travel, but if our situation of working and raising children as a couple doesn't change, I think we should make the most of it. We don't have as much free time to travel as we did before we got married, but because we're both working, we have the chance to visit all over the country.

It's not that we think, "I want to take my children to lots of different places for their education," but I do think that a busy, on-the-go lifestyle is definitely beneficial for both us and our children.

Traveling is about meeting people. The joy of traveling through work

JAL: In December 2017, you posted a live update on social media about your trip to Paris. Was this also a business trip?

Kameyama: That's right. Thankfully, our picture books have been translated into French since 2012, and I've been wanting to visit bookstores there ever since. This time, I was finally able to visit after being invited by the book fair that takes place once a year in Montreuil, Paris.

JAL: Was this your first visit to Paris?

Kameyama: Actually, I had been there once before, 16 years ago. It was before we started our activities as tupera tupera, but I accompanied picture book author Gomi Taro to a workshop held at the Montreuil book fair as an assistant to him. He invited me vaguely, saying "Let's meet there" (laughs). We didn't have much money at the time, so the two of us went to Paris via Moscow.

That gallery hadn't invited any Japanese artists since then, but the other day they invited us. They contacted us and said, "Nice to meet you," but when I told them, "Actually, we met 16 years ago," the person in charge was surprised.

JAL: That's an amazing connection.

Kameyama: I was happy. I thought, "I have to go!" This time, I went alone for a 5-night, 6-day trip, but our friend who lives in France arranged everything for me. He introduced me to French artist Philippe Weisbecker, showed me around his studio, and introduced me to the person in charge of the museum's children's events. I don't often have the chance to eat with French artists, so it was very stimulating.

JAL: Do your travel experiences in foreign countries, like Vietnam and Paris, ever inspire your work?

Kameyama: It doesn't have a direct influence on my work. However, I think I am influenced in some ways by meeting people and seeing the reactions of children reading our picture books in libraries. I guess it's more the influence of people than the travel itself.

Nakagawa: That's right. Even when I travel, rather than having a specific destination in mind, I'm more conscious of there being people I want to meet and wanting to cherish the connections I make with those people. I once visited Haga Town in Tochigi Prefecture after being invited to an event by a bookstore called "BOOK FOREST." The town itself is of course lovely, but I was inspired by the many shops there that are run with a strong sense of values and people who live their lives cherishing their local community. Since then, I've become friends with the owner of "BOOK FOREST" and his family, and I often visit Haga Town.