When did travel become something only for special occasions or recording memories? Celebration trips are important, of course: birthdays, wedding anniversaries, a milestone birthday, starting or finishing school. Sharing memories with the people who matter is undeniably precious.
But travel has another purpose: encountering something new. Discovery, experience and wonder. Leaving on a whim to find a new landscape, learn something you did not know, or be moved by an unexpected encounter. Travelling not just to see sights, but to broaden your perspective. Taking time to recover from everyday fatigue. Switching off the stream of information and putting your thoughts in order.
It is also true that there are fewer places to stay for spontaneous trips. In Jiyujin magazine, we have always shared wonderful places across Japan, yet many are barely surviving. Affordable, good-quality businesses disappear when owners retire. Even if prices rise, it is better for a shop or inn to survive, but far more disappear altogether. The more customers smilingly ask an owner to keep going forever, the harder their struggle can become. Construction, wages, materials and utilities are rising sharply. For operators, the old idea of cheap and good can become a road to misery.
These thoughts led us to create 10 Stories Stay. On my own travels, I increasingly found myself wishing that facilities were not quite so old, or that they could be a little more comfortable. I do not want to give up travelling either. And I want to feel comfortable when I do.
We want 10 Stories Stay to be a place that satisfies your curiosity.
The photograph shows 10 Stories Stay Yuzawa Uonuma.
