The Person Behind the Vans

My name is Hajime Imoto. I'm a professional mountain bike athlete, four-time Japan Downhill National Champion (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024), and the founder of Motion Campervans.

I've spent most of my adult life living out of a van.

Not because I had to — but because it's the only way to truly experience Japan.

Racing mountain bikes across the country every summer weekend for years, I discovered a version of Japan that most people never see: hidden valleys, mountain roads with no traffic, coastal campsites with nobody else around, highland plateaus where the air is cold even in August. None of it accessible by train. All of it reachable by van.

I've done the same in New Zealand and Europe - racing internationally while living out of a campervan, waking up in a different landscape every morning.

That lifestyle shaped everything about how I think about travel.

Motion Campervans came from a simple observation: Japan has some of the most extraordinary places in the world, and most foreign visitors never get close to them.

The bullet train is incredible - but it only takes you to the same cities everyone else visits.
campervan takes you everywhere else.