Rob Goss – 2020 Finalist

Tokyo-based travel writer and author, Rob Goss is a member of the BGTW and one of eight finalists in the 2020 GTMA Global Travel Writer Award, sponsored by

This is his qualifying entry (3 articles)…

On being a Finalist, Rob says…

“It’s lovely! Other than that, I really don’t know what to say, except ‘thank you’ to Cathy at the Independent, Eliot at the BBC and Jesus at Cedar for letting me do these stories. And more than anything, a very big thanks to my family for putting up with my galivanting around Japan and always making home the best destination.”

“I live in and cover Japan for media all over the place, and I’m especially keen on assignments that look beyond the tourist trail in Tokyo and Kyoto or that feature aspects of Japan that are overlooked.”

“The entry was made up of three stories about less-covered aspects of Japan. There was a piece on bunraku puppetry that was centred on an interview with a puppet maker in Osaka. Another looked at how a cat called Tama helped to save a rural railway in Wakayama by becoming a tourist attraction. Her successors, Tama 2 and Tama 4, were lovely to interview, though I’m sure my dog still hasn’t fully forgiven me for coming home reeking of cat. The third is the one that has left the strongest mark on me. It was a piece about how a host city for the 2019 Rugby World Cup—in Japan’s under visited Tohoku region—had rebuilt after being devastated by the 2011 tsunami, and what travelers to the region could expect. That was a very humbling story to work on.”