CURRENT MISSION

Provide people with accomodation and a place to rest

ABOUT ME

I am more of an outdoors and nature-loving person. I am easy going and relaxed. I don't allow smoking in my apartment, and I don't drink. A glass of wine is ok once in a while. Moreover, my residence is very quiet, and people within this area respect and are considerate toward others.

PHILOSOPHY

I am adventurous, mystical and introspective. I am not religious but I do believe in absolutes as explained and outlined in Torah. I enjoy nature a lot, so I appreciate all that's been created because every single thing is endowed with a G-Dly spark. I am at peace with myself because I acknowledge my limitations, and I defer authority to Adonai. My guidance and sustenance are gifts from G-D. This also has helped me enormously in appreciating the intrinsic value of each human being, regardless of whether or not I like them. I strive to practice 1) love and 2) kindness. Those two are the most important principles in Torah, so I hope that I can practice and demonstrate them as much as I can.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I can make myself available to others to accompany them around the Southern California.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've had very positive experiences hosting people.

Interests

I like mountain biking, road biking and motorcycling, and I am open to other adventures. I also enjoy hiking but not often. I enjoy swimming laps and exercising almost every day. I really enjoy hot springs, especially the many beautiful onsen in Kyushu and other parts of Japan that I've been to.

• animals
• beauty
• wine
• exercise
• drinking
• traveling
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• swimming

Music, Movies, and Books

Most anything by Chaim Potok. I enjoy docudramas a lot, so I prefer books like Hells Angels, Grapes of Wrath, etc.... I really appreciate late 50s/early 60s cool/modal jazz like the music on Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. I also enjoy other types of music like classical music, psychedelia, 60s and 70s folk rock, classic rock, 80s fusion/funk jazz like Bob James and Pat Metheny, and early 80s funk. Most of the music after the 80s doesn't really appeal to me.

Film noir is my favorite movie genre. YouTube and TCM is the place I see these gems when I have a chance: http://www.tcm.com/index/ I also like to educate myself through documentaries and reading online articles about various subjects.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Not just one but several because each of the following has impacted me in several ways.

Visited Agua Azul in Southern Mexico. It's an amazing blue-green, emerald-colored river that snakes along a very thick, green forest. I traveled for 3 months throughout central and southern Mexico. Probably one of the most impressive scenes that I've ever witnessed in my life was when I awoke in the morning on the bus that I had been traveling on for almost 24 hours. The bus driver used the intercom to tell us to look out the window to see a spectacular view of the river in the midst of a giant green forest. Everyone was stunned and many people gasped as they saw what to me seemed like a paradise.

I drove a new Citroen with French license plates throughout 12 countries in Western Europe. I later learned that I had put myself at great risk when I drove throughout the Basque areas. A French or Basque person told me that my car could have been bombed.

I stayed in a 5-star onsen (hot spring) in Ureshino. It was the one of the three best and most famous onsen in Japan, and the experience was amazing and almost like a dream.

I hiked an 80-acre state park in Northern California called Henry Coe State Park for almost 24 hours without hardly any rest and no sleep. There were no people and hardly any animals in this vast expanse of G-D's beauty that hopefully will never be developed. The experiences there like swimming in a large lake and seeing and hearing a few wild animals (mountain lion, fox) are too amazing to describe. A thousand pictures can't even begin to touch on the experiences I had there!

Teach, Learn, Share

I prefer people who enjoy wisdom, not necessarily knowledge. There are too many knowledgeable people who lack wisdom. So people who can see nature for what it is, not as a religious dogma (such as macro evolution) can probably teach me a lot that I don't know. However, I believe we can learn from everyone because each person has their unique experiences to share and learn from.

To a fool, that which cannot be explained cannot exist.

The wise man knows that existence itself cannot be explained.

by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea

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