Project Hitchhiker | travels, stories and adventures in lifestyle design
welcome to my blog
Project Hitchhiker is the online creative outlet of Mike H.
Mike’s adventures have taken him across 3 continents, including driving a motorcycle for 6 months across Southeast Asia, hitchhiking across Canada and Japan, and walking 1000 miles along the coastline of Nova Scotia.
Mike’s passions are music, travel and motorcycles (in that order).
Mike’s dislikes include writing about himself in the third person.
This site is a collection of his travels, stories and adventures in lifestyle design.
So, where I said in my last post about hitting the $8000 in savings mark… Well, that was true, until the other day when I decided to buy some new music gear (actually I decided a few months ago, and waited to make sure I wanted to buy it). I spent more than I would have liked (now I’m back down to $7000…), but I love my new gear. And I figure I won’t need to buy any new music gear for a few years now. Except maybe a new pickup for my guitar…
(for the non-gear-heads reading: might want to skip the next 3 paragraphs)
New Guitar: The Little Martin LXM
It took me three days of trying out different travel-size guitars (the Baby Taylor was a contender, especially for the built-in pickup) before eventually settling on the Martin LXM. I loved the neck on the Taylor, but the beautiful tone and sturdiness of the Martin won me over.
New Audio Interface: Edirol UA25ex
My old interface, the Zoom H4n, wasn’t really meant for what I was using it for – direct recording (it was made to be used as a rugged field recorder). Using it as an audio interface, I wrestled with frustrating latency and timing issues. It’s still great to put down rough song ideas though. I bought the Edirol on the recommendation of my class at Roland – although, thinking about it now, Roland owns Edirol so they might have been a bit biased. I’m really happy with it. It’s got a tough metal case, and if there’s any recording latency, I can’t notice it.
New Microphones: Shure M57 and Beta SM58
Compared to the built-in mics on my old Zoom H4N – well, there’s no comparing really. The Shure mics are just way better suited to my purposes: recording guitar (M57) and voice (SM58). I still need a pop filter. At one point in the song, when I say the word “pale”, the air from my mouth causes a pop in the recording. That’s what Pop Filters eliminate. Although I’m hesitant to spend the $70 that they cost here in Japan. I’ll probably end up making one myself.
______________________
The Song: “Run Away”
This recording is the result of my first few hours playing around with my new recording setup. Overall, I’m about 70% happy with the recording.
The song itself is not bad. I wrote it about 2 years ago at my uncle’s cottage (about a year after I started writing songs). I think my songwriting has grown a lot since then, but I still like the song. I mainly chose it as my first test recording because it’s so easy to play.
The lyrics are very simple and the guitar is in standard tuning, which is rare for me. While some songs take me a week or more to write, this one came out in about 3 hours. The new audio interface and microphones made a huge difference in the recording sound from what I’m used to. That said, I’ve got a lot of learning to do with this new gear…
Some caveats before you listen
I’m not a singer. I love writing songs, and only record my voice because I haven’t found a singer yet.
—– If you’re a talented singer and live in Hamamatsu, definitely email me. —–
I’d love some feedback on the song: constructive or positive. Mostly positive though, as this is my first original song I’m releasing out into the world. ;)
For some reason that I can’t put my finger on, it’s really difficult to click the ‘publish’ button on this post. Fear of failure? Fear of what people will say? I mean, have no crazy aspirations of becoming anything more than an amateur musician. I just love music and writing songs.
Regardless, as Seth Godin says, “You gotta ship your art.” Enjoy.
Run Away:
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A wise man once said, If you have nothing good to say…. Post some pictures.
This weekend, I spent almost all my time at work and writing music, and I’m pretty tapped out. So here’s some pictures from Kachoen Bird Park in Kakegawa. I went there a few weekends ago with Kim and though I expected it would be interesting, I had a total blast.
We saw a lot of birds that start with ‘P’ — penguins, parrots, parakeets, peacocks, pelicans…
As well as some other letters: ostriches, flamingos, and a large variety of angry looking owls (they are, after all, nocturnal).
The parakeets loved kim for some reason. At one point, there were 2 birds up her sleeve and another trying to unzip her jacket.
My favorite by far were the Toucans. At first they’re a little intimidating because they’re pretty big. But they’re really gentle and surprisingly light on your arm.
That’s it. Kakegawa Bird Park. Definitely going back, since I’m here for the next year.
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by projecthitchhiker on 17-04-2011
Lately — as you can see by my recent posts – I’ve been obsessed with media about traveling and backpacking. It’s out of necessity, really. I mean, here I am in Japan, working all week to save up for a trip that starts in exactly one year. It has definitely helped the savings process to write about travel and have a constant reminder of what I’m saving for.
So, you ask, what’s this unusual piece of gear I won’t travel without? Well… If you’ve ever backpacked, you know that carrying around a heavy backpack for months at a time can absolutely destroy your shoulders and neck.
Last year, I had some pretty bad problems with my neck and shoulders. After a year of backpacking around Southeast Asia and India, my neck was completely wrecked. At it’s worst, I actually went to the hospital here in Hamamatsu, for fear I might have a pinched nerve, or worse. After some x-rays and a CT scan (in Japan they give you a CT scan if you have a cough…), it turned out that my neck and shoulders were just incredibly tight. I managed to get the problem under control with a lot of stretching, self massage and religious use of relaxation tapes. But what really helped – what reversed the problem completely, was… wait for it…. a tennis ball. Seriously. Maybe this is common knowledge, but I didn’t know about it. I knew about muscle trigger points and deep tissue massage, but I’d never heard of “the tennis ball thing.”
