CURRENT MISSION

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

ABOUT ME

My name, Natsuno, means Summer in Japanese. My parents chose this name because I was born on the first day of summer in my beautiful homeland. As my name says, I am a summer person and I have a sunshine personality, I guess!!

Growing up in a small town with mountains, rivers and rice fields, even after travelling in bunch of countries, I would say that my hometown is the most beautiful place in the world. Where I came from is a small community, and no one is interested in going outside nor knowing about other cultures. For some reason, however, I ended up becoming a girl who was always dreaming about exploring the world - especially Africa.

This story tells something about me; when I was 10 years old, all the kids in my class had to work on a project on a foreign country. Everyone else chose UK, US, Italy or France, typical and familiar places for the Japanese. some kids even chose "Hawaii" as a "country of interest". Nevertheless, guess where I chose though.....GHANA. Don't ask me why I did not decide to research on Togo or Zimbabwe, but Africa was already in my DNA at that point.

No wonder why I was subscribing "Weekly World Heritage Magazine" while all my girl friends were crazy about girly manga or teenage fashion magazines. Thanks to Weekly World Heritage, every night before falling asleep, I could travel all over the world- from Normandy to Madagascar, from San'a to Machu Picchu - in my futon and imagination. Good old days!

PHILOSOPHY

"We all should be feminists" - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have been hosting and surfing for almost 15 years now! Got to know about CS first from an American guy that I met in Lesotho. Since then, CS has been an important element of my life.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I stayed with/ hosted/ met so many really cool, funky,intelligent and open-minded couchsurfers. It is hard to choose "my lifetime cs experience" because every single experience has been just splendid, but if I am to choose one, I would choose our precious experiences in Khartoum, Sudan.

This guy, Abdurahim, was someone we randomly met at the central bus terminal in Khartoum. We were having some problemes and stress bacause of Sudanese authority and bureaucracy. Sudanese bureaucracy is said to be the worst in Africa, by the way. In Sudan, every paperwork was so difficult and time consuming.
Abdurahim not only helped us at the bus terminal with paper work, but kept giving us lots of assistance throughout the 18 days that we spent in Sudan. His dedication was just unbelievable. In today's world controled by individualism, it was such an unforgettable experience. This guy touched, and still is touching my heart.

It is a long story, but because of so many troubles with police, buses and government officials, we had to stay in Sudan onger than the expire day of our Sudanese visa. oops!! But when this happened, he helped us again and hosted us in his flat in Khartoum, cooked us some nice Sudanese food (it was during Ramadan. After sunset, food served in efta was just beautiful) and took us around. We had so many nice discussions too. He didnt go to work because we were there!!!

Interests

* Professionally, my interests include economic development of the communities that have been affected by humanitarian crises and environmental/ ecological conservation

*Travelling (If not, I would not be here :p)

*Languages

*Dancing and festivals

*Outdoor activities (Hiking, trekking, swimming, scuba diving, skiing, jogging...etc.)

*Meeting people with unique minds, original thoughts, crazy ideas and warm hearts

*Writing and reading (I really want to make my life by writing one day in my life)

*Planning for next big trips!!

*History, especially the colonial history and post-colonial history of Africa

• writing
• festivals
• dancing
• nightlife
• partying
• reading
• traveling
• music
• karaoke
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• camping
• scuba diving
• communications
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

I read lots of classical/modern Japanese literature. Love non-fiction too. Especially history books and travel books

Malian (Amadou et Mariam), Senegalese (Ismael Lo), Iranian (25 Band), Bossa Nova (any musician!), Congolese Rumba (Dr. Nico), Ethiopian (Gossaye), Cuban (Bueno Vista Socio Club), South African House, Indian indies (Peter Cat Recording Co.), Pakistani sufi music (Abida Parveen), Algerian (Rachid Taha), etc.

Miyazaki and Yasujiro Ozu are my favorite Japanese filmmakers. Otherwise I LOVE watching documentaries. I also like the works of Raoul Peck. Crazy Nollywood (Nigerian movies) are fun to watch. Mary Poppins - don't forget this fantastic film.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I crossed the African continent overland from South Africa to Egypt by buses and hitchihiking. This was amazing. I will keep talking about this to my grandchildren in the future.

Sahara, KKH (Xinjiang - northern Pakistan) and Virunga National Park are the most beautiful places that I have ever seen.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: History of Japan, Virunga, etc.

Learn: I am interested in pretty much everything, so please teach me what you are passionate about!

Share: Stories, stories and stories

What I Can Share with Hosts

Fun time, good energy and light. What else do you need from your CS guest? :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chad, China, Congo, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, United Kingdom

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