The first writing workshop we ever held was in Bali in 2015. Australians in particular have long been enchanted by the Indonesian island, and it’s been one of our most popular travel destinations ever since the 70s – when a bunch of surfers realised how well the Indian Ocean worked as a swell-making machine.
But tourism works as a double-edged sword in most places it touches, and Australia’s impact on Bali has been no exception. The island is facing myriad challenges, from deforestation and land conversion to neocolonialism and wildly disrespectful tourists who treat it as a party destination. Not only that, but Australian media loves to perpetuate a false narrative about Bali’s lawlessness and danger (if you’ve ever seen the trash TV show What Really Happens in Bali, you’ll know what we mean) that does nothing to help shift people’s perception.
The idea behind our workshops, then, was to encourage a different kind of approach. As visitors, we would immerse ourselves in the culture for a month at a time, learn the language, work with local businesses, connect with local people and write about Bali in a way that was culturally relative and promoted responsible, sustainable travel to the island. Fast forward to the present day (and several hundred students later), we’re still going – and have established a gorgeous, mutually-beneficial relationship with Bali that we hope to continue for years to come.
In 2017, we set our sights on Japan, and established a similar program there. We now run two or three writing and language workshops a year in Tokyo, and if you’re reading this, chances are you’re keen to come along to one.
Outside of the obvious reasons for joining us for a month (you’d like to hone your writing skills, make some like-minded friends, experience Japan’s sensational culture, learn a language and undergo some serious personal growth), here are some others that may tickle your fancy.
We support aspiring writers and promote diversity
At Astray, we want to build an accessible community around storytelling, dismantle the hierarchies that exist within the media industry and showcase a diverse range of voices. As such, our writers and teachers come from a variety of backgrounds – culturally, socially and professionally – and our course material reflects this. Though we’re an Australian company, you don’t need to be Australian to do the program – we’ve had students from Hong Kong, Bolivia, India, Norway, Israel, Vietnam and more. If you come from somewhere where it’s difficult to get a travel visa, we’ll make every effort to help you, and if English is not your first language, that’s not a problem either.
During our programs (and also outside of them), we pour immense energy into helping new and emerging writers develop their writing. We’re always keen to take students with little-to-no experience, and firmly believe that institutionalised education is not necessarily for everyone. So don’t be afraid to apply if the only thing you’ve ever written is a scribble of graffiti on a toilet door or a spot of poetry in a secret diary somewhere.
Conversely, if you were born with a pen in your hand and have been writing stories since birth, or you’re in the midst of a degree, we’d love to have you too! Most universities in Australia (and several in New Zealand, the UK, Canada and the U.S.) have accredited our workshops as going towards journalism or communications degrees as part of the work-integrated learning program. Everyone is welcome and we cater to all levels and abilities.
We’re passionate about sustainable, conscious and meaningful travel
Wherever possible, we strive to travel sustainably. In Japan, this means living in family-owned guesthouses, working with a woman-founded language school and trying to minimise our waste in a plastic-dominated society. It also means promoting responsible, ethical and sustainable travel practices, making people aware of the need to dismantle neo-colonialist attitudes to travel and sharing more than one narrative about a place. This is particularly important in Japan, when the majority of Western-dominated media that comes out makes blanket generalisations about the perceived homogeneity of its society, its attitudes to sex and its culture.
An important part of this is learning and (at least having a solid crack at) speaking Japanese – an integral course component that will add so much to the way you interact with people. We’ll also be throwing a plastic-free picnic and clothes swap (open to the public), and are open to any other ideas you greenies want to throw at us.
We’re committed to accessibility
We’re big on inclusivity and accessibility, and are confident we can adapt our accommodation, course structure and course delivery to suit your needs or abilities. In the past, we’ve had students who are wheelchair users, students who are deaf, students with learning disabilities, students on the spectrum and students living with high levels of anxiety – so if you’d like more information, or would like to be put in touch with a former student to find out what they thought of the program, just swing us a message. We’d also love to have as much input from you as possible as to how we can make our programs as accessible as possible for everyone.
We get off the beaten track
There’s a bunch of touristy stuff in Japan – and in Tokyo especially – that’s popular for a reason, but there’s so much outside of that too! Some of our teaching staff are local, and others have been living in Tokyo for years as travel writers, so we’ll be encouraging you to get as off the beaten path as possible.
We’re independent and we self-monetise
No matter where in media you look, publications and newspapers and magazines are drowning in their attempts to stay afloat. Most glossies you read as a teen have folded, and practically every publication you try to access online has either a pay wall, distracting pop-ups begging you to throw a few dollars their way, or a plethora of terrible advertorial. The Australian government has merged the arts department with the transport department too, so funding options have seriously shrunken, unless we’re keen to start trying to run workshops aboard a Sydney tram (lol).
It’s no small feat attempting to stay afloat in these times, but our writing workshops help us to do so. We reckon we’ve crafted a killer program, and we have an outstanding line-up of teaching staff.
Not only are we heavily stimulating the local economies of the countries we travel in, but with the profits, we are also able to pay our writers and self-fund the website, which allows us to remain strictly independent.
Aside from the fact that Murdoch owns more than 80 percent of Australia’s newspapers, recent world events have alerted us to the fact that we are living in new age of grotesque Western media bias. We speak specifically in relation to the asymmetric warfare going on in the Middle East (we wouldn’t even wipe our asses with many of the newspapers we used to dream of writing for as baby journalists, e.g. the New York Times, who continue to intentionally misreport, downplay or ignore the unfathomable human rights abuses being perpetuated by the state of Israel against Palestinian people – with writers who rightly accuse Israel of genocide being made to quit).
Independent media, diverse voices and the sharing of multiple narratives about people and places has never been more important, and this is something we will forever be committed to.
Interested?
We’re currently taking applications for our 2024/25 writing workshops in Tokyo, Japan! Spend 28 nights learning the ins and outs of freelance, travel and investigative writing; learn Japanese and make a bunch of like-minded pals. Read more and apply here.