http://world.tabismile.com/ free paper Tabismile ja http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=980186 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 wor...
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 ]]> LATEST ISSUE+ULTIOMO NUMERO 2008-07-06T01:36:42+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=888077 We are glad to publish Tabismile 9th. We are focus on enviromental tralever Mr.Koichi Nakatani and owener of Paxi restrant " Kyo Satani". Let's take it and read at our distributro shop. Also we have pubishing party at Yoyogi Park on May 31th Sat 13P...
Also we have pubishing party at Yoyogi Park on May 31th Sat 13PM. This is open mic style and appriciated briging food and drinks. Thank you.


I will send you mail wheter we have party on Yoyogi Park at 11AM tomorrow. Estimate says tomorrow will be rainy. When it will be rainy we have lunch at Cafe shift, Meguro.
cafe　shift
?　03-3721-4574
15mins from JR Meguro on foot.
10 mins from Tokyu Meguro Fudo mae

When you come there, just call me 09017390363!!!

Thanks.
]]> LATEST ISSUE+ULTIOMO NUMERO 2008-05-03T15:13:22+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=888058 He, who started a music label called “Viajar Discos,” meaning discs on journey, will step into a new world with help of sounds. Launching a new business has a same impact as big as stepping over a border. Here’s a story of Wataru Tanaka, who is an ...

He, who started a music label called “Viajar Discos,” meaning discs on journey, will step into a new world with help of sounds. Launching a new business has a same impact as big as stepping over a border. Here’s a story of Wataru Tanaka, who is an owner of the label and Kazusa Kawahara, who is a musician from Kumamoto prefecture and touring all over Japan.

Kawahara (K): I really appreciate for your help to make a wonderful CD. Telling you the truth, when I asked you the recording I couldn’t imagine that you would start up your own label.

Tanaka (T): I realized that I could identify myself by creating music through the recording. I wanted to choose something that I truly wanted to do. By the way, how do you always work on your projects with such a natural touch?

K: I feel connections with people from my town and bountiful natures, and the feelings from those and my heart will change its forms to my songs. Each moment I make a bond with other musicians who played with and audiences is truly joyful.

T: I think you are a traveler in the sense of having 113 shows a year through the tour based in Kumamoto prefecture, not in Tokyo. Even though I do not create and express something directly, I want to build a space by a hand of artists where people have a chance to meet up with travelers like you.

K: Well, that’s “Viajar Discos.” (Discs on journey). How come you started up your own label?

T: When I played in a band of music club in my high school, one day I set up and prepared a concert stage. I was in charge of sound systems. That’s how I got known with it. Since then, I started getting interested in the world of sound systems creating a space which artists can express them and audiences have a good time both comfortably. I like to watch people enjoying and having fun. So I wanted to do it again. I worked on some related part-time jobs related to the system and started to help some performances and recordings of my friends. That’s what I went through.

What makes you so motivated to keep on doing what you do?


K: I think it’s like cooking. If your friends enjoy the dishes you made and tell you they are delicious, you want to cook them again and feel like making better ones. For me, music is similar to sleeping and eating, and in essence it is a life. So it was very hard for me not to sing as I was sick last spring. Because I am really grateful for having audiences who listen to my music and spaces to share my feelings, I will keep working on it harder to let my audiences be happier.

T: That’s nice. I have something that I want to share with artists as well. It is to create a moment people make a smile. I think human beings like to share same feelings as a person right next to you also has. Whatever people do, it is one of the greatest things to be able to connect with others through music.

K: For sure.

T: What’s your plan in the future?


K: I want to work as a professional musician who can sing a song such that as if some moments of a usual daily life will show up by listening to the song and also want to have my own steady life other than music. I have an image of my future such that my circle becomes larger and larger slowly. In the future, I hope I’ll be able to sing songs such as the voice of forests and sounds of rain drops. What about you, Wataru?


