In Episode 07 of Snow Country Stories Japan, I speak with Kevin Kato, a guide and writer based in Matsumoto, Nagano. Kevin guides extended cycling and walking tours in and around Nagano along with other regions of Japan. As a fellow guide, I always take a keen interest in learning what motivates other guides and in the first half of the interview we discuss the pleasure we both find in guiding, the need to convey of sense of place to guests and the growing popularity of cycling, including cycling tours and new routes in Japan. The Japan Alps Cycling Road is one such route that we touch upon briefly during the interview – a 700km / 435 loop circuit that takes in many of the highlights of Nagano and a topic I plan to dedicate an episode to in future.

Life After the Quake: Guiding, Cycling & the Essence of Japan

In the second half of the interview, we delve into Kevin's story and how he came to be living in Nagano following the Great Tohoku Earthquake that occurred on March 11th 2011 - an event that triggered the tsunami that devastated vast areas of Japan's coast and resulted in multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Resident in the Fukushima at the time of the quake, Kevin wrote a book – titled ‘For Now, After the Quake: A Father’s Journey’ - about that experience and his family's ordeal of getting to safety; a journey that eventually led them to settle in Nagano, since which time he has been guiding and pursuing his love of cycling, running and life outdoors. It's the focus of the second half of the interview - a conversation that touches on what could be said to be, the essence of Japan. The following photographs were taken by Kevin and cannot be used without his written permission.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Kevin for agreeing to speak with me including about his recollections of the earthquake and events that followed. I’d also like to say thank you to Kevin’s family who welcomed me into their home to record the interview on a busy Saturday morning. Kevin doesn’t maintain a guiding website at this time therefore if you’d like to contact him about the potential of a tour, you can do so by messaging me via this website and I’ll put you in touch. Alternatively, you can also contact Cycling Japan – the cycling tour company Kevin works with – to check the tours they offer and if you’d like to request a tour led by Kevin, make sure to request him by name. Kevin’s books can be purchased on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy!

It’s an interview of two halves but with a common thread throughout as we discuss the importance of discovering and convey a sense of place to tour guests along with Kevin’s reflections of what he discovered about the country and its people following the triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown - an experience that might be said to have revealed the essence of Japan.