I’ve just started a new Kickstarter campaign for a visual novel that I hope will introduce the city of Niihama, Japan to the world. I’ve lived here for 5 years now and I don’t feel travel guides do it justice at all. There are many local legends, interesting historical places and exciting festivals that I hope to share with the world through this game.
Please check out my campaign: www.kickstarter.com
In my time living in Niihama I have been to festivals that literally no other non-Japanese has ever been!! I have been interviewed for 3 magazines and I have appeared on TV twice. I am as ordinary as they come, so it really shows just how unexplored this area is for foreign visitors. It’s the reason I wanted to make this game. I want people to know about the real Japan, because its really not all robots and samurai (though those are great), there is so much that is overlooked.
While I’ve been living here I’ve been to plum stone spitting contests. I’ve thrown a pufferfish. There are ruins of the houses of local mining communities. There is a festival on an island where giant bonfires are lit and the ashes are gathered and put into mochi rice cakes and eaten to prolong life. There are legends of ghost that drag unwitting children into the pools of waterfalls. There is even a man in a temple who owns a piece of a ghosts kimono, and it seems he will gladly show it to anyone that comes knocking on his door. These are just some of the unique experiences I’ve had in this city that according to travel guides deserves at most a paragraph.
I have a blog where I have written more, gettinglostinjapan.weebly.com but if you want to really help me tell the world, please support my campaign!
