A client of mine, a female leader operating the temple lodge Kakurinbo on Mount Minobu, received the 2024 “Best Inbound Travel” national award by Japan Travel Awards (unrelated to my company Japan Travel KK) for her contributions. I had the pleasure to attend the awards ceremony at Tokyo American Club today 🙂 She was wearing a beautiful kimono and was accompanied by a Buddhist priest in robes.
She is very active, already hosted many foreigners and organized tours for them, was featured in American newspapers (!), and hired several working holiday visa holders (enabling her to welcome travellers in many languages including English and German). Through her, I had the chance to attend my first tour on Mount Minobu, a mix of local discovery and food discovery, meeting great Japanese elders and enjoying several cooking classes. Kakurinbo’s temple stay is suitable for vegans and vegetarians; Muslims can also get halal food. She is currently developing tourism products for affluent travellers, including helicopter tours with exceptional views of Mount Fuji.
Some awards in other categories were also very interesting, notably including tours and stays for wheelchair travellers. OCTB is already active in the LGBTQ+ community and is doing tours for wheelchairs travellers too so I hope that they get a prize in related categories in 2025.