I am Kazu, studying a full-time MBA at ESADE Business School in Barcelona since 2021 fall after a 6-year working experience in overseas sales in Tokyo. I’m going for an exchange to Tel Aviv from October till January to explore entrepreneurial mindset and AgTech/FoodTech field.

I was born/raised in Hiroshima, a well-known city for peace education in western Japan, and then studied/mastered Animal Science in Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido. That was a big jump for me to move to a completely unfamiliar northernmost land at that time, but my passion to pursue learning cutting-edge agricultural technology and methodology, as well as skiing in the world’s best powder snow(!!), encouraged me to take such a bold action.

The more I overcame challenges and gained confidence, the more I wanted to see the world from a broader point of view to enrich my life. That’s why I embarked on a new journey taking a gap year in college and had unique experiences; I learned beekeeping, honey wine brewing, deer hunting, and horticulture at a local farm on the foot of the Canadian Rockies. Not only that, I got to know about sharing-economy services such as CouchSurfing and backpacked all around the world including Canada, US, Western Europe, and South America. Consequently, those unique experiences made me understand how to manage my time and other resources effectively as well as to build interactive relationships with international people to create values.

Frankly speaking, I am enjoying my life (recognized as such by many of my friends) and always trying to think about the best way to have fun at the moment. I believe I have the tolerance and generosity to accept new and different things while having both rational and emotional skills.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

1) To share values that we cannot do with money

2) To contribute to this altruistic community

Interests

PHILOSOPHY

1) "If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make that change." - from "Man In The Mirror" by Michael Jackson

2) Work hard, Play hard

• animals
• culture
• dancing
• education
• cooking
• traveling
• skiing
• agriculture
• history
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

1) Movies: This Is It/Armageddon/Top Gun/My neighbor TOTORO

2) Music: Michael Jackson/Queen/Yuzu/

3) Books: Into The Wild/The Culture Map (by Erin Meyer)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

1) Led my university skiing club, in which most of the members had no skiing experiences before, to win the victory at the all Japan student ski competition in 5 years in a row.

2) Gained the highest evaluation at work in 2 years in a row, which allowed me to get a full scholarship from my company to study an MBA.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Macao, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Peru, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Israel, Japan, Spain