CURRENT MISSION

Art, Sketch, & Photo trips around Europe whilst meeting lots of people & cats

ABOUT ME

I have loved writing tales for children and in order to visualise my story world as picture books, I came to study Illustration at a university in London.

I had been working for a software house in Tokyo as a systems engineer, mainly creating website systems linking to databases, then I created children's playing space: a projected hand-drawn, interactive-animated picture-book with large fabric maps of the story world as an installation at MA Digital Arts.

I have four main areas of interest concerning picture-books and digital-contents:
(1) To visualise my original tales containing messages of cheer;
(2) To teach Japanese to English children and teach English to Japanese children while they play with the picture-books and digital-contents;
(3) Healthy food and cooking (I love natural things and cooking);
(4) To organise and promote charities which help and support depressed children, picture-book aid activities, and the revival of Japan after the disasters.

PHILOSOPHY

What will be, will be.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I will cook Japanese dishes for you if you like.
- I am bringing Soy sauce, Miso, Fish stock, and Japanese seasoning, Citrus junos pepper;
- I clean the kitchen after cooking.

I have not been sure if I am available to host or not when I return to Japan because my father intends to dispose his house and go to a care home when I come back, dispose my luggage, and find & move to a new place. However, if possible I would like to return my great experiences to CS community.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

This is my first time to use CS starting from Paris on 24th October 2014. I have already encountered interesting, charming, and very kind people (Only less than a week passed). I really appreciate their amazing hospitality, help, and kindness!

I had a crisis stuation that it became clear after 1pm on my UK visa expiry date that I must leave the UK on the day. Thanks to my friend in Paris's direction and help, I could find a coach to leave the UK to Paris by the night. She is my life-saver!

However, my UK bank suspected my purchase of a flight ticket in Paris outside the UK and suspended my account, so I had failed to buy the ticket to Japan so many times.

I have disturbed my friend's life and caused difficulties to her & her boyfriend because they have not been able to spend their own time in her flat for more than a week because of me.

Then, I realised that I do not need to go back to Japan so quickly. Therefore, I decided to do sketch trips by coach and visit some friends within Schengenland for 3 months (No visa needed).

At such the situation, I discovered the CS. Thank goodness! ^^

Interests

Creative activities (especially writing & drawing), art & design, literature, children's books, cooking, animals (especially cats!), different cultures, hot springs, programming, building interactive websites, philosophy, psychology, architecture, adventure, etc.

• animals
• cats
• fish
• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• literature
• architecture
• design
• illustrations
• education
• dining
• cooking
• coach
• traveling
• drawing
• fishing
• cartography
• teaching
• engineering
• psychology
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Le Grand Bleu, Life is beautiful, Oratorio Messia by G.F.Händel, Piano sounds (Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Lipatti, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, etc.), Osamu Dazai, Soseki Natsume, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Kenji Miyazawa, Kobo Abe, Haruki Murakami, Ryu Murakami, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, DoraEmon sensation edition (MANGA), Kimi ni todoke (Girls' MANGA), etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The most amazing things will be waiting for me on this trips.

Teach, Learn, Share

I will teach Japanese language and culture if you are interested.
(I have experience to have been assisting with Japanese practice for six children doing home education when I was doing home stay at an English family home in London for around half a year)
(I had just played and sung Japanese things with children, though)

I would love to learn your cooking and special food at each area of the countries.
I would love to learn your expert things.
I would love to listen to what you are curious about.

We could share each experience about travelling and living in other countries.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Northern Mariana Islands, Slovakia, South Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, United Kingdom