Recently I stumbled on an article from Atlas Obscura about a Japanese man who has been writing letters to a Dutch hotel for over 40 years (!). Usually once a week, sometimes more. As of 2018 he has spent about 4,500 euros on stamps alone. The crazy thing is – he has never been to The Netherlands and has no plans to go there. The letters usually had the same message – asking about the weather and asking them to give his regards to all the members (employees). The hotel would sometimes write back, but they never received a different message.
The hotel (Art hotel Spaander) is located in Volendam, northeast of Amsterdam. A Dutch paper (Het Parool) stumbled on the mystery a handful of years back. After some investigation, they were able to travel to Japan to meet him. They even had a Dutch artist come along (as the Volendam hotel is an art hotel, they hoped to paint a portrait of him to hang in their hotel). When they asked the man why he was writing the letters, he explained that he was born on the 22nd, which was letter V in the alphabet. Also, his father was born in the year of the mouse, or nezumi in Japanese, which sounds a bit like “Netherlands” when pronounced. He also liked strawberries, which The Netherlands is apparently famous for (I didn’t realize).
If you are up for a bit of Google translate from Dutch to English, you can try this Google cache version of the Het Parool article, which goes into extensive detail about the mystery and trip to Japan.
The painting of Mr. Kaor for illustration, but note if you do not have a subscription with Het Parool it is better to click the Google cached version above this tweet (the Google cache version isn’t behind a paywall).
Life in the Hague 