Go Traveling, young ones !｜Tada Fukutaro official site

Go Traveling, young ones !

I’ve been traveling to a total number of 32 countries so far, and love this scene the most!

I started traveling overseas in 2001 (It was summer when I was in the second year of university), and so far I’ve visited 32 different countries. When I was a student, I didn’t have enough money. After graduation and became a business person, I had no free time. So I wondered how I can travel depends on my situation, asking myself, ‘I want to travel, but is there a way?’. When I was a student, I did lots of part time jobs in Japan to make money, and during my travel I often hitch hiked, tried live-in jobs, and even slept on the roof top of a hotel. I really loved traveling so whenever I had long holidays, I set out on a trip to overseas with a limited budget.

After I started to work, whenever I had several days off, I traveled. My schedule was very tight and my tour became like 2 nights 4 days, or 4 nights 7 days. On the previous day of departure, I worked all night and went straight to Narita airport. Sometimes I chartered a private car all day, when I was short of time.

Why I started traveling is largely because of the manager of a company I worked part time when I was a high school student. He said, ‘To see is to believe (You should see what you hear)’. As he says, everything starts when you actually see it. So I traveled. I met people, talked with them, felt and thought, saw myself deeply, and again I traveled...and I just kept it on.

In 2004, Mr. Sakamoto, President of the company I worked after graduating from university said something very inspiring, which is, ‘You can find entertainment in your work, as work can be created in entertainment’. For seven years I worked so hard, and also I studied. As I look back, that was such a wonderful environment for me to work.

In 2011, as I read a book I learned the term ‘OJT‘ can have two meanings, which are, ‘On the Job Training’ and ‘Off the Job Training’. And I realized that I had lots of OJT for the last ten years. I met so many people whom I talked with, went through a variety of experiences, and learned a lot. I made many mistakes and might have done many embarrassing things in Japan and in many countries.

By traveling I learned the spirit of ‘Bunbu Ryodo’ (We should learn both from theory and practice), ‘Ichigo Ichie’ (We should treasure every encounter, for it will never recur), that travel is full of unexpected trouble to deal with, and to see ‘Japan‘ from a different point of view. And I also kept thinking how I can make the most of what I learned from my travel experience and connect it to my work, and that ‘To think is to act’. Here I will keep discovering ‘exciting‘ and ‘interesting‘ things, and maintain ‘intellectual curiosity’

Record of my international travel

Travel photos

Year	Country	Cities I liked	Story
2010	Vietnam	Sapa	Watched FIFA World Cup in the hidden spot, with travelers from different countries.
	Philippine	CebuIsland	Ate parrot, a popular Philippine dish.
	Canada	Vancouver	I cheered my friends who participated in Vancouver winter Olympics.
2009	Indonesia	Bali	A variety of activities in Bali island
2008	Thailand	Bangkok	I had 6 hours stopover so I tried Thai massage.
	South Africa	The Cape of Good Hope	Reached the southwestern tip of the African continent, where Vasco da Gama arrived centuries ago.
	South Korea	Soul	Tasted globe fish in Soul
2007	UAE	Dubai	Merciless heatwave above 40 degree centigrade in the city was even harder than desert, while the city glowed gold in the light.
	Yamen	Sana’a	Amazing old city listed as World Heritage! But people don’t speak English at all!
	Thailand	Pattaya	Chinese dishes, delicious and budget friendly! With 3,000 yen I enjoyed the course dish of boiled shark fin soup.
	South Korea	Soul	The first thing I imagine about Korea is ‘poktanju’ (bomb drink). I got dead drank.
2006	India	Trivandrum	Tried Indian Ayurveda. Had a great panoramic view of Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and Atlantic.
	United States	Las Vegas	Gorgeous hotels, casinos, roller coasters, and illuminations.
	Indonesia	Bali	Confused with the local currency, which was like 100 rupiah ≒ 1 yen
2005	China	Guangzhou	Saw the scene of wringing a chicken's neck, learnt how food is provided.
	Hong Kong	City center where I tried Chinese herb treatment	The million dollar night view of Hong Kong I saw alone turned to be ‘lonely’.
	Indonesia	Pulau Bintan	My first voyage to overseas beache where I enjoyed scuba diving.
	Singapore	CityCenter	Saw world famous Merlion.
	South Korea	Soul city center, at night	Eating samgyopssal (Korean speciality), and felt Okubo, a Korean town in Japan.
2004	Hong Kong	Airport	I was in trouble. When I arrived at Narita Airport My luggage got lost!
2004	Sri Lanka	Nilambe	I secluded myself in mountains to experience Yoga. For three days I had nothing but chickpeas.
2003	Portugal	Cabo da Roca	I reached the westernmost point of mainland Europe, described in the poem of Camões.
	Morocco	Sahara desert	Mars reached its closest point to the Earth in the last 60 thousand years! And it certainly was red.
	Spain	Seville	Visited Seville to see real flamenco, with student discount.
	France	Carcassonne	Stayed at the old castle which is the only one existing since the middle ages.
	Vatican City	St. Peter's Basilica	Known as the smallest nation in the world, and it actually was so small !
	Italy	Rome	Lots of trouble, from which I realized the danger of traveling alone rather than appreciating world heritages.
	Singapore	City center	I happened to land here by stop over so I visited one of the Singaporean’s’ house.
2002	United Kingdom	the Lake District	Known for Peter Rabbit. Stonehenge was just amazing.
2002	Canada	Vancouver Island	Enjoyed 2 month farm stay and hitchhiking in midwinter.
2001	Taiwan	Taipei	Visited The Palace Museum, a must-see of Taiwan, and one of the 4 largest museums in the world.
2001	South Korea	Panmunjom	This is my first travel to overseas from Shimonoseki to Busan, 12 hours ferry travel. I was amazed by the history there.

It was March 2001 when I first started my solo travel (Tokyo to Okinawa, 48 hours ferry travel). At that time I was afraid to go overseas by myself.