As we’re getting ready to host the second edition of THU Storytelling in Kaga City, we can’t help but look back on the journey that brought us here. As always, it started as a dream that seemed impossible, and (as always) our side-kick Shuzo John Shiota was right by our side in making it a reality. In 2025, from September 17 to 20, the Tribe will be back in Kaga City for an immersive retreat in nature. Tickets for THU Storytelling are already on sale.
Hop on and read Shuzo John Shiota telling the story of how THU Storytelling started, how he got involved, and the importance of getting butt naked in Japan.
How did THU Storytelling in Japan come to be?
My first THU was in 2016, and after my second in 2017, André (THU’s CEO) started bugging me about doing THU in Japan. Over those two years of participating, I kind of became Andre’s go-to person, so I listened to him. In 2018, we organized something called the Tokyo Gathering, and invited Doug Chiang to be the speaker. It was really nice. We did something similar in 2019 with Peter Ramsey as the speaker, and that was really nice, too. By then, Andre was super excited and kept pushing for more events in Japan. So, again, because I was kind of Andre’s person for this, I went along with it. The first thing I had to do was scout for a location. After participating in THU for a few years, I started to understand the “tricks”: what makes THU feel like THU. It’s more than just the mantras; the location is super important. It has to feel almost like a cult experience, where you’re in a place you can’t escape from. You have to be stuck there, immersed. So it definitely couldn’t be in Tokyo or a big city where you could just go off and do your own thing.
"It also needed to be a beautiful place with a lot of culture, great food, and great liquor. We narrowed it down to a few possible locations and scouted three of them, one of which was Kaga."
Why Kaga?
Kaga has a very rich history of craft —serious craft. It’s also an onsen district, so tourism is a big part of its identity. For hundreds of years, it’s attracted people from outside who come to rejuvenate. All the tools are there. That said, because of the generally decreasing population, people have been leaving. Ironically, that’s also part of why we’re choosing it.
So Kaga is very secluded, up in the mountains. Arrowle, the hotel where we’re hosting it, has a lagoon, it’s surrounded by nature, and it’s got a great onsen. So, you know, we can all get butt-naked and close.
The biggest thing, though, was the mayor. You’ll meet him later, but he was a huge advocate for what THU was trying to do. When Andre, the mayor, and I were scouting locations, we had some really deep conversations about why we were doing this. Andre made it clear: this isn’t just an event. It’s a movement. We believe creativity has a utility that goes way beyond just film, animation, or games—it has the power to transform places and people. That vision really resonated with the mayor.
From there, we started talking not just about the event itself but the possibility of making THU an annual thing and using it to create a creative hub in Kaga. The idea was to transform the city into a center for creativity. Kaga is made up of three distinct onsen areas, each with its own unique character. It also has a craft history that goes back hundreds of years, including Yamanaka lacquerware and Kutani pottery.
But despite all this history, Kaga isn’t a well-known place, even within Japan, and even less so internationally. Like many small cities in Japan, it’s facing a population decline, with people moving to bigger cities like Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto for work. It’s been labeled a city in danger of becoming a “non-city.”
"The mayor recognized this challenge and saw THU as an opportunity to use creativity as the driving force to solve these problems. His vision was to bring creators to Kaga and make it a hub of innovation and dynamism, breathing new life into the city. That’s how it all started."
How was the first edition for you?
It took us until last year to actually do the event because of COVID. We were initially supposed to do it in 2020, but we couldn’t. Finally, last year, we were able to make it happen, and it was splendid—wonderful, even magical. People in Kaga were involved, and they invited us to a local festival to really hang with them, which was amazing. The mayor said it was fantastic, and they’re planning to host it every two years - so the next edition is in 2025 (tickets are already on sale).
Thank you, Shuzo!
Find out more about THU Storytelling and join us next September.