32 years of movement, documented chronologically. From Ibaraki childhood to Singapore base — every country visited, every chapter, and what each one added.
Every trip recalibrates something. Languages become real when you need them in a market. Running routes in unfamiliar cities reveal the city's actual structure. Italy stopped being a destination at age 20 and became a long-term project — the language, the food, the particular quality of light in the south.
The DJ practice and the travel practice reinforce each other: both are about reading a room, adapting in real time, and finding the frequency that works. Moving through cities is sonic research as much as anything else.
The running connects it all physically — every city gets a route. Frankfurt at age 2 is memory. Frankfurt on a 10km run at 32 would be data.
Family trips from a base in Ibaraki prefecture. Germany, France, Italy, Southeast Asia, the US, Europe — a broad early map built before travel could feel foreign. The patterns that would define later life (Italy, running, language) show up here as raw instinct.
First trip abroad. Frankfurt to the Rhine valley — castles, a university town, and a two-year-old memorising the names of things he couldn't pronounce yet.
Paris first, then the grand Italian sweep. Ruins at Pompeii before I knew what ruins meant. The Italian south already had its hooks in.
Bangkok heat and island time. The version of Southeast Asia that becomes a reference point for every trip after.
First time in Singapore. Didn't know it would become home two decades later. Langkawi was pure sea.
Back to Thailand. Phuket before it was everywhere. The water was the right colour of green.
First time in Korea. The food hit immediately and has never stopped.
East Coast summer. New York at thirteen — the scale of the thing. Philadelphia cobblestones and New England quiet. The trip that made America real.
Paris a second time and it lands differently at fourteen. The museums start to mean something. The language starts to sound like something worth chasing.
Vienna for music, London for scale, Oxford for the idea that a university town could look like that. Both left marks.
Back to London alone. The city rewards solo navigation. Started to understand what it means to move through a place on your own terms.
University at Kyoto, with repeated research stays in Chicago and St. Petersburg. Italy becomes a recurring destination — not just visited but studied. The language project starts here. Russia at 23 and 24 adds a completely different register to the map.
The full southern sweep. Sicily end-to-end, Amalfi coast, Pompeii a second time with older eyes. Italy started becoming a project, not just a destination.
Short-term study abroad at Oxford. Bath on the weekend. London as bookend. First time living a different university life.
Research year expanding in every direction. Chicago national laboratory for physics. Russia twice — the Hermitage, White Nights. Taiwan as the quiet reset between.
Same Chicago lab, same Russia — but now with Finland added. The Baltic light in summer is its own phenomenon. Taiwan again for the food and the quiet.
First full-time job. Travel compresses into shorter windows — Taiwan five times, Scandinavia's full circuit, Russia one final time. Hong Kong for a Jason Mraz concert proves that specific reasons make the best trips. Quality over accumulation.
Russia one more time, then the full Scandinavian circuit. Copenhagen architecture, Helsinki silence, Stockholm water. Taiwan as the comfortable third option.
Jason Mraz live. Specific reason, specific city. Hong Kong at night for a concert is its own kind of perfect.
Taiwan for the fifth time. By now it's less a destination and more a habit. Night markets, mountain tea, the kind of city that doesn't ask anything of you.
Relocated to Singapore as the data career accelerates. Southeast Asia becomes local — Bintan, Bali, KL on weekends. Europe becomes the annual long-haul: Greece at 30, Italy grand tour at 31 (Milan → Venice → Bologna → Florence → Rome), Low Countries at 32. DJ TakeRun starts taking shape during this period.
Greece for the Aegean blue — Athens ruins, Mykonos whitewash, Zakynthos sea caves. Then back to the region: Bintan for the weekend, JB for the food, HCMC for the energy.
The year that stacked up. Australia twice (Sydney, then Perth). Hakone onsen. Bali reset. Angkor at dawn. Andrew McMahon live somewhere in there. And the full Italy sweep — Milan to Venice to Bologna to Jesolo to Padova to Florence to Rome.
Low Countries end-to-end — the beer, the light, Sint-Truiden for the illuminations. Rome to close it. Then India (Delhi noise and heat), KL, four Hong Kong trips, and Okinawa for the southern Japan slow-down.
Chronological journey from Ibaraki. Hover cities for names. The animation replays on each load.