T: Honestly, I just stood up on a start line. I will work on some projects such that artists, my customers and friends will surely be pleasured. In addition to it, it would be great if I can distribute my works abroad. Through music, I want to create networks between people, and be on the road to where I want to go.


Wataru Tanaka: Representative of Viajar Discos
Under the theme of which creates a large space to connect with others through music, he conducts recording, provides supports for sound systems in various events and manages an online radio station.

Kazusa Kawahara:
Under the theme, “Harmony and Communication through Music,” she performs in live shows with some concepts such as peace, earth, nature, home to
]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2008-05-03T14:53:27+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=888052 Khaju Art Space Khaju Art Space is a renovated 70-year-old house, where various people across genres and nationalities gather locally. The representative Makiko Tanaka is a person who boosts the exchanges of individualities with her cheeriness ...


Khaju Art Space is a renovated 70-year-old house, where various people across genres and nationalities gather locally. The representative Makiko Tanaka is a person who boosts the exchanges of individualities with her cheeriness and pleasant resolution.


Khaju Art Space is run by Ms. Tanaka along with a pianist, an architect, creators who use the space, and their friends. Its activities include hosting various classes, planning/executing events/workshops and community related activities.


Originally, Ms. Tanaka had majored in textile weaving in art collage and then worked as a high school teacher and a teaching assistant. However, she gradually became unsure about continuing her creative activities with the constant anxiety in passing/failing craft shows.


“What is important is to bring people some happiness when they come across my works," she thought, and rented a 70-year-old house in Kamakura to set it as the center of her creative activities. That was in the winter of 1997. “I was distressed because it was over the budget, and the house was quite worn down after 6 years of being deserted. But I thought my life would have no meaning if I couldn’t live by my own values,” she looks back on her decision.


Ms.Tanaka thought about sharing the place which was too big for one person, and spoke about it in a caf? she frequents. Little by little, there came some share-mate candidates, such as a young architect and a pianist. Everyone pulled up the weeds and grass around the house and helped to restore the house.

During the first spring, they hosted an event called “Khaju-Sai(fair)”, where numerous creative works were shown. The relationships with the local communities were deepened through experiencing and showing the creative process together. In this way, the Khaju has been expanding a wave of exchanges.

This year, Khaju goes into its 10th year, and it is expanding with activities such as Java dancing school, business training, etc. It is a character of Khaju that people from completely different genres would gather there. “It wasn’t a special feeling that has brought me all the way here, but it was rather like, I decided to have a particular space, and then people would come join there. Then, it went with the tide for some time. When I looked back, there was a road created behind me”, states Ms. Tanaka.

In recent years, some international exchange has begun, and it enabled Ms.Tanaka to have a show in Russia and a symposium in Germany. These plans also spawned from communication between people who visited Khaju. “I like such events because then I can write and send thank you cards after the events,” says Ms.Tanaka.
The relationship built through the 2005 symposium in Germany has been continuing. In October this year, there will be a “Trave Art Festival 2007 in Kamakura”, which is an artistic exchange festival that connects cities across the border through art.
This festival not only shows some collaboration works and workshops of Japanese and German artists, but also joins another festival held by the a local Yuiga-hama shopping district.
Don’t miss it, since this is going to be the best chance for you to see international and inter-genre works with the same eye level as the artists. Ms.Tanaka’s journey continues as she weaves people, traditions, and communities into one union with her big smile.
_


Contact information on Khaju Art Space and Trave Art Festival 2007 in Kamakura:


