Hello, and welcome. :)

My name's Matt and I live in LOCALIFE sharehouse in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We host people from all over the world to exchange culture together.

As for me, I'm on an adventure to meet people, learn things, travel, experience. I like to push and challenge myself. I'm travelling to understand better the world and myself.

I came to Japan to study martial arts, but over time I became absorbed in learning the language. I've learnt so much here and made so many friends I can't imagine never having come. My travels have made me realise how much value the world has to offer, and if I can help people on their own journeys too then I'd like to do that.

I'm a social guy and love to meet new people - I believe there's something I can learn from everyone. I'm laid-back and fun to be around, so if you are too I'm sure we'd get on great.

My favourite things to do are parties, karaoke, walk challenging nature trails, izakaya and reading. I often hang out with friends in Tokyo too so if you need something to do you can always tag along.

You never know what you can learn from a person before you meet them, but I'm especially keen to meet people who:
- live a minimalist lifestyle
- can share vegetarian/vegan recipes
- practise stoicism or similar life philosophy
- are a digital nomad and can share advice and experience
- treat martial arts (or another practice) as a way of life

But don't worry if that's not you - if you're a fun/interesting person, that's enough for me!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love meeting new people, but more than that, I live in a share house that encourages its residents to host guests.
This means that more or less every week my housemates and I get to meet new people from all sorts of different cultures and backgrounds. It makes for a really interesting living experience.

So far we've had over 180 people stay at our house, although I've only recently moved in so I'm still new to hosting.

Interests

• books
• vegetarian
• meditation
• juggling
• origami
• piano
• karaoke
• hiking
• martial arts
• languages
• philosophy
• travel
• nature
• aikido
• party
• programming
• self-development

Music, Movies, and Books

I like rock music, soundtracks and upbeat, catchy music. Some bands/musicians I like are Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Nobuo Uematsu (from the Final Fantasy series) and Yui.

My favourite films are action, or ones that somehow make me super emotionally invested in the story (like 君の名は).

For books I like fantasy/adventure. My Japanese language dream is to read the Harry Potter series in Japanese. I think it'll take some time!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Long one:
A friend and I once climbed the long road from Mt Takao to Mt Jimba. We wanted an adventure and were full of confidence, but nature didn't care about that.

We underestimated how early we needed to set off, so we ended up still on the trail as the sun set and it became pitch black all around us. We could hardly see, but continued carefully along the trail. We finally arrived at Mt Jimba and were ecstatic, but an old man who lived on the mountain told us we had missed our bus home...

So we headed back into the mountain forest to find a trail that would lead us down the mountain and towards the nearest town. We started to hear strange noises coming from the darkness. We realised we were surrounded by wild boars.

We started to run - I didn't know it at the time, but running can trigger a boar to chase you. And trust me, you don't want to be hit by a charging boar - a sinewy lump of pure muscle colliding into you like a bullet from a cannon. Yeah, that would have totally ruined the trip. Luckily it didn't come to that. We kept running, now with one side of the trail a sheer drop into blackness, with only tree trunks to break our fall should we make a misstep.

We ran for miles, after having already hiked the mountain trail all day. We ran all the way down the mountain and into the town, and all the way to the train station - hoping, begging for there to be a train that could take us home, so as not to be stranded all night in the mountain town.

Eventually we did make it home and I just collapsed - my legs were like jelly. But it was the most fun I'd had in ages. Nothing like a sense of danger and the threat of impending doom to build the feeling of real adventure.

Short one:
I finally ate the Level 5 spiciness curry at Coco Ichiban! But can I do level 6..?

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach a few skills including juggling, origami and self-defence techniques. I can offer conversation in English and Japanese, and give recommendations for places to eat and things to do in Tokyo. You're more than welcome to hang out with me and my friends, and maybe we can go to karaoke or an izakaya sometime.

I'd love to learn more vegetarian/vegan recipes, party tricks and Japanese music and film recommendations. I'm also really interested in practical skills like story-telling and dancing.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Japan, Switzerland, United Kingdom