If the Japanese are at all aware of the Shangri-la image of the Himalayan countries, in all likelihood they got it from the West.
"We are also from the Orient, which the West sees as exotic. We don't have the same romantic idea of Nepal," said Takashi Miyahara, a Japanese who has lived in Nepal for 24 years. He first came to climb in 1962, then returned four years later to work as a consultant, and is presently chairman of a hotel in Kathmandu, the famous Everestview Hotel up in Khumbu, and a trekking agency.
Yet what made Miyahara return after his climb of Mukti Himal, behind Dhaulagiri, was the discovery of "Tohgenkyo," a word of Chinese origin, which comes closest to the notion of Shangri-La. The difference is that Toh-genkyo, which accolades a pristine scene of plum blossoms with mountains all around, really refers to a specific instance or site of beauty, whereas Shangri-la is a notion of a way of life imbued with an elevated sense of other-worldliness.
If stretched, Tohgenkyo can mean a "fairyland," said Miyahara, but clearly, the Japanese do not have a specific region in mind as qualifying. Thus Miyahara cites particular sites – Ghorapani, Langtang, Syangboche (where his famous but presently inoperative hotel is located), and Hunza in the Gilgit ¬that, to him, are examples of Tohgenkyo.