A refuge to see out the ‘end of days’
JAPAN: If push came to shove, and our planet deemed beyond repair, where might you choose to hole up?
In my wanderings over the years, and I don’t know why this thought keeps emerging, I often assess a place, using standard measures of course, but also as to its worthiness and suitability to see out my final days should the planet pass its climate tipping point.
To newcomers, welcome. I’m Grant and this is my log of days and years spent as a vagabond. To returning readers, good to have you back.
I don’t mean seeing out my final days as an inpatient at some assisted care facility sucking food through a straw. At least that’s not my intention. No, the working assumption is that both my faculties and my finances will be healthy enough to sustain what might be my last adventure.
A simple lodging near a quiet seaside taverna outside Syracusa (Sicily) was on my short list for a long time. Might still be? The cafe’s bucatini con sarde was the pasta dish to top all pasta dishes. Made even better by a delicious blend of Frappato and Nero d'Avola grapes to wash it down. Daytime hikes up the smoking slopes of Mt Etna could not only tempt Vulcan’s fate, but also keep my cardio condition in good shape. Happy days.
Seems I’m not alone in possessing this ‘prepping’ mindset in some far flung location. U.S. rich-listers, including a swathe of Silicon Valley billionaires, are also keeping their options open for ‘end of world’ calamities. And for a good many, ‘end of world’ equates to New Zealand.
As it turned out, and leaving aside Bill Gates as he purchased property there decades ago, this most recent rush for real estate in the Land of the Long White Cloud coincided with the first election of Donald Trump. Will another property boom eventuate should the Don have his second coming? Kiwi agents can only hope.
Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor) is on board. So too, literally, is AI man Sam Altman, who’s reportedly already booked his seat on Thiel’s private jet for the long haul flight to New Zealand, should the shit hit the climate or Trumpian fan.
Movie director James Cameron is another who’s supposedly sourced a local bolt hole. And rumours on the fjords of the South Island hint at Jack Ma, the sidelined boss of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is joining many of his wealthy compatriots who’ve already made the NZ move.
But for now, for mine, a key contender is a cabin tucked away in a tiny village nestled in Hakuba Valley, a mountainous region in western Honshu, about 270 kilometres north-west of Tokyo. Remote, but well serviced with utilities. Metres of powder to tear up in winter; great hikes and biking in summer.
But the clincher is a local cafe with the simplest, most soul enriching menu I’ve ever seen. It can’t be beat, or at least I’ve not seen better: just ramen, gyoza, beer. The 3 essential ingredients to sustain life, and all located under the one roof. And with sake available at the inn next door, I’m good to go.