57-1 Nikaido Kanakura-shi, Kanagawa ZIP:248-0002
tel/fax 0467-23-3663

khaju@pastel.ocn.ne.jp

http://khaju.com

http://1192kamakura.net/taf
]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2008-05-03T14:45:18+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=692826 A happy new year. We spent 4th year from starting Tabismile. Last year we issued Tabismile 7th and 8th, distributor shop were expand to Shanghai in China, Madrid, Granada in Spain, and Croatia. Also We had a open Mic event at Yoyogi park. We apprecia... We spent 4th year from starting Tabismile. Last year we issued Tabismile 7th and 8th, distributor shop were expand to Shanghai in China, Madrid, Granada in Spain, and Croatia.
Also We had a open Mic event at Yoyogi park. We appreciate all corporation of interviewee, staffs, supporter and guests of event. We are very glad to make new friendship between travelers and business person beyond the distance. Such as we got email from reader of Spain. I introduced this her story on web radio.
Theme of Tabismile is " Traveling and Society". We continue to focus on person contribute to society and great traveler. Then I promise you bring big smiles to you.
Aim of this year are
# Tabismile 10th will be issued in May(5th anniversary)
# Finding real estate for Guest House Tabismile
# Take place events twice

Thanks
Jiro Tanaka ]]> NEWS+NOTICIAS 2008-01-07T00:05:28+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=654868 Tabismile visit Bum cafe in canal town called Zhujiajio in Chine. Tabismile viene Bum cafe ciudad canal se llama Zhujiajio en chino.
Tabismile viene Bum cafe ciudad canal se llama Zhujiajio en chino.

]]> DISTRIBUTION+DISTRIBUCION 2007-11-02T00:53:57+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=636531 March 10th 1945, during the World War Two, East Tokyo turned devastated under the U.S. “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” The number of deaths totaled 100,000 people. However, the youth in Tokyo, who never had war experiences, rarely touched this fact. Kirar...

March 10th 1945, during the World War Two, East Tokyo turned devastated under the U.S. “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” The number of deaths totaled 100,000 people. However, the youth in Tokyo, who never had war experiences, rarely touched this fact. Kirara Kawachi, Ikko Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, who have designed and held the event called “Words of 100,000 People 3.10,” (3.10) have produced performances to question the meaning of the “Great Tokyo Air Raids” with sound works and dances since 2005.

“3.10” is a performance made up of two factors. One is sound collages composed of voices and interviews that artist Kawachi made with those who survived under the U.S. air raids. The other is dance by Suzuki into which he put his eulogy. The performance, audiences can experience the air raids vicariously, has been held at “Gallery ef,” a repaired storehouse in Asakusa, which has existed some 140 years and underwent the air raids as well. Yamaguchi is in charge of publication of the gallery and also illumination in the performance.

Ahead of the first performance of “3.10” in 2005, three of them have considered the theme, “war,” from each point of view respectively. Kawachi produced works about the September 11th in the U.S. and presented in Hiroshima, Japan. After that, she moved into Sumida ward in Tokyo and found out the “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” She noted, “There are still bombs dropping on someone’s head somewhere in this world and you cannot ignore it as a same human being.” Suzuki grew up in Sumida ward where the damage of the air raids was horrible. He said, “I want to be a transparent pipe carrying down what happened here as it was.” While Yamaguchi was projecting an event that uses the “Gallery ef” as a symbol of which underwent through the air raids, Kawachi and Suzuki showed up and asked him if they could present a performance about the “Great Tokyo Air Raids.” This is how an artist, a dancer and a gallery shared the same theme of the “Great Tokyo Air Raids” and the birth of “3.10” with a lot of helps. According to their word, “It was meant to be.”

March 10th 2007, I went to the “Gallery ef.” After a few minutes from scheduled time, the lights went out and the voices of survivors under the air raids came to my ear. Firstly, it was the conversations about their memories of childhood. However, it changed to memories of the war gradually. Dancer Suzuki quietly showed up as if it were bombers sneaking up on dark sky of Tokyo. The voices tell you the night of burning Tokyo. When the lights began flashing, he started dancing with slow and sometimes quick and hard motions. I imagined the people suffered from fires, they were running around with no way out. Each motion of the dance was extremely intense and representing the will or desire of people to their lives. Suddenly, the dance quieted down and the voices already changed to talking about the morning of day after the air raids. According to the survivors, “there was nothing different between those who were killed and not killed, it was only a matter of luck.” When you face war, your own will or hope does not mean anything. It is obvious that either in our daily life or on the road you can smile because you are in peace. “3.10” gives me a precious time. After the event, you can rediscover the meaning and importance of being in peace. I want to yell at all people involved in “3.10.”
]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2007-09-29T11:51:52+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=636529 He traveled across 30,000km from the top of the North America (Alaska), to the bottom of South America (Ushuaia), riding his bicycle with guitar on his back. He felt the size of Mother Earth in his bones and interacted with people from all over the...

