About Me

About this blog

I'm Haruto Minami.

I came to Britain in 1989 to work in a Japanese restaurant in London, and I've been here ever since — more than thirty-five years now. I was born in 1960 in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's main islands.

How I got here

I spent five years at a national university medical school in Japan before leaving without completing the degree. Whatever I know about Western medicine dates from those years.

In Britain I made my living in Japanese food. I ran a Japanese supermarket in Colindale, then managed a food factory in Acton supplying Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. In 1999 I started my own consultancy and spent the next fifteen years helping to set up Japanese restaurants and food production facilities across Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East.

Alongside that, I went back to studying. I took an honours degree in acupuncture at the University of Portsmouth in 2004, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Oriental herbal medicine at the University of East London in 2006, and ran an acupuncture and herbal medicine clinic for some years.

I began investing in property and equities in 2015, and retired in 2025 at sixty-five.

What I write about here

These days I live in two places. Winters in Japan, based in Osaka, and the rest of the year in the West Midlands. While I'm in Japan I travel around Asia — the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea.

This blog covers:

• Travel — what I saw, ate and made of the places I went
• A life in two countries — what moving between Britain and Japan actually involves
• Looking after the body — health and longevity, through the lens of Oriental medicine and my own experience
• Gardening — vegetables, fruit and roses in an English garden, greenhouse and raised beds
• Reading — books I've read and where they took me

Everything here comes from somewhere I've been, something I've tried, or something I've lived with.

A note on the health articles

I've studied Oriental medicine and practised it clinically, but nothing here is intended as diagnosis or treatment. Please read it as one person's experience and reading. If something about your health concerns you, see a doctor.

Getting in touch

You're welcome to write to me via the contact page.

Haruto Minami