A circle of friends connected by gut touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On August 8, story creator Hiroyuki Hikichi of Mountain States Tokyo introduced Max Mackee, founder of Kammui, an outdoor guide, and asked him about Kammui’s activities and the inspiration that led him to found Kammui.
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Living in a dormitory in England, away from parents
Celeina (MC): Let me start with a profile. Max Mackey is a lawyer and entrepreneur based in Tokyo, Japan, who founded Kammui Inc. in 2021, a multi-sided platform that matches users with top guides offering premium nature experiences. He loves backcountry snowboarding and DJing and is passionate about sharing Japanese culture with the rest of the world.
Takano (MC): That’s an amazing breadth, but I heard that you were born in Kamakura to begin with.
Max: Yes, I was. My mother is Japanese, and I was in Japan from the time I was born in Kamakura until I was 9 years old, when my parents were transferred to Europe.
Takano: Where did you go from the age of 9?
Max: My parents were in Paris, but my father is British, so I went to a dormitory in England. It’s a world like Harry Potter, isn’t it?
Takano: Did you come back to Japan from there?
Max: My parents went back to Japan right away, but I stayed in England for a long time. After graduating from university, I continued to live in England and work as a lawyer.
Celeina: Did you go to a Japanese elementary school in Japan?
Max: It was an international school.
Celeina: I see. So there wasn’t much of a gap there, and you were able to live abroad smoothly?
Max: No, there was quite a gap. I was sent to a country I had never been to without my parents, and it was quite a shock. I was suddenly forced to eat baked beans.
Takano: The eating habits.
Max: I think the eating habits are particularly important. I think Japan’s diet is among the best in the world, but it was especially bad in England at that time.
Celeina: When you came back to Japan from England, were there any gaps again? There were a lot of things that bothered me as mixers (laughs).
Max: There wasn’t much of a gap. Since I was in England, I had been working with Kunichi Nomura on “sputnik : whole life catalogue” (a collection of interviews with 86 creators from around the world) and had continued to work on Japanese projects, so I still had friends back home.
Celeina: That is reassuring.
Max: That part was pretty easy.
