Who? Why? What? Where?

We'll start at the beginning. I decided to write a blog just recently, now that I'm starting 'the big traveling' period of my life. The last time I kept a blog of any sort was during a fairly shitty period of my life and more for my own sanity than for public consumption, whereas this one's hopefully going to offer a bit more positivity. So it's probably best to set up some background: the who, why and what.

I'm Adam, 34, originally from the nicer, non-fake-tan bit of Essex but I've been living in London for the better part of ten years. I've been working in TV and video production for most of that time, starting as a runner on shows like Big Brother and Masterchef, moving up to assistant producer and then full producer at MTV, CNBC and, more recently, pure corporate video. As a career it has its ups and downs, some moments of glamour plus a lot of time waiting in car parks. Here's me looking like a twat with a flower in my hair:

The career neatly segues onto the 'why': why traveling at all? Why now, when I just seem to be getting some well-paid freelance work tied together after a months fighting against minimum wage work? Well... I never went traveling properly when I was younger, and I've always wanted to see more of the world. On top of that TV/video work hasn't been fulfilling me for quite a while. I won't go into all the reasons but I've been doing the same job for nearly twelve years so it's time for a change and to stretch my horizons. If I come back to the UK spouting about 'finding myself' in a pair of yoga pants please shoot me.

That just leaves the 'what' and the 'where'. I heard about Workaway from an old friend a while ago and it seems like a great system. You do various sorts of unpaid work in exchange for bed, food, cultural exchange. It's got a bit more purpose than just bumming around with a rucksack - in theory I'll meet the locals, help some projects come to life, and work with people who've been living here for a while. And where... Japan. I've always wanted to visit. In a massively cliched, British way it still feels like an undiscovered country, hugely aadvanced in technology but still tied to traditions and ceremony, with huge differences to European culture. I want to see what it's actually like outside of the virals we see in the UK of kawaii culture, fucked up TV shows and Studio Ghibli.

So that's the basics covered, hi. I've got a one-way plane ticket to Tokyo, a lump of savings in my account, and a rucksack full of poorly-selected band tshirts. I've left it 'til a month into my trip to set this page up so I've got a bit of catching up to do. I'd like to keep the blog less about 'me, me, me' and more about things that I think will be interesting: food, people, culture. If any of it's of interest then please subscribe, like, send me a message, whatever you fancy.

To be continued.

#travel #japan #Workaway