Hi! I’m Raj, currently travelling with my girlfriend Charlotte. We're excited to connect with fellow travelers and locals here on Couchsurfing. We’ll be exploring Japan from December 2024 to February/March 2025.

Originally from India and Belgium, both of us have been living in Bali, Indonesia for the past two years. As former solo travellers, we have had the pleasure of visiting numorous countries, exchanging cultures, languages, and laughs along the way. Bali is our home base where we share a common love for freediving, running, surfing and swimming.

We make quite the dynamic duo. Me, a sports fanatic, scubadive instructor and software engineer. Charlotte having a keen interest in languages, cinematography and writing. We both have a natural curiosity for the world, languages, different cultures, food and an eagerness to learn and try out new experiences and challenges.

Japan appeals to us in terms of the natural beauty, immense cities, the intriguing language, food, martial arts, coastal areas, local experiences, and the biggest of all - "the people of Japan". Hence being hosted by couch hosts would be the biggest pleasure of our journey throughout Japan.

Looking forward to connecting!
Cheers, Raj and Charlotte

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We want to experience Japan from your perspective. Show us the local street food spots, the bar you frequent, the music that moves you, the bathhouse you visit, the museums you love, the walks you enjoy, and the best karaoke venues...
It would also be great to learn about life in a Japanese household—how you live and what brings you joy.

Interests

• culture
• music festivals
• coffee
• socializing
• music
• surfing
• snorkeling
• sports
• swimming
• travel
• food
• film
• freediving
• diving
• karate
• travelling around the world
• food and drinks

Music, Movies, and Books

Favourite Music : Etta James, Os Tincoas, Lou reed, ACDC, Brittany Howard, Nina Simone, Stan Getz
Favourite Movies : Perfect days, Titanic, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Fight club, Sister act II
Favourite Book : Norwegian Wood, The complete Cosmocomics, Lonely Londoners

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One amazing thing that I have seen - First time I was diving in maldives and I saw a pod of 25/30 manta rays crossing us, nobody told me what to expect earlier and I felt so euphoric that tears ran down my ears and next thing I am crying underwater, it was a great moment in my life.

One Amazing thing I have done - On a personal level most amazing decision of my life was to leave my country to go out travelling, cause travelling has provided me loads of learnings, experiences and sports that I wouldnt be aware of otherwise.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach scuba diving, tennis, pool, Hindi, English and Indonesian. We have numerous travel stories to tell, things we learned as we we're travelling and living abroad. Charlotte on the other hand is a fluent speaker of Dutch, French, English, Indonesian and a bit of Swedish.Charlotte can share Belgian baked goods recipes and cooking together.

We would love to learn Japanese, martial arts, ways of cooking and other local adventures that are unknown to a foreign ear.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Never finishing talks haha, help with the household

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Fiji, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kosovo, Malaysia, Maldives, Montenegro, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand