tyusen's VirtualTourist Home Page

Travel is a part of my life and it’s so important for me. Travel brings me to extraordinary world. I discover my identity as Japanese or Asian by traveling. I realize that our culture is not one and only in this world by traveling. Travel is an entrance to know there is no absolute to evaluate our values and views of the world. Of course nationality is not the ultimate unit of our identity. Domestic travels give me chances to think about my identity as individual and a member of regional communities. I find out difference and diversity in this world and know we cannot evaluate which is better or which is worse. Travel broadens my outlook, so that’s the reason why travel is one of the most important parts for me in my life.

Needless to say, every trip which I did was all impressive and it’s difficult to say which is better, but my trip to Slovakia must have been one of my best trips. I had various meetings and had really wonderful time during my trip there. Actually, I enjoyed the famous German beers when I visited Berlin one year before going to Slovakia. Traveling to Europe gives me a chance to have local beers, so it was my first priority to drink local beers in my trip there. Yes, I enjoyed them and the tastes were perfect! But Slovakia provided me with special memories not only beers. Slovakia doesn’t have major tourist spots unlike in case of her neighbors such as Czech Republic and Hungary, but I could find a lot of beautiful scenery during stay there. See my Slovakia page and check it out!

Cambodia is famous for the land of Angkor Wat. So the purpose of my trip there was to visit the famous world heritage. I stayed at Siem Reap which is the nearest town to get to Angkor Wat. Everything was new for me in this small town. I never found traffic lights there during my stay. The pace of life is quite slower than Seoul which I live in now and it was really comfortable for me. People living there is very friendly and pure. Of course the highlight of sightseeing there was to visit Angkor Wat. When I saw this old and huge temple ruin with my own eyes, I couldn’t find any words to explain that scenery. My Angkor Wat page is here.

I live in Seoul, the capital of South Korea more than 5 years, but I’ve never get bored here. My Korean friends are very friendly, open-minded and hard drinkers :-) Once we start to have a drink with them, we have to give up taking a subway to go back home that day. As a beer enthusiast, I cannot say that it is easy to have good beers at Korean pubs but the atmosphere is really wonderful even though it is a little noisy. Seoul has also lots of places which are worth seeing. There is some old palace of Chosun dynasty including Chang Duk Palace, a UNESCO world heritage. My Seoul Page is here.

I have a favorite old British rock band named Procol Harum. They made a debut in British rock scene before I was born. When I first heard about them, I was in a high school. I still remember when I heard the intro of A Whiter Shade of Pale, the most famous song in their repertory. I was very impressed by the sound of Hammond organ which Mathew Fisher played. More than 10 years have passed; I bought their DVD titled “Live at the Union Chapel” recently. It was really wonderful live. I was so sorry that I missed their live at Japan because I wasn’t in Japan when they had a concert there in 2003. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go to their concert some day. But whenever I close my eyes and start to play the DVD, I can be in Union Chapel and enjoy their sounds. If I have a chance to visit London, I do want to visit the chapel and listen to their music with my walkman even though they are not in the chapel…

I’ve never been to Sweden and have no friends there, but I have been interested in this country. What is the reason why? Because I have a special favorite pop duo from Sweden, Roxette! I have most of their albums and attended their concert in 1995. I’ll never forget at that time. The Kobe earthquake killed more than 6,000 people one month before their gig. Fortunately I didn’t suffer serious damage from the earthquake but many audiences lost their home, family and friends. We were worried whether they would cancel their gig at Osaka because of the natural catastrophe, but they played for us. Anyway, Roxette has very important position in my life. I have a few e-mail addresses like many other people and most of ID of my addresses includes the title of their songs or the name of cities in Sweden. I think it’s good enough to explain the reason why I want to visit there. What do you think about that? :-)