He traveled across 30,000km from the top of the North America (Alaska), to the bottom of South America (Ushuaia), riding his bicycle with guitar on his back. He felt the size of Mother Earth in his bones and interacted with people from all over the world through the communication of his music and guitar.

A guitarist, who ended his great adventure, started his new journey in a world of music. Deep in the world, he plays guitar for his goal of unbounded possibility and it’s melody is as if the wind ran through the world.


I want to be a professional guitarist with a style of fingerpicks. In order to be that, it is important for me to play music that nobody has ever done in this world. Although I absorbed and introduced various styles of music into my style from the countries on my last journey, it’s not possible to play the music like the native. I wondered why and found an answer. It’s simple reason, I’m Japanese. I want to express myself by putting the sense of Japan into the melody of my guitar. I think it eventually takes me to outside Japan.

I figured out in my last trip that we live in a world where anything can occurred. It is because my experiences affect me such that I was nearly attacked by a grizzly bear in Alaska and that Columbian guerilla pointed a machine gun in my face. The most impressive episode happened in the North Mexico. I was running on the road where it was littered with dead bodies of animals and illegal dumps. It was like hell. Then a small animal showed up, almost choked by sticking its head into a kind of big plastic container used for mayonnaise. I helped it without any thoughts and pulled it out of the container. It turned out to be a skinny and freak form of dog with skin disease. Even though I saved a life of the dog, it was obvious that the dog would die if I left him in there. The fact made me think if I shouldn’t have saved him. A life of living creature was totally in hand of a strange traveler who was just passing through there. Then I felt that a huge invisible power, nothing to do with my life and will, controlled everything and me. The idea really depressed me. However, I decided to keep pedaling. It is because there was a time I saw magnificent scenery and tasted delicious dishes. Feeling of those purely impressive moments saved me. Eventually, after one year and 10 months, I could finally arrive at Ushuaia in Argentine.

I couldn’t find any answers on my journeys right away. However, I started to believe my possibility in a positive way. I realized the fact, “if anything can happen in this world, anything can happen to me as well”. Nothing is different between the world of journey and the world of where I am. I simply feel happy to play a guitar now and want to keep on playing it. I think it is the way I am.


Yuki Uchiyama/ Hyper acoustic guitarist Traveling America continent by bicycle. Released music CD “FINGERING WIND” by Viajar discos in 2005. He won the audience award in fingering picking contest 2006.



]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2007-09-29T11:49:39+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=629291 Free Paper Tabismile 8th is coming and having party We are having a party for the new Tabismile. September 30th 2pm-6pm Yoyogi park near by Harajuku gate No charge but I appriciate bringing some wine or cheese,,,etc. Thanks! We have finished...
We are having a party for the new Tabismile.
September 30th 2pm-6pm
Yoyogi park near by Harajuku gate
No charge but I appriciate bringing some wine or cheese,,,etc. Thanks!

We have finished of ourl working for Tabismile 8th. We are going to send it to the distributor shop this week. We are focusing on "Khaju Art Space" in Kamakura for the main topics. Arts from Kamakura are making new friendships beyond the border. "Khaju" is going to start "Trave Art festival in Kamakura" with German artists on October 16th. This is a report from an interview with Makiko Tanaka.
"Traveler Without Maps" comes from an interview with Mr. Wataru Tanaka, director of the music label Viajar Disocos and Ms. Kazusa Kawahara, singer and songwriter from Kumamoto. They talked about meeting new friends and music artist.



