When Galway man David Garvey (24) walked into the Irish pub in Tokyo with his fiddle, he was taken by surprise.
“I went because I saw a session advertised online. It was so amazing, because it was a big group of Japanese people all playing traditional Irish instruments and tunes that you’d hear anywhere in Ireland,” says Garvey, who has played fiddle all his life.
The business and analytics graduate is one of many Irish young people who have travelled to Japan on year-long working holiday visas. There are 800 visas available every year for those aged 18-30 who want to supplement their travel with work.
Garvey soon discovered Irish music was “pretty big” in Japan. “They [the musicians] were so friendly to me and asked me to start off tunes. Every single tune I knew, even ones in Ireland that I wouldn’t expect people to know.”
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Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann opened a branch in Japan in 1991. It holds a Féile every year and holds music, dancing and sean-nós classes.
But it wasn’t immersion in Irish culture which Garvey sought when he left a graduate programme in management consultancy to travel in Japan.
“Walking into a pub in Tokyo to play music on the other side of the world reinforces how rewarding and important it is to get out there, to have a different experience while you can.”
‘My rent in the centre of Tokyo, a really nice place, was less than half of my rent in Dublin, and definitely way more value. Your money goes much further than at home’
— David Garvey
Different is what Garvey got in Japan – from a céili in a ski resort to working as a goat herder.
“Arriving in Tokyo is such a contrast to other big cities, which can be very hostile.
“Tokyo is orderly, a very organised city. And even though it’s very busy with people, it’s very peaceful. People are very quiet, even on public transport.
“The streets are so clean,” he notes, and the absence of street bins really stood out to him. “You just keep your rubbish in your bag.”
He also found Japan was big on “manners and respect”, “saying please and thank you”.
He recorded videos on quirkier elements of life in Japan for his TikTok channel @daviddaithi.
Being in a new country on his own without access to an established group of Irish people has helped him to “stretch himself”. A lot of his friends are going to Australia, but he loves having done something different.
“I think that stretches you to being more open and integrat[ing] with whatever group you are in.”
Japan’s Irish population is small, with some 1,400 Irish people known to be living in the country of 122 million in 2024. More than 30,000 people from Ireland visited Japan in the same year, according to the Japanese national tourism body.
Finding a job before arriving there is advisable for those on working holiday visas, says Garvey. For him, the ski resort Nozawaonsen, some 3.5 hours from Tokyo, was a perfect refuge for a new arrival travelling alone.
It was full of seasonal workers from all over the world, and he worked for four months there in marketing and hospitality. “The ski resorts are a good way to have a group of people to talk to every day, especially English-speaking people”. He even helped organise a St Patrick’s Day céili with some Scottish travellers.
While the pay wasn’t high, a welcome contrast was his experience of accommodation on offer: “My rent in the centre of Tokyo, a really nice place, was less than half of my rent in Dublin, and definitely way more value. Your money goes much further than at home.”
[ ‘Huge potential’ for Irish companies in JapanOpens in new window ]
Travelling solo, Garvey noticed how workable Japan was for people on their own. “So in restaurants they have tables for one – and that’s not something unusual there.”
His highlight came through volunteering for three weeks as a goat herder in a remote mountain town. “I got my own house [to stay in] in the centre of Onomichi, I was looking after the goats, feeding them.”
He took the goats for daily walks on the little laneways around the mountain town, seeking out overgrown areas on which to let them feed.
“It was like an Irish town a similar size to Tuam. There is an inland sea there with bridges over different islands that’s popular for cycling.”
Garvey has since left his goat-herding days behind and has moved to France to improve his French, with plans to begin a Master’s degree in international management in the autumn. He is sure, however, that his time in Japan trying a “different path” will stay with him.
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