Tabismile

FP10 Explorer without a map/ You Iwamoto

I was born in Nakano, Tokyo and was a kid who had been bullied until my freshman year in junior high school. I hated it so I repeated dialogues with myself in my diary, writing my feelings in it. By doing so, it helped to compose my mind and to be able to think what to do. My situation changed at the end of my junior high school year; they stopped bullying me.

That’s when I started to think about my future and to aspire to create something original, of my own, in this world. My answer was “teaching.” Teaching is the job that can influence your students and others in your own way. It was the reason that I chose the department of education in university.

At university, I mostly played around by dancing, having many parties, riding on my motorcycle and having some fun with girls. All I cared about was what my friends thought about me, so I tried to follow some fashions. At the end of my freshman year, I got so bored with my college life that I decided to go to India, looking for some excitement.

India was so shocking that I felt that my sense of value was blown away. India changed my point of view. I started to see things differently and to question my plan to be a teacher. Did I really want to be a teacher? My daily life and what I used to do in Japan was enjoyable but in reality, I was lost. That is why I put myself on the road and decided to travel around the world.

I took time off school and went through Asian countries, via Taiwan and the Middle East, to Africa. In India, I cremated dead bodies. In Africa, I reached the summit of Kilimanjaro. I volunteered for NGOs in some countries and experienced fasting for ten days in others. While I was on the road, I wrote a diary, my custom since junior high school. Every night I wrote a diary about my experiences of the day, reviewed it and learned from it. It was a kind of learning cycle and deepened my thoughts. I could feel that I was changing every day.

What I acquired from the streets was an answer to my question, what I live for. It is “JITA-MANZOKU (satisfaction in a win-win situation)” in a word. I cannot sacrifice myself like saints do but I think self-satisfaction is vain. I realized that the happiest thing for me is to be “JITA-MANZOKU ,” which means I do something I like to, but at the same time, help someone by doing so.

After I came back to Japan, I wanted to tell people about what I learned from the trip. My diary ended up being published as a book. I wanted to provide a place to learn in developing countries, in return for what I acquired from them. It was around the time of the War in Afghanistan, after 9/11. As I stopped at a school of refugees in Afghanistan, I planned to open a school to Afghanistan. So I set up “GENKI-DAMA NET,” a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). Funds from the profits of the book and fund-raising activities also helped. It was to establish a school mainly for children of refugees who returned to their home country, in collaboration with the NGO on the site.

After I graduated from the university, I focused on the development of human resources and support activities for educations in developing countries.

One day, I was invited to Ama town in Shimane prefecture, an island on the Sea of Japan, as a guest teacher. Since then, I transferred to the board of education and now I work for a high school on the island and teach future generations. I work in new regional education, applying some ideas from my experiences on the road.
His journey of “JITA-MANZOKU ” still continues.

(Written and photographed by ；Jiro Tanaka, Special thanks；You Iwamoto, Translation；Kenichi Harada、Victoria Rae)

BE-IN TOKYO


BE-IN is a peace movement that began in San Francisco in the late 1960s. The movement was a big influence on Japan's hippie culture and student movements, and helped unite youths under a common desire for peace. However, although decades have passed since the movement first initiated, innocent civilians are still being hurt across the globe, and the horrors of war still casts its shadow on humanity. In order to promote a mutual understanding of peace across borders, BE-IN TOKYO hosts peace rallies every September.
BE-IN was born in 1967 when voices denouncing the Vietnam War began to resonate across the United States. Alan Cohen, an editor of a hippie magazine at the time, called for youths to come forth for a non-political event, succeeding in gathering 30,000 people. The movement expanded across the States, and eventually reached out to youths across the globe, with "love & peace" as its catch phrase.
On September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks killed over 3,000 innocent civilians in New York, prompting the question: "Why?" In response, in 2002 the 9.11 BE-IN executive committee was organized by those aspiring for a world where each and everyone could live together as a "HUMAN BEING."
Ever since, BE-IN has hosted events every year in September at Tokyo's Meiji Park.
The event includes a Flower Power Parade, where participants march along the
Meiji Street with 911 flowers in hand, in mourning of those killed on September 11th. A peace candle ceremony, where a giant peace mark is formed from candles lit by the remnants of the fire from the atomic bombing in Hiroshima -- in hope for peace and the abolishment of nuclear weapons -- also takes place.
Kiyoshi Nishida, one of the executive members of 9.11 BE-IN said that adults
were responsible for providing children with a future free from terrorism or war.
"The writer Michael Ende once said that the environmental destruction, economic
disparity and discrimination rampant in our world could be described as 'a war by adults involving children,'" he said.
And there is nothing children can do about it. But in order to create a peaceful
world free from violence, and to give hope to those children robbed of their future,
Nishida says he wants to ask each and every individual to start taking action.
"I want to let people know that the world can change, with a little effort from everyone," he said.
This year's BE-IN TOKYO 2009 will be held in Meiji Park on September 6 (Sunday). For details, please access BE-IN 2009's official Website at http://be-in.jp
A special message from BE-IN executives Kiyoshi Nishida and Kengo Yoshida can be viewed at Tabi Smile's Website, www.tabismile.com
Written by; Jiro Tanaka, Photographed by; Toshiyuki Sato, Translated by; Alex Martin

Travel and Peace / Kyo Satani



Kyo Satani, head of the corporation “Tabi to Heiwa”, believes that cumulative experiences of a journey make the world fun and people cheerful by strengthening the connection and mutual understanding between people beyond the borders.


