The japantravel.com website and Japan Travel KK company were both started in December, 2013, but the idea and test version of the site came in mid-2011, shortly after the devastating 3/11 Tohoku earthquake.

I wasn't going to write about Airbnb again, but the meltdown of the firm's business here in Japan over the last 2 weeks has been spectacular.

An Airbnb competitor told me that they think Airbnb will lose up to 90% of its listings in Tokyo, and that in a perverse sort of way, it levels the playing field for the other industry players.

There is a big perception gap between what the Japanese tourism and infrastructure authorities think they should spend their money on and what foreign tourists are actually seeking.

There is last week's approval in the Diet of the JPY1,000 Departure Tax on every traveler leaving the country, Japanese or foreign, and the money will likely not be used for tourism at all.

One of the biggest challenges for the travel agency at Japan Travel is to find places for our luxury clients to stay and memorable things for them to do. It's because of Japan's obsession with with promoting the concept of everyone being middle class.

Given the fact that nature has the blossoms come when they feel like it, I truly feel sorry for the many thousands of people who arrived in Japan last week, only to find that the prime spots were already done and gone.

Of the 20+ major European travel agencies that I personally went to visit at ITB (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin), probably 15 of them said they wanted to be in Japan, soon.

I'm happy to announce that in fact the service is now up and running. If you go to japantravel.bike, you can rent a bike from any DBS bike port in Japan, with nothing more than a credit card.

The unhappy campers are those residents living downtown, especially those around major attractions such as the big temples, and Gion and Pontocho. Here, the press of humanity is unrelenting.