Thank you for all.

Jiro ]]> NEWS+NOTICIAS 2007-09-20T01:38:56+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=621418 I talk about life in Tokyo and jorney in the world on web radio at "Tsubu sma" Radio presented music rabel "Viajar Discos" .」 You can listin japanese underground music and free talking with Makitan on this program. Let's check it out!!! Sorry only Jap... "Tsubu sma" Radio presented music rabel "Viajar Discos" .」 You can listin japanese underground music and free talking with Makitan on this program. Let's check it out!!! Sorry only Japanese. See you on Radio.

Yo hablo sobre vida en Tokio y viaje en el munco en radio internet "Tsubu sma" presentado por musica rabel "Viajar Discos" .」 Se puede escuchar musica UNDERGRANGE y charando con Makitan( de Kansha) . Venga a la " Tsubu Sma". Solo japones, perdon. Nos vemos en la programa.


]]> NEWS+NOTICIAS 2007-09-04T23:54:23+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=502406 Jumping Across Borders When you reach beyond walls that were built without your realizing, you get to know where you are located. Crossing such ﾒbordersﾓ makes it possible to accept ideas that are different from yours and to get a deeper glimpse...

Jumping Across Borders

When you reach beyond walls that were built without your realizing, you get to know where you are located. Crossing such ﾒbordersﾓ makes it possible to accept ideas that are different from yours and to get a deeper glimpse of yourself. Akihiro Sakabe, a representative the “Yuyake Dandan Braille Story on the handrail Committee”, is such a border jumper in our society.

　Mr. Sakabe grew up in Yanaka, one of Tokyo's 23 wards. The area shares borders with three other wards: Arakawa-ku, Bunkyo-ku and Taito-ku. From an early age, he was sensitive to the ﾒbordersﾓ around him. ﾒI just wondered why those wards changed their names when I just stepped back and forth among them.ﾓ

One day, when he was about to eat dinner at his friendﾕs place, he saw a person who was not invited to the table. It was a person with a disability, and the incident came as a huge shock to him. How could society so easily judge a person simply because they have a disability? Mr. Sakabe started thinking about what he could do to assist those whose lives were ruled by stereotypes and discrimination.

In college, he joined a sign language club as a volunteer. In the beginning, he thought it was for those who couldnﾕt attend the college classes because of their disabilities. However, as he gradually got into the new world, he began to see the group as a community, and soon he understood the unique ways in which hearing impaired people see the world. For example, soon he could sense a train coming by seeing a clapping bird far away.

ﾒIn one way, traveling is to go abroad, but in another way, it means pulling in everything closer to you,ﾓ says Mr. Sakabe. As long as you hold a spirit that seeks new encounters and discoveries, you can ﾒtravelﾓ wherever you are. He takes pleasure from breaking out of his shell by crossing these borders.

One time, six years ago, he was chatting with his friends how interesting it would be if a Braille series continued from the bottom to the top of a staircase in a train station. From this idea, he successfully launched the ﾒAmanojaku Project 2000."

In the project, 33 stories were gathered online and then were brailled. Then, those Braille were put onto the handrails of the 531 steps of the Tokyo tower stairs. A diverse group of people, both seeing and visually impaired, climbed together to the observatory, reading the Brailled stories along the way.

A hundred people attended this event, which enabled them to feel the height of the Tokyo tower by reading the stories. ﾒYou get back whatever you do for people,ﾓ Mr. Sakabe says. His travel now continues as he ﾒjumps the bordersﾓ with his next Amanojaku project: Yuyake Dandan: the Braille Stories (a.k.a. Amanojaku Project 2006)

Stories Wanted!


