Home - Tim Bunting

TIM BUNTING

KIWI YAMABUSHI

Kia ora koutou. I’m Tim Bunting, the Kiwi Yamabushi.

I’m a practicing Dewa Sanzan Yamabushi, a Japanese mountain ascetic based in Yamagata Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. Since 2016, I’ve trained in Haguro Shugendō under Master Fumihiro Hoshino through Daishobō, a pilgrim’s lodge on Haguro-san, and through Dewa Sanzan Jinja.

If you’re interested in experiencing Shugendō for yourself, check out Yamabushido.jp. Tell them I sent you.

In my spare time, I share stories from the overlooked corners of Japan, especially here in Tōhoku. I publish a Substack newsletter with over 1,500 subscribers, write a daily blog, and post videos on YouTube (over 1,000 subscribers). You’ll find me on most platforms as @kiwiyamabushi.

I’m currently on a mission to summit and document all 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata.

I’m available for:

Online consultation
Public speaking (in English or Japanese)
Guided experiences on the Dewa Sanzan (via Yamabushidō.jp or DewaSanzan.com)

As a Master Yamabushi and the creator of DewaSanzan.com, I believe I’m the most knowledgeable native English speaker on these sacred mountains.

MOUNTAINS OF YAMAGATA

Here are a few posts of my adventures climbing the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata. Read about the project here, or view all articles here.

ALL

DAILY YAMABUSHI

Here are some of my Daily Yamabushi posts. Get more here.

Playing the System

When I was an ALT in Shonai town, I used to play the system in a bit of a sneaky way, but it was the only way I could get my ideas across. Basically, and thankfully, I worked at two junior high schools, and it took me a while to realise this, but I started […]

Ownership

With ownership comes opportunity. If you own something, you own the rights to what it makes. With ownership comes responsibility. If you own something, you are responsible. With ownership, if you complain, you better do something about it. Without ownership, if you complain, you can't do anything about it. If you don't own anything, you […]

The Advantages of not Being Able to Talk

Not being able to talk fast enough for the current pace of conversation, and not being able to elucidate yourself, besides the obvious frustration of not having your opinion heard, can be a bit of a struggle for second language learners. But, as with everything, there is a silver lining. And although that silver lining […]

Build Your Network and Influence: Networking in Japan

A few years back I was invited to speak at an event in Sakata called Moshieno University (Moshieno is the word for interesting in Shonai dialect). At the Q&A session at the end, I had a very good question, which was: how were you able to extend your network so much while in Japan? Now, […]

What to think about strange English

Japan is covered in weird English in the strangest of places too. T-shirts are the obvious one, but also shop names and signs are plastered with the oddest of expressions that it truly makes you wonder where they came from. One of my personal favourites is from near where I live, where there is a […]

Sometimes you just can’t take the culture out of someone.

Here I am sitting on a bus heading for Hamilton, New Zealand, with a group of about 30 Japanese students. For all of them I imagine it’s their first time to this country, and yet they’re all asleep! Look outside at the beautiful scenery, Huntly’s pretty nice at this time of year. But I guess […]

Get your ideas out

In a recent Akimbo podcast by Seth Godin, one of the listeners called in asking about putting out a ‘bad’ quality daily blog post. Say all your blog posts were of a generally good quality but one day you were just having a bad day, and your post wasn’t of the quality of the others. […]