"Reading this magic book is like drinking from a fresh wellspring deep in the mountains;
it slowly returns one to sanity."
​- David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous

Intimate and evocative, The Abundance of Less profiles ten men and women who have left mainstream life in urban Japan to live surrounded by the luxuries of nature, art, friends, delicious food, and an abundance of time.

Drawing on traditional Eastern spiritual wisdom and culture, these pioneers describe the profound personal transformations they underwent as they escaped the stress, consumerism, busyness, and dependence on technology of modern life. This book tells of their fulfilling lives as artists, philosophers, and farmers who rely on themselves for happiness and sustenance. By inviting readers to enter into the essence of these individuals’ days, Couturier shows us how we too can bring more meaning and richness to our own lives.
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Travel to the Deep Green Mountains
of Rural Japan
and Write Yourself into The Good Life
Writing Journey to Rural Japan 
May 17-27, 2019
Find out more
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"We are in an overheated world - physically and spiritually. It is extremely powerful to read of people who have managed to escape that world, not by traveling to outer space but by heading toward reality. This book is subversive in the best possible way.”
-Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

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Meet some of the people featured in The Abundance of Less...

“I learned to adjust my plans to what was actually possible.”

Mr. Nakamura is a man who does almost everything by hand, and yet he seems to have so much time. As he says, "If you have time...

"It’s best to do it soon"

During the years of writing this book, I’ve often found myself on a crowded train in Tokyo or Osaka, and I’ll look at all the businessmen, their suits and ties perfect, but exhaustion hanging over their faces, and I wonder....

“You can’t ever buy back that time."

Atsuko looked at me and said, "I knew from when I was eleven or twelve years old that I didn’t want to live that kind of life..."

"A big sigh of relief"

"I was born after the war. When I was little I saw people planting rice barefoot, but by the time we went to India, Japan was all about high-speed growth, especially of the economy, what they called ‘modernization,’”
Read more blog posts here.

“Andy Couturier catches everything that is essential and beautiful in Japan with a clarity, sincerity, and openness that move me to the core. It’s been years since such a fresh and liberating voice has emerged to remind us of the true heart of a country that so many of us fail to see.”
       Pico Iyer, author of The Lady and the Monk

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AUDIO BOOK NOW AVAILABLE
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Author Andy Couturier talks about The Abundance of Less (formerly called A Different Kind of Luxury) on San Francisco's KRON:
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Copyright © 2017 by Andy Couturier and Spiralglyph Media