To get to Alex Kerr¡¯s 400-year-old house in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, it takes time.
Although Kerr, famous for chronicling Japan¡¯s profligate public spending as much as for his efforts to restore ¡°lost Japan,¡± spends between six to eight months of the year in the country, he¡¯s rarely at his Kameoka home, a former Buddhist nunnery that was moved into a Shinto shrine, where he has lived since 1977.
Instead, Kerr bounces around Japan: He¡¯s on a permanent speaking circuit, talking with politicians, mayors, bureaucrats, company executives, community activists and students; he¡¯s in demand as a host for elaborate and exclusive multicourse dinners that pair some of Japan¡¯s best chefs with off-the-beaten-track locations; he¡¯s been a specially appointed Visit Japan ambassador since 2008; and there¡¯s also the substantial business of restoring houses and revitalizing rural communities.
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