Dec. 2, 2024: Memoirs of a Gaijin 🎎🌸

A foreigner investigates the state of crypto in Japan

A curious thing happened as we were reviewing our newsletter stats. Here is the snapshot of all-time readers by location, not accounting for population density:

As with all things, USA is number one, despite crypto being de facto illegal for years. Beyond this, we see readership correlate with major population centers with intelligent and tech savvy populations: ie Nigeria, Indonesia, India…

But these are the lifetime stats, which a complete boom-bust cycle. What happens if we look at the more recent timeframe covering the tail of the bear market?

Why are we seeing such a spike in Japanese readership lately?

We took a one month trip to Japan to investigate this phenomenon, with a mission of meeting as many crypto people as we could. We wrote up our full experience in a travelogue we call…

Memoirs of a Gaijin

Locals say 春 (“haru,” aka spring) is the best time to visit Japan—after the cherry blossom trees have erupted into full bloom but before the pavement cooks in the sweltering ssummer heat. As a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, I’m no stranger to the distinct scent of cherry blossoms. Yet, when I first glimpsed the Japanese sakura dotting the Imperial Park nearly a decade ago, the experience was distinct.

The moment was fleeting, though, overshadowed by frenetic darting between skyscrapers. Just like any given 会社員 (“kaishain”, a member of the suited army invading the subways each morning at rush hour) might never leave their offices during daytime, so too was my business trip all work and no play. Three packed days of wall to wall meetings. A capsule style hotel in a nondescript neighborhood far removed from the city center.

The short trip sufficed only to convince me I must return, with the freedom to truly immerse myself in the culture.