🧳 Travel is expensive? Then let's take our home far away.

💸 Lately, travel is just too expensive.

Hotel rates are high.

Shinkansen tickets are expensive too.

And flights? During peak season, the prices are shocking.

If it's a family trip, it costs hundreds of thousands of yen.

"I want to go on a trip."

Even if you think that, consulting your wallet brings you back to reality in an instant.

But then, I had a thought.

Is travel really about going somewhere far away?

🤔 Perhaps the essence of travel is the "traveler's perspective."

When you're traveling, strange things happen.

Just walking through an unfamiliar shopping street is fun.

You take pictures even at a small shrine.

You get excited even at an ordinary cafe, thinking, "This must be a popular local spot."

But places just like that exist in your own neighborhood, too.

What's different isn't the scenery.

It's your own perspective.

While traveling, we view the city through the filter of being a "traveler."

If that's the case, why not just bring that filter with you?

💡 Let's take our home far away.

Of course, I don't mean actually moving.

It's just a setting.

Starting today, my home is in Hokkaido.

It could be Okinawa, or even overseas, it doesn't matter.

And I,

"I've come to this city for a four-day, three-night trip."

will start living with that mindset.

🔑 It's a place I rented on Airbnb.

This is the place I booked this time.

I found it on Airbnb.

……Huh?

It looks somewhat familiar.

I even have the key from the start.

The fridge is stocked with my favorite drinks.

I already know how to use the washing machine.

I won't worry about the details.

After all, it's a trip.

"Wow, this place is great!"

"The amenities are well-stocked!"

"It's so relaxing!"

For some reason, I am reviewing my own home.

🗺️ Searching for tourist spots.

This is where the real fun begins.

I search on my smartphone.

"City name sightseeing"

"City name scenic views"

"City name hidden gems"

"City name local gourmet"

And surprisingly, a lot comes up.

Even though I've lived in this city for decades,

there are tons of places I've never been to.

Places that travelers from abroad are moved by,

but whose existence I didn't even know about.

🚃 A four-day, three-night trip begins.

The key is,

to stick to the four-day, three-night setting until the end.

A normal day trip ends on that day.

But this is different.

Today is the first day of the trip.

I go sightseeing, and at night, I return to my 'hotel (home)'.

The next morning.

"It's the second day of the trip."

Breakfast at the hotel.

...It's the usual dining table.

But since I'm on a trip, I don't mind.

The second day is for the art museum.

The third day is taking a local train to the end of the line.

The fourth day is for visiting markets and shrines to look for souvenirs.

Even though I go home every day,

in my head, the trip continues the whole time.

It's a completely different feeling from taking four day trips.

The story continues for four days.

That's why it becomes a trip.

🚌 A 50km radius is surprisingly wide.

Even without going far away,

30 minutes by train.

1 hour by bus.

Just by transferring a little,

there are many towns I don't know.

A museum.

Observation deck.

Old-fashioned shopping street.

Market.

Hot spring.

Local train line.

"I can go anytime."

Places you thought that about,

all become destinations just by looking at them through a traveler's eyes.

You could spend a week there, let alone four days and three nights.

💰 Even your wallet becomes a traveler's.

This trip has another interesting effect.

Your purse strings loosen up in just the right way.

On a normal day trip,

"Is 3,000 yen too much for lunch?"

"I'll pass on the 2,000 yen souvenir."

That's how you feel.

But this time is different.

In your mind,

"I've spent hundreds of thousands of yen to travel far away."

is the premise.

When you think of it that way,

A slightly nicer lunch.

A slightly more premium sweet.

That traditional craft you were curious about.

Local sake.

All of it,

"Since I'm not paying for hotels or airfare."

is how you can justify it.

When you think about the trip as a whole, it's actually cheaper.

The guilt is almost zero.

Taking the money you would have spent on traveling far away,

and using it to experience things or eat in that town.

This might be a way of spending money that brings a very high level of satisfaction.

Plus, the money goes to local businesses.

You have fun.

The local area is also a little happy.

It's a surprisingly good cycle.

💡 Delusional idea: "Remote Travel"

It would be interesting to turn this concept into a service.

What travel agencies sell is,

It's not about planes or hotels.

What we are selling is,

the persona of a traveler.

When you open the app,

You are now a traveler from Sapporo.

Your accommodation is right here.

……It's your own home.

Here are today's recommended sightseeing courses.

A long-established cafe that travelers would want to visit.

A viewpoint where the evening scenery is beautiful.

A museum that even locals are surprisingly unaware of.

Everything is within reach of your home by train or bus.

But they are all places I never would have thought of myself.

What travel agencies sell is not transportation, but

perspective.

🌍 Perhaps travel is not about distance, but perspective.

Travel is not

about going far away.

It is about pretending you have come from far away.

In that moment,

The familiar area in front of the station becomes a tourist destination.

The usual shopping street becomes a spot for eating while walking.

The scenery you saw every day,

becomes scenery you see for the first time.

The world hasn't changed.

The only thing that has changed is your perspective.

And there is one more thing that changes.

How you spend your money.

Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of yen on travel,

eat the delicious food of that town.

Buy things you can only buy in that town.

Walk slowly through that town.

Your travel budget remains the same.

Just change how you spend it.

Perhaps, from now on, travel will not be about "where you go,"

but about what perspective you walk with.

Maybe that is the kind of era we are entering.

▼ You can check other articles on this theme in this magazine.

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