Hi there, I'm Thijs!

Currently travelling in japan after doing an exchange programme in Tokyo, Japan at the Hitotsubashi University. During this exchange I learned quite some Japanese and karate in 4 months! I will be hitchhiking from Kagoshima back to Tokyo until the end of april.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I think a lot of people have the possibility to host someone at their home including me back in Holland! I think you've only travelled in a country if youve got to know the cultural differences between the locals and yourself. Couchsurfing gives this great opportunity to learn from eachother and have some fun with someone from abroad!

Interests

Im studying Econometrics (which is a combination of financial mathematics and statistics) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. I greatly admire people who are able to passionately speak about their hobbies and things they do in their pasttime.

For me, this would be cooking, thinking and speaking about human behaviour (yep, I'm gonna start a second degree in philosophy ;)) and most of all: Music! Checking all new releases on a daily basis and very regularly visit concerts. At the moment the artists I listen the most to are: Deerhunter, Wilco, Destroyer and Eels. Really looking forward to the next Radiohead album aswell :).

• concerts
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• traveling
• music
• mathematics
• statistics
• study abroad
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

So next to exploring all the music that is available to our generation, I also love movies! As I have been living in Japan for the past 4 months, I have checked out most of the Ghibli movies, which are really really beautiful! Practically saw every good drama movie that I was able to find from IMDb, search for more still going strong. Favorites are: Her, There will be blood and Mary and Max

I havent taken enough time to read a lot of books, but I have been reading more since I started travelling! Bought an E-reader which is now filled with Japan themed literature: Haruki Murakami and learning the kanji (Heisig method). I havent read a lot yet, but im still young and there is enough time to get to know what kind of books I really like!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was 19 I backpacked through Myanmar by myself for a month, really great experience! After having done this again in the phillipines, Im doing a 7 week hitchhiking trip from Kagoshima (far south) back to Tokyo via Nagano (kinda North). Thats gonna be pretty cool!! So far I've had great experience with all the people who gave me a ride and met people from all walks of life. Absolutely glad I started doing this trip!

Teach, Learn, Share

Always love to have a discussion with people about their beliefs: eating meat, gender inequality, racism etc. I would like to hear more different points of view about this because I hope this would be able to give me an idea how to change this once I might be able to really change things, please teach me!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Always in for a chat, good tips for going to Tokyo or Holland and definitely a beer or a glass of wine! Very fond of seeing what makes you happy, itll surely make me happy aswell!

Countries I’ve Visited

Denmark, England, France, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Philippines, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Japan, Netherlands