There is a flight of stone stairs called ﾒYuyake Dandanﾓ in Nippori. At this location; several stories will be turned into Braille and put onto the handrails of the 36 stairs at this location. In this fall, people with and without sight will together read your stories!
- Application Period: Saturday, July 1st --- Sunday, August 20th.
- Theme: Any of the following: ﾒcatﾓ, ﾒsunsetﾓ, and ﾒtowerﾓ. The length should be 500-600 letters. Apply only for one of the three themes. One story per person.
- For application submission, please check the blog, ﾒSmiles of 500 Luohans @ Yuyake Dandanﾓ （http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/500rakan/）, or find flyers in stores around Yanaka, such as Sankenma.
（http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/500rakan/）


Written and photographed by: Jiro Tanaka

Translation: Yuki Satomi, Christian Perry
]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2007-04-14T14:15:39+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=502403 Atsushi Kakinuma I was a boy at age of 17, I was told that I would only live for two more years. I wanted to go somewhere, somewhere where nobody knows me. Somewhere where I can disappear like the fog. In the end of 1979,I left Japan to head t...

Atsushi Kakinuma


I was a boy at age of 17, I was told that I would only live for two more years. I wanted to go somewhere, somewhere where nobody knows me. Somewhere where I can disappear like the fog. In the end of 1979,I left Japan to head to England.



I was forced to go kindergarten where it was favorable to step up in a school career. Also to learn to play the piano. It was a bad joke for me. A girl at my neighborhood was skateboarding. It was cool. I started getting into surfing later. I thought that I was going to make my ends meet with this surfing. However, I found out that there was a disease in my body which could make me dead or alive. I went beyond hopeless and soon had no interests in anything in my life. If it happened to a person who has a determination, he or she would commit suicide. I was not that one. I could not kill myself. I decided to have surgery in hopes to save myself. Although, I felt there was no light of hope that I could see. The surgery did go well, but, various disabilities remained in my body. I was shocked, I survived. However, my time was only two more years left. My parents told me to do whatever I wanted to do.


I wanted to leave, wanted to go somewhere where nobody knows about me. So, I went to England where my relatives lived. I did not have passion, emotion or feelings for anything. I was in a place where I could just relax and not worry. However, I thought that if I was going to die in the future, I wanted to touch the hair of beautiful woman. So, I asked my relatives about becoming hairdresser. The answer was, "go to Paris." My parents made the arrangements in Paris, for me to go to school and have a place to live. The situation was still unchanged and I realized that I was still alive every morning. In Paris, I fell in love with a girl who lived in next to my room. The girl always gave me a hope. Therefore, I started to become afraid of dying and wanted to expect one more new day, "tomorrow. As time passed, I got used to Paris. Soon, two years passed and I started to feel that I was not the one who was going to die.


After five years in Paris, I returned to Japan. As I like French classic cars, I met with a person who was importing classic cars and paintings. My life and connections in Paris became helpful. I started to be on the road on many business trip. At that time, Japan was in the "Bubble Economy," I sold as much as I wanted. After that I established a French classic cars fan club. I had many interviews which gave me a lot of publicity. (not sure what this means)( and also collected various topics.) "If you set you mind to it, you will succeed." If you do one thing for a long time, you can be flexible. Even after I quit my job, I went around the world to take a picture of French classic cars. I lived a life to be on the road from 29 years old to 38 years old.


I did not want to fly but I was just flowing around not to be drown. If you have any troubles, it is one solution to disappear, to refocus on your life and get you mind in order. Or, we need a person who is useless in our human community to show us what we have of our own. Now I live in Yanaka and manage a Bar that I love. At peace!

Written and photographed by: Jiro Tanaka

Translation: Kenichi Harada/ Mat Mallard
]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2007-04-14T14:11:22+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=168135 Explorer without a map / Koro Ito Even if you move to somewhere new, you are still on the road to a place of yourself. He has been a man who always chose his road. In 1977, he left to India as if the notes of Sitar led him to there with vibratin...


