Our team at Inside Japan Tours

The sun never sets on the InsideJapan Tours team (well, maybe on Sundays) as we have offices in Bristol (UK), Broomfield, (USA), Brisbane (Australia) and Nagoya (Japan). On this page you can meet the people behind our Japan holidays and tours.

We have a wide range of backgrounds and interests, but you can be sure that the one thing that ties us all together is a love of Japan, Japanese culture and a passionate desire to share that with other people.

From the accounts department, through the travel consultant teams to the tour leaders and guides on the ground, you can rest assured that everything we do is to make sure you have the best possible experience of Japan.

Alastair Donnelly
Director
Email: [email protected]
Call: UK 0117 370 9732
Location (Bristol, UK)

From motorbiking in the winter storms to cycling in the heat of summer, Alastair will give anything Japanese a try.

Alastair can still recall the way he felt when he first visited Japan at the age of 21 - how he was struck by the 'otherness' of the place, where everything was similar but different, from the video libraries with their strange mix of western films to the towering overhead expressways. Small things like the smell of his kerosene heater in winter, eating eel for the first time and sitting on his balcony as a typhoon blew through have all left an indelible mark on him - and it is these things, amongst others, that keep him coming back year upon year.

Alastair's interest in Japan dates back to his university days, when he took a paper in modern Japanese history for his finals and found himself fascinated by the country's spectacular transformation from pre-industrial feudal society to the world's fourth-largest economy in little more than 30 years. Then, when an opportunity then arose to join his friend Simon out in Toyota City, he jumped at the chance - and the rest, as they say, is history.

These days, Alastair is the InsideJapan IT manager and plays a key role in the design and upkeep of the company website - as well as in the production and management of all advertising and printing material. Outside the office, he is a man of many hidden talents and interests. Not only a dab hand at the guitar and a grade eight violinist, he also loves literature, theatre and politics - and had a penchant for wearing make-up to clubs in his early 20s.

What did you enjoy most about living in Japan?

"Where do I start? Every day was awesome. I really enjoyed my job as a teacher (even though it was frustrating at times), I loved the interactions with the kids and having the chance to meet English teachers from all over the world. I got to play guitar for four or five hours a day, there was bowling and karaoke ten minutes from my apartment, I got to investigate the extraordinary number of Japanese beers (we once bought one of every beer in a convenience store and ran a 'tasting' night!)...

"Living in Japan really opened my eyes to the fact that shared experience and cultural background are not important at all when it comes to making good friends. Overall the most enjoyable thing for me was that there was always something new to learn - every day was stimulating in some way.

"If you want to visit the most challenging, exciting, mysterious, inventive, fun and surprising country in the world then you just have to go to Japan. Eat incredible food, enjoy perfect cocktails, drink beer served in an ice-cold glass, travel on the best trains, and discover something new every single day of your visit. There is nowhere like it and if you don't go, every time you talk to someone who has you will regret it."

Relive a favourite moment in Japan...

Seeing Spiritualized in Tokyo

"One of my fondest memories of my time in Japan is the time that Simon and I went to see Spiritualized at the famous and now defunct Shinjuku Liquid Rooms. We caught the last bullet train to Tokyo - sitting on the floor between carriages because the seats were sold out - drank a few beers on the train and then used a really bad Lonely Planet map to get to Shinjuku.

"The venue didn't open until midnight so we just hung around in a little concrete park until we could go in. The gig was probably the maddest music night I have ever been to! Afterwards we sat around in a McDonald's waiting for the trains to start, while I called a friend in the UK using a very ropey internet connection - which must have been really new technology at the time. The whole thing was surreal - and so much fun.

"It reminds me of another time - this time going to see the Chemical Brothers in Osaka. Getting the train down after work, not knowing where we were going, the buzz and the anticipation - these are my favourite memories of Japan."