CURRENT MISSION

See cool stuff. Meet interesting people. Travel as much as possible while I'm relatively young.

ABOUT ME

I like reading, traveling, Japan(ese), and wandering around with my camera. I'm a little bit quiet but friendly. I've been told repeatedly that I'm very easy to be around; perhaps my external laidback-ness is transmittable. This amuses me because on the inside I'm actually pretty high tension. Most of that stress comes from awareness of the fact that there is never enough time for all the things I want to do. I try not to let that bring me down, though -- my current life goal is to travel as much as possible for the next few years.

PHILOSOPHY

The Golden Rule is a good one. My current approach to life is to enjoy it as much as possible; I'd like to live more than once, but I'm not putting any stock in the prospect. The time is now. Carpe diem and all that.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Even before I knew about couchsurfing.com I was sharing my floor. But then I moved to Japan, where my apartment is one very small room filled with way too much stuff. I probably can't host you, but I would be glad to meet you for coffee or a drink if our schedules coincide.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Official CouchSurfing (with a capital "C" and "S") in Florence, Venice, and Tainan. Unofficial CouchSurfing in Dublin, Sevilla, Osaka, and various places in the States. All experiences have been wonderful -- I feel like I am in major karmic debt!

Interests

Photography, Music, Food, Japan(ese), Social Theory, Literature.

• literature
• photography
• dining
• coffee
• drinking
• reading
• traveling
• music
• backpacking

Music, Movies, and Books

There's never enough time, is there?

Music: Elliott Smith, The Shins, Neutral Milk Hotel, TV on the Radio, Radiohead, The Pixies, Joni Mitchell, Weezer, The Stars, Menomena, Sigur Rós, Sleater-Kinney, Tom Waits, and, well, I could go on for a long time.

Movies: Lost in Translation, The Big Lebowski, Edward Scissorhands, Pi.

Books: My favorite authors are Murakami Haruki, Jeanette Winterson, and Chuck Palanhiuk. I also sometimes read academic texts about Japanese society.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Four weeks backpacking through Europe was pretty incredible.

Teach, Learn, Share

I could teach you some useful phrases, tell you what I've learned about Japan since moving here in August 2006, or just help you read the menu.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, United States

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