Even if you move to somewhere new, you are still on the road to a place of yourself. He has been a man who always chose his road. In 1977, he left to India as if the notes of Sitar led him to there with vibrating his ears.

Q: Why did you decide to go on a travel?


Firstly, I entered university but quitted in a few moths. I was just playing a guitar and working for a part-time job. I was like a person who is called ﾒFreeterﾓ recently. When I started to seek and pursue my music, I encountered with the music of Sitar through a record. The instrument was seemed to be a good one and I though it would fit for my music. Because I was a person who could not follow a major stream of our society and could find a something that I can be so into it, I decided to go on travel. There was nothing but my will.

Q:What did you get your hands on?

I have learned how to play Sitar for five years from Nada Yoga who is a spiritual master of Hinduism in Badrinath, north part of India, and who are also a player of Been. I was playing the music for the spirits and the gods all day long. My spirits got uplifted by playing the music like washing a face in the morning. Without any disturbances such as liquors and cigarettes, the music became a part of my life thoroughly. It saved my life a lot. If I chose another type of music, my road would have been fuzzier. There are two parts which consist of Indian music. One of the parts is basic rules to create and compose the music with improvisation. Another part is my body and feelings which need to get used to the music by taking a long time. There are still moments once in a few years that I could feel that my body and feelings understand and that I face a difficulty.

Q: What is a travel for you?

Traveling is being playing for me. I make my ends meet with my music through my life. People travel to answer their own questions such as why Iﾕm here and where Iﾕm going. It includes not only physically where you go, but also mentally what you think. Getting rid of what you do not need through the way has you have a smile from bottom of your heart. And you can start living a life with each of your moments. Eventually, your sight would be getting clearer. However, you do not need to force yourself to get rid of something that you have. If it is not needed, it would be off from you whether you realize it or not. Understanding with your mind does not mean that your body can move under your mind perfectly. It takes a long time. People say ﾒyou gotta be hard worker!ﾓ but if you are relax and live in your life with naked yourself, people will find a place where they want to go with having a fun. Living a life with having a fun is the best but it is also the most difficult thing.
]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2006-03-13T01:06:06+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=168111 ]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2006-03-13T00:50:20+09:00 jiro jiro http://world.tabismile.com/?eid=65382 Next Generation Hippies They balance ideal and working for economical reasons. They shine when they smile because their lifestyle is optimistic and free. Yayoi Yasuda, running Kaze No Hatake, is one of them. Shiroyama-cho in Kanagawa, about an ho...
They balance ideal and working for economical reasons. They shine when they smile because their lifestyle is optimistic and free. Yayoi Yasuda, running Kaze No Hatake, is one of them.

Shiroyama-cho in Kanagawa, about an hour by train from central Tokyo is where Yasuda farms. Yasudaﾕs family is not a farmer. She grew up with handicapped people, and decided to make a farm a place to support each other. She sensed the trend was coming before anyone else became frenzy with slow-life and LOHAS.

After graduation from University of Agriculture, she gained experiences in Switzerland. She rents and works on a farm about the size of a soccer field together with her handy capped friends. Kaze No Hatake is different from idealized communes isolated from the society. Yasuda give lectures and writes columns on newspapers and magazines. She says she used to be a wild high school student in Shibuya wearing loose socks. No wonder she looks so natural with her cell phone even during farming. ﾒToday, its irrelevant to compare a life with power and money with a life with purpose.ﾓ Farming is not easy, she says, but nearly 200people visits her farm to visit and experience her easygoing, naturalistic life. She still works hard towards her goal.
She plans farming experiencing event during seeding and harvest. Fees will be about 1500yen, including meal and harvested vegetables. Information will be available on the Tabi Smile HP and mail magazine.





Photo and words by Jiro Tanaka
Translated by Makiko Horiuchi ]]> BACK NUMBERS+PREVIOS 2006-01-03T22:27:05+09:00 jiro jiro