We interviewed members of the S-TOKYO community!

We asked these people, who live their lives freely, about their work and their lives.

This time, we spoke with Akihiro Matsushita, CEO of Linnas Design Inc. He lives in Kanazawa with his family and seems to be enjoying a nomadic work style...! We took a peek into Aki's life.

Interviewee: Akihiro Matsushita

Born in Tokyo and raised in Saitama. After graduating from university, he gained experience in real estate management at a foreign-owned real estate company and in launching hotels at a hotel venture before founding Linnas Design Co., Ltd., and has been operating the community-driven hotel LINNAS Kanazawa in Kanazawa since 2021. He works with various players on events and projects both inside and outside the hotel. His hobbies are travel and languages, and he has traveled to 64 countries around the world.

—What are the attractions of working as a nomad worker?

I feel like my quality of life has improved dramatically!

For example, even if you do the same work every day, the place you go for lunch, the air and smells when you go outside are different, and the people you meet and talk to are completely different topics of conversation.

Being a digital nomad means that depending on the location, you can think in ways that are different from your usual way of thinking, which changes the amount of ideas you come up with. Your mind is always fresh, allowing you to see things from different perspectives, so even though it's the same daily routine, each day feels incredibly fulfilling!

—Wow, your quality of life has improved.

It's going up!

When you live in the same place for a long time, everyday life passes by in an instant, and even if you remember what you ate yesterday, I don't think you can immediately recall what you ate three days ago.

But when you're a digital nomad, you tend to remember who you talked to, what you talked about, and what you ate.

That's why I feel like it makes it easier to capture those "important moments" of each day!

And my nomadic lifestyle includes my family.

Since my children are still young, it's not really realistic to continue being a digital nomad indefinitely. So, currently, I live in Kanazawa for eight months of the year, and for the remaining four months, I live a nomadic lifestyle in various locations.

I'm mainly based in Kanazawa, but even when I'm back home, I still retain some of that sharp intuition. New ideas keep popping into my head, and it's fun to see them connect to my work.

How do you balance work, travel, and leisure? Or do you even separate them at all?

Well... they're all the same!

Work is a form of play, and travel is also a form of play. But conversely, travel is work, and play is also work.

—Aki, that's so true. Did your passions and interests naturally become your work from the beginning?

After trying things I didn't like, I realized that I can give 120% of my effort when I do something I enjoy for a living. So, I figured it would be best to just do what I enjoy, and that's how I ended up working at the hotel.

I find it more enjoyable to work while also enjoying things that have value to them other than money.

I feel like the "nomadic" work style is what makes that possible.

—What would you like to do next?

I love languages, so I'd love to live in one region for an extended period, learn the language, become deeply involved in the local community, and then move on to the next country. I'd like to do something like that every three months if possible!

It's about focusing on language acquisition while still continuing to work properly.

—If you're a digital nomad, you can make a living even if you don't work in the language of the new place you're in!

oh yeah!

I'd love to create a nomadic lifestyle that suits me!