A Big Idea💡 Thoughts? (Patreon)

[ This post isn't about delicious Slimes cakes. Although....it could be! ]

Hey hey, Everyone (^O^)／

I had written this post while awake at 2:00 am the other night, typed it into google keep, and then when I went to copy paste it here, *gone*. So starting again.

I'm here to float an idea by you all. First, several of you have mentioned this or suggested it over the years and I always really loved the idea but wasn't sure how to actually make it happen. I see the goal and I see where I am now, but I can't envision the road to get from here to there.

Well, recently, I noticed that Liv Albert from the podcast "Let's Talk About Myths, Baby" is actually doing it and seeing that it's possible (proof of concept?) has gotten me re-excited about it. Tentatively. I want to run the idea by you all first.

Keep in mind, this is the very beginning of the idea and I'm super open to any and all suggestions, opinions, better ideas.

That is: ✨Special✨ tours run by Richard and me. So the idea is, not a whole lot of people. Off the top of my head maybe around ten-ish (I think that's what Liv does). Although the very first one might be smaller just to get the ball rolling.

So, let's say ten people. Of course, patrons get first dibs. Of (also) course, you can bring a partner, friend, family member. Or alone is fine.

The way Liv does it is the participants pay for their own airfare and travel insurance. I'm not exactly sure her details, but perhaps have a day where everyone arrives in Japan, since the times will be all over the place. Then maybe we all meet up for dinner, everyone stays the night at the same place, and it's from the next day we start the adventures.

R and I will take care of hotels, transportation, breakfasts, reservations any place...that'll all be a part of the tour cost.

Now, the fun part is what to do? The whole idea of these would be to do and experience all those things you can't do if you come alone or are on some random tour. Things off the beaten track, more real Japan if that doesn't sound too trite.

If we did a tour around here, I've already been brainstorming ideas and talking with Japanese friends who want to help out. For example, one good buddy lives near the beach and goes daily at dawn to do yoga while the sun rises over the ocean and there's Mt Fuji in the distance. Her photos are fantastic.

I also have connections with an grape orchard that does little parties under the vines drinking their own brand of wine and beer (!) while eating some very unique to Shizuoka foods. Anyway, lots of connections and friends and I can easily find a ton of cool things to do, places to go, restaurants to eat at. There is so much! I've got three decades of friends and family and connections, so lots of ideas.

We could do something like a Folklore Tour where we visit Kintaro's Shrine and where he broke the huge boulder in half, and stuff like that. So all our destinations center around various folklore, legendary heroes.

Or a Yōkai Tour, a Nana Fushigi Tour (The Rock that Cries at Night is near here), historical spots, an all food and drink tour, haunted spots? Lafcadio Hearn tour? Tokugawa Ieyasu is all over Shizuoka. Castles? Temples? Shrines? I am friendly with a nice temple here, early morning Zazen? Oh! OH! I'm spitballing here as I write, but ten days of nothing but nature, yoga, meditation, talks on life and living from a Buddhist monk? A total Spiritualling Out Tour?

As long as it's not something you could do on another tour or by yourself, I think this might be an absolute blast.

And not just in the Shizuoka area, either. We could go to some other prefecture. Hokkaido? Richard and I could scout it out and find all the treasures to see, do, and eat there.

Again, this is the first nebulous mushy phase of a dream. I know Liv a little bit (we share a publisher and our books are in the same series and we've talked privately online) and the bond her tour group forms and the friendships made is one of my favorite parts of this idea. Like we'll all be hanging out together for ten-ish days, of course there will be free time, but, yeah, kinda we'll become an even close knit uncanny family💕.

So, what do you think? Is this a viable idea? There will be a fee for the ten days, hotel, transportation, and the time and all the planning, so please keep that in mind. I think I'm going to reach out to Liv and see how she worked that all out. And I'm also totally open to ideas for types of tours. I know Liv goes to a lot of museums, archaeological spots, and historical spots related to the Greek gods.

I have the BIG deadline next spring, and it's going to take lots of planning and coordinating, so I'm tentatively going to say next fall/winter would be the first one.

And about the Slimes cakes. Yeah, they're sold in a little shop near me. We could eat those and a million other yummy things, too!

Tell me what you think! Message me, too, if you don't want to comment here. This is one of those things that has been brewing for so long and I'd regret it forever if I didn't at least throw the idea out there and see if it has legs or not.

XO, Slimes don't have legs.

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