Van M.
Born in Washington, D.C. and moved to Denver, Colorado as a teenager. Growing up in the Rocky Mountains cemented a passion for the outdoors and all kinds of adventure sports – mountain biking, trail running, hiking, ice climbing, etc. Van first visited Japan in high school and returned to teach English for 5 years in order to further explore and understand the culture. He has lived in Kyoto since 2019 and leads one day, multi-week cultural tours, and outdoor/adventure hiking and cycling tours around the country.
Prior to guiding people around Japan he worked as a travel consultant, designing & building trips to Japan, and before that spent several years at US outdoor equipment retailer REI, as well as the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Van has fallen in love with many facets of Japanese culture – but especially the incredible attention to detail and quality in everything from gardens and architecture, to knives, ceramics, and sake!
He’ll be the first to admit that this has developed into to a “mild obsession” with ceramics, and lately has been trying his hand as an aspiring potter. It also led him to want to learn more about the process of making sake, and in 2021 he became a certified sake sommelier. What could be better than drinking sake out of a beautiful handmade “ochoko”?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his favorite parts of Japan all involve getting beyond the major cities and into the less-visited, physically stunning corners of the island archipelago; in particular the Tohoku region, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which are wonderfully wild and underexplored by the majority of visitors. That said, he feels spoiled living in Kyoto, having access to some of the best gardens and history in the whole country!
Van is looking forward to meeting you and sharing the art, culture, history, and Nature of Japan!
