Meet Rio 

Hi, I’m Rio.

I grew up in Japan, so a lot of what happens here has always felt completely normal to me. But over the years, I started to notice that many of those “normal” things were exactly what people outside Japan found the most interesting, confusing, funny, or difficult to understand.

A big part of that came from my own life. I’m in an international marriage, and for years I shared everyday life in Japan with an English-speaking audience through our YouTube channel, Texan in Tokyo. I’ve also traveled extensively around Japan and worked on tourism promotion projects with public-sector, prefectural, and regional partners, helping introduce different parts of the country to people overseas.

All of that gave me a perspective I value a lot today: I know what Japan feels like from the inside, but I’ve also spent years listening to the questions people ask when they’re looking at it from the outside.

And I learned pretty quickly that those are not the same thing.

Knowing Japan is one thing. Knowing what someone else may need in order to really understand it is another.

Why I Built Rio’s Japan

For years, I used a camera to share the everyday side of Japan with people around the world through Texan in Tokyo. 

Rio’s Japan feels like the natural next step.

Instead of explaining everyday Japan through a screen, I want you to actually be there for it.

I want you sitting around the table after work, talking with people about their jobs and families. I want you spending time with shop owners in a neighborhood they’ve lived in for decades. I want you eating home-cooked food with friends, learning the way different families do things, and seeing how life changes once you leave the big cities.

I also don’t want to polish away the parts of Japan that are inconvenient, confusing, or different from what you imagined. Those things are part of understanding a place, too.

Nine days won’t make you a local. But it can be enough time to start noticing things you probably wouldn’t notice on a normal trip.

That is the part of travel I care about most.

What I Bring to the Journey

I’ve always been good with people. I make friends easily, I love introducing people who probably never would have met otherwise, and I’m good at helping everyone get past those awkward first few minutes.

I also know the things Japanese people often don’t think to explain because they seem completely normal to us — and many of the questions English-speaking visitors are wondering but may not know how to ask.

Sometimes my job is to explain. Sometimes it’s to make the introduction. And sometimes it’s to step back and let the conversation become yours.

This Trip Isn’t About Me

I don’t want to be the most memorable person you meet in Japan.

I would much rather you come home talking about the friend you sat next to over drinks, the shop owner you spent an afternoon with, the person who showed you how their family cooks dinner, or the conversation that lasted much longer than anyone expected.

Places matter. Of course they do.

But years later, I think it's usually people who make a place stick in your memory.

If you leave Japan remembering names, not just places, I’ll know we did it right.

That is what I want Rio’s Japan to make possible.

Come with me.

I’ll introduce you to the people I know, help you understand the things that may not make sense at first, and get the conversation started.

Then I’ll step back.

I want you to have your own conversations, make your own connections, and come home with stories that feel like yours.
- Rio