I have been invited to have a meeting with the prefectural governor, along with some other 'young' people in the prefecture (meaning 18-45 year olds). For that, I was asked to write a brief self-introduction, my ideas for improving the prefecture, and what I'm doing to help at the moment.

My answer, after quite a bit of thought, was that the prefecture needs to find activities that make good use of the prefecture's resources, and that have a positive impact on participants in a sustainable way.

A big ask, yes, but I believe this is necessary for the long-term benefit of the prefecture, when it comes to inbound tourism at least.

I'm currently doing that, or at least trying to, by working at Megurun and providing Yamabushi training and other programs we are working on.

My worry is that if we keep doing what we're doing, creating programs that are cheap and don't add much value, then it is not sustainable, and the prefecture will lose out in the long run. More effort should be put into creating added value experiences that can be run by people in the industry sustainably.

More on this later.