Those who keep seeking encounters in daily life are light-footed. His activity which connects daily lives to the journey and peace has just begun.


I was born in a suburb in Kanagawa. My mom is so funny that she does such things like taking foreigners who she meets in the grocery store to our house and feeds them. So that was how I got used to having foreigners around me.

I majored in cultural psychology in college and I chose my research courses depending on how many international students would take the same classes. But what I’d learn the most was from actually going on journeys.

I had made up my mind that I’d go traveling when I entered college. I’ve visited many Asian countries: Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iran.... At that time, there were only a few people who would go and visit countries like Cambodia.


During these travels, it was so fun having a chance to talk to people without caring about their nationalities and generations. I immediately knew if a person was being respected, without knowing their title. I will never forget those smiles in my extraordinary experience of travel.

After I returned to Japan from traveling, I made a circle of people who I met from the journey. I had already graduated from college and was working, but I thought I would love to seriously face “travel” and study it as an academic subject.


It was around that time when I found there was a course called “Peace Studies” in a British University, and I came up with an idea for a thesis topic:“Journey and Peace (英語題名要確認)”. Going traveling makes people see their own world from the outside, and causes them to think about how we live and how other people live. It enables us to make friends. Traveling can be a tremendous drive to keep the world’s peace. I left this message in my thesis and graduated.

On August 9th 2007,Kyo Satani established the company. In November, he opened “Paxi house Tokyo” in Setagaya.


“Through spices from traveling and ethnic restaurants, I want to make this place a fun meeting, eating spot. Also, as a “piece of peace”, we will consult those NPOs and NGOs that helps global cooperation, the environment, and parental care. I’d like to rent the space to those NPOs and NGOs as well. Well, of course, they will be asked to have their “work celebration parties” at the space! Separately, I am thinking about education through traveling….. I want to cast “travel and peace” into shape.

Kyo Satani has been enthusiastically involved in international exchanges since he was little. He started traveling when he was 19 years old (He’s visited about 50 countries so far).

I got my Master’s degree in Peace Studies from the British University with the thesis theme being “Travel and Peace”. I decided to establish “Tabi to Heiwa” in 2007.
He had been responsible for the HR department of a big manufacturer, and the launch of the Press department of an I.T company.

Leveraging the HR development skills and organization experiences, he is now operating the company “Tabi to Heiwa” founded in August 9th 2007.

TABISMILE OPEN MIKE 31st Sunday May @ Yoyogi park

This is nice time to have party in the park. We will take place Tabismile Open Mike
31st Sunday May @ Yoyogi park. It starts at 12. Everybody can sing and read your poem.
Nori, artist will join this party. Bringing drinking and food would be appreciated.
I am waiting your coming. If you can join us , please send me mail to jiro@tabismile.com.

Thank you

Koichi Nakatani was born in Seattle, USA, in 1971. He is on a journey to walk around the world and plant trees in the ground. His ambition is not only to love the earth and make it greener but also to make people realize that they are a part of the world too..

I have been on the journey to walk and plant trees on the earth for three years, after six years of working as a businessman. In 2000, I started wandering.

I had been wondering whether my common sense or sense of value is the same as people from other nations. While I have worked for my company in foreign nations, I started thinking about it. “Common Sense” is knowledge, and an ability to judge and understand, which most people have or should have. For example, it is common knowledge to take shoes off when you enter a house in Japan, but not in other countries. If “Common Sense of the world” is the average of common sense from various regions, I wanted to know and own it. You know, you can only live your life once so I decided to go on journey to look for the “Common Sense as a member of the world.”

Firstly, I went to the United States, where I was born and then, India, Nepal, the Republic of Zambia, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brazil, the Republic of Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and South Africa. It took three years to travel around these countries; the three years have past swiftly.

As a business man, the most important thing in my life before the journey was to make profits using the least resources. However, during the journey, my life changed and I realized that the purpose of one’s life is to know local people, culture and nature. I became interested in these values.

In South Africa, I met with Mr. Paul Coleman who has visited 39 countries and walked 45,000 kilometers over 16 years, planting trees in the ground. He is on a journey to China from his home country, England. He plans to walk and plant 100 million trees, in memory for 100 million people who died during all of the Wars that occurred in the 20th century. I spent about a year participating in his activity in South Africa. I walked around Zimbabwe and the Republic of Zambia planting trees.

Paul Coleman has traveled around the world for more than 30 years, including a period when he was a sailor, and a driver for a British lady. As a person who has the “Common Sense as a member of the world,” he gives you a message “Let us stop killing, let us start surviving.” I think it can be understood that we should stop taking lives (which can also be symbolized as ‘trees’) and start giving lives instead. The message is so simple and direct that it is easy to understand. Someday, I wish the message would be part of the “Common Sense as a member of the world”.. I walk and plant trees for the message to be delivered to people.

I put everything that I need in my backpack and spend nights at the entrances of schools and shrines, without a tent, during my journey. Sometimes, there are people who are so kind that you can stay a night at their place. The more I continue on my trip, the more I think things become simple. The most important job in a day is to find something to eat and a place to sleep.

Planting trees in the ground is a message to people: “the survival of the earth”.

Walk on the earth, plant in the ground. My journey is about the survival of myself and the earth.

Koichi Nakatani's web site
http://earthwalkerjp.cocolog-nifty.com/

Paul Coleman's web site
www.earthwalker.com