Welcome to Room 206!

This completely random mixed-media blog (are these still a thing) is a collaboration between banromsai Japan and my copywriting company Upstate inc. I have a long and personal connection with the Japanese non-profit banromsai. My wife has been working there for years, both as an account executive in Japan and a volunteer in Chiangmai, Thailand. Her career there has also shaped my own journey and is why I am sitting in front of this screen writing this today. 

I am still quite close to banromsai. Literally one floor above to be exact. We share an office space in the small and sleepy coastal town of Hayama, Kanagawa. 

Ours is an old building that has seen better days, but it has a couple of amazing and rare perks. 

At the top of that list is my amazing view of Sagami Bay. (Yes the same place where Godzilla rises to party hard across the Tokyo landscape). Luckily, things are usually much calmer in the bay with the biggest disturbance the summer swarms of jellyfish. But even when I can’t enjoy a dip in the bay, just having the water within eyeshot is enough to soothe my frustrations during marathon web meetings with clients.

Another of the natural perks is the huge (for Japan) garden we have. It means more work for me just to keep it clean and the grass cut, but it makes a great place to stretch your legs and remember what grass feels like under your toes. 

Like everything else with this house, it still needs some serious TLC to reclaim its potential, but it’s getting there little by little. Before I got my hands on it with a weed whacker, our garden was the backdrop for a recent banromsai photoshoot.

Now that you know the setting of the room 206 blog, I think I’ll break it off here. They say “always leave them wanting more” and I don’t know if that’s the case for anyone reading this, but I’ve got a couple more of these bad boys to write today. 

I hope you find something to enjoy here, whether its the stories, the photos, the tips or the any of the other random things you’ll find here.