Traveling is the "sowing of seeds" that enriches life. The reason why Kundo Koyama went on a month-long trip

"Don't expect anything in return from your journey" "Betray God's predictions" Kundo Koyama's travel tips

JAL: It's true that there are no dramatic changes. Even after a long journey, daily life doesn't change much. Were you able to return to work smoothly?

Koyama: Yes. When I returned to Japan, I felt like it was finally over. It may sound contradictory, but I was so busy during the trip that I thought, "I want to get some rest soon" (laughs). Because of that feeling, I was able to return to work feeling refreshed.

JAL: It's been several years since your month-long trip, but have you felt that your experience back then has been useful in your work?

Koyama: Actually, I haven't yet. I tend to expect some kind of bud to sprout from my travel experiences, but I feel like I shouldn't make it a must. In the first place, you don't immediately know what it means to be able to say you've "gained" something, and even if you feel like you "gained nothing," as long as you have memories, all kinds of possibilities will remain as "seeds" in your life. I think that it is these things that will become part of you, even if you haven't yet taken up a breath of life.

JAL: Like Mr. Koyama, I think there are many people in their 50s who are thinking about their future. Even those people may be able to discover new possibilities by taking a "halftime."

Koyama: I often say that "fake out God's plans and make life more interesting." True "coincidences" and interesting stories await you when you betray the harmony that God predicts. In that sense, I recommend traveling without planning too much. JAL has a campaign called "Miles Somewhere," which I think is really good.

JAL: "Miles Somewhere" is a project in which JAL will suggest four possible destinations, and you can go to one of them for less than half the usual number of miles.
The locations are chosen randomly, so you won't know where you'll be able to go until you apply.

Koyama: It's fine to plan carefully and go to only the places you want to go, but I think it's better to encounter something through a chain of coincidences. For example, the comfort of listening to a song you intended on listening to on your smartphone is different from the comfort of hearing a song that happens to be playing on the radio while driving a car and matching it with the scenery.
I think a good trip is one in which you often feel comfortable encountering unexpected things.

JAL: While chance is important, as you get older, you also become more wary of failure. Also, in today's world, it's easy to get a first-hand experience through the internet.

Koyama: Deciding where to go based on someone else's reviews and experiences. It's a risk hedge, isn't it? But the destination you choose in this way is at best "obvious" and at worst "disappointing." A good trip is one where you can enjoy it even if it's bad, and double the joy if it's good. Especially in this day and age, isn't it good to take such a trip without prior research towards the second half of your life?

Gather information at the beauty salon. The fun of traveling is in the "stories" that unfold from chance encounters.

JAL: Serious people tend to plan every detail of their trip, but perhaps there are things that can be seen by removing such intentions and goals.

Koyama: That's right. Recently, I was invited to a magazine project where I could go anywhere I wanted for three days. So, I went to Nagasaki Prefecture and came up with a project called "A trip to decide for myself whether champon or sara udon is better." The editor-in-chief and I went to Nagasaki together and ate and listened to a lot of things, and it was a fun trip.

I didn't know this until I went on this trip, but for the people of Nagasaki, champon is the "ke" food of the two "hare" and "ke" diets. In other words, it's the kind of food your mother would make for you on an everyday basis. On the other hand, sara udon is the kind of food you order on special occasions, like when relatives get together. Through this chance trip, I learned a lot about the characteristics of the people of Nagasaki, and gained far more from it than I would have gained from a normal tourist trip.

JAL: The lack of prior information actually enriched the trip. Mr. Koyama is also known as a gourmet, so do you have any tips for finding good restaurants when traveling?

Koyama: To be honest, you can encounter strange things (laughs). But I often ask local people who are knowledgeable about local things. For example, when I travel, I often go to get my hair cut. When I do that, I can talk about all sorts of things with the hairdresser for an hour. So I ask, "Where have you gone to eat recently?" It's important to find a place to talk with local people.

JAL: So you really leave it all to chance. Is there anything else you do consciously when you travel?

Koyama: It's important to cherish the encounters you make with people on the street. (Pointing to a shelf in the office) You can see that little note hanging there. It's a note I got on the street in San Francisco about 10 years ago. On that day, my car was towed away while I was eating, and unlike in Japan, I didn't know where to put it, so I was at a loss. Then, an old man on the street called out to me, and when I explained the situation, he wrote the address of where I should put it on the note and helped me out. I was so moved by that encounter that I still have it hanging on display.

JAL: A single note can really spark a lot of imagination.

Koyama: The "JAL TODOFUKEN SEAL," which started in October 2017 in collaboration with JAL, was also planned to create an opportunity for conversation between passengers and flight attendants. All flight attendants wear a "connected prefecture" badge with the prefecture of their choice written on it. If you talk to a flight attendant, you can get a sticker from that prefecture.

Koyama: Customers respond to the prefectures they have a connection to and proactively talk to the crew. This gives the crew an opportunity to talk about places that are related to them. This gives the feeling that a story is about to begin. I think that when traveling, it's very important to find as many stories as possible. I would like to create projects that will trigger this, and I myself would like to continue enjoying such trips filled with unexpected stories.