About

Hi, I'm ZUMA.

My name is Kazumasa Matsuda, but everyone calls me ZUMA. I runRegrandir English in Nonoichi, the city right next to Kanazawa, where I have been teaching English for about six years. Most of my students are complete beginners, and my whole approach is learning English by actually using it.

How I got here

I didn't grow up loving English. I worked in a factory for about three years. Then, on a company trip to Hawaii, I tried speaking English and people understood me. That small moment made English interesting to me for the first time.

I went on to study in the Philippines for three months, then spent about eleven months in Australia on a working holiday: around nine months in Melbourne and three in Brisbane. In Melbourne, chatting with the staff at a station kiosk led to a job as a barista. In Brisbane I did farm work.

What I took home from those years was not grammar. It was how much easier a new country becomes when a local shows you around. When I came back to Japan, I started teaching English for free or for a coin, and that is how my school began.

Why this site

My school also holds an international exchange event about once a month, where local people and people from overseas meet and talk. My work has always been about using a language to connect people, and this site is the same idea pointed the other way: helping visitors connect with Kanazawa.

Kanazawa Local covers the things a traveler actually needs: what to eat and when, where to go at night, how to get around, and the few words of Japanese that make it all easier. All of it in English, from someone who lives here.

How I write these articles

• When I recommend a bar, café or restaurant, it is a place I have visited myself, and the owner is happy to be featured.
• Practical guides (seasons, transport, sightseeing) are based on official and local sources I have checked.
• Opening hours and prices change often in Japan. Anything I could not confirm is marked "(unverified)".
• Nobody pays to be on this site.

Questions, corrections, or a place you think I should try? Get in touch.