There’s not much to it really. You just get in a comfortable position (on the floor or against the wall), and lean into the tennis ball while it’s on a tender spot (a “trigger point” or muscle knot). Put a little pressure on it – until you feel “good pain” (not enough to make you cringe) and hold it there while the knot relaxes. If the knot is really tough, it can take a few days of sessions, but believe me, I can’t say enough good things about what this has done for my neck and shoulders. My shoulders have never been this relaxed.
From now on, I can say that – despite being an obsessive travel minimalist — I will never travel without one.
1. A Map For Saturday. This is the film that inspired me to write this post. It`s a documentary that follows a successful twenty-something as he quits his job to backpack around the world for a year. Watching it, I felt it really captured everything about travel and backpacking that I love. Amazing film. This is required viewing for anyone thinking about taking time off for an extended trip.
2. One Week. Follow Joshua Jackson`s (remember Charlie from the Mighty Ducks?) character, Ben,on a motorcycle journey across Canada after being told he doesn`t have long to live. Awesome soundtrack, beautiful Canadian scenery, and great cameos by Gord Downie, Emme Gryner and Joel Plaskett.
3. Motorcycle Diaries. A future revolutionary and his friend ride motorcycles across South America. Need I say more? The book was good; the movie, better. Great soundtrack too.
Consolation Prizes:
1st Runner Up goes to Into the Wild. Would have got the award too, if the idealistic protagonist didn`t die at the end.
2nd Runner Up goes to The Beach. As a film, it`s not bad. As inspiration for an adventure or a visit to Thailand, amazing.
3rd Runner Up is Y Tu Mama Tambien, which would have taken the prize save for the final sex scene. Shudder. Bad shudder.
And the award for least inspiring travel movie goes to… Brokedown Palace. Thailand rocks. Thai prison, not so much. Don`t do drugs, kids.
What movies make you crave travel? Opinions please :)
People I meet often ask me how I can afford to travel so much, so I thought I’d write out what I do. It isn’t easy to save like I do, but it does get me to my goal fast. Personally, I’d rather make some sacrifices for a year (no going out, etc) and then have a full block of uninterrupted time to travel.
How I Think About Money
If time is money, then the reverse is true: Money is time. I generally think this way, but I rarely see evidence of other people doing so. For me, if I save $10,000 to $15,000, I think of that money as a year’s worth of vacation. That means I don’t have to work for a year and get to travel and have incredible experiences. Really think about this – no work for a year. It’s pretty amazing once you experience it. Our work-centric culture would have us believe that this is somehow wrong, immature or selfish. That’s fine by me.
My current goal, working here in Japan is $22,000 by the end of 2011. My average in the last few months is about $1,750 out of a monthly payday of $2,800 — a monthly savings of about 62% of my income. Not bad considering it’s Japan.
10 things I do to save money:
1. Limit monthly expenses. Have a cell phone and a land line? Axe the land line. Downgrade to the lowest possible mobile plan and only use SMS. Any other service (cable, Netflix, etc) that you pay monthly for, ask yourself: How much do I really need this? Can I get this (internet, etc) somewhere else without paying? (ie. Library)
2. Stop going to bars. They don’t call it drinking away your money for nothing. Instead, try hosting a potluck at your apartment. You’ll probably end up with leftovers and if you’re lucky, a spare bottle of wine for the week.
3. Analyze your spending habits. If I find my money is going too quickly, I write down every penny I spent for a week. $5 a day for that Starbucks latte doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up to almost $2000 over the course of a year.
4. Pay yourself first. The day you get paid, separate your money into two piles: monthly budget, and savings for X trip. I put my trip savings in an account that I don’t touch, even if I spend my monthly budget money too fast.
5. Find a job situation that covers some of your necessary expenses. If you haven’t started working yet to save, look for jobs that include arrangements that cover some expenses, such as rent or food. I decided on my past job because, although the salary was relatively low ($27,000 a year), the job included room and board, allowing me to pocket 100% of my after-tax salary. (I used half the money to finish paying back student loans and the other half to travel)
6. Don’t buy anything new. Again, you should be asking yourself: how much do I really need this (shirt, guitar, etc). It amazes me when people ask me how I can save so much money, especially people who make double what I do, and spend their hard-earned money on Plasma TVs in every room and new silver plated rims on their Honda Civics. (Okay, I made the last one up – I don’t know anybody with a Civic).
7. Have a yard sale. If you’re planning a long trip, a few months before you leave, take everything you don’t need anymore that’s worth more than $30 and list it on Ebay. Take everything that didn’t sell and the cheaper items and have a yard sale – Craig’s list works wonders for getting rid of junk!
8. Take advantage of smart offers. i.e. Credit cards with cash back. I got a Citi Mastercard that gave me 2% cash back on every dollar I spent. I used it for everything and received a check for $600 after the second year. A quick google search for “best (insert your country here) credit cards with cashback” will tell you what’s best at the moment. Caveat: it just occurred to me that not everybody pays their balance in full every month – this one will only make you money if you clear your balance every month. Otherwise, skip it.
9. Get a roommate. Whatever you’re paying in rent right now, imagine paying half of that. Have lots of space? Imagine paying just a third of that. Short term sacrifice (lack of privacy, dirty dishes) for long-term gain (a year off work!). Plus, there’s a lot to be said for shared living.
10. Parent’s house for the transition. Once you’ve amassed most of your nest-egg, there’s no shame in heading to the parent’s house for that period of time between working and setting off. Okay, there’s a little shame, but suck it up. You’ll save money, get home-cooked meals, and the parents will love it.
(Click herefor the original post with explanations of each goal)
Three months into 2011, here are some updates on my goals.
1) Accumulate $22,000 in savings. On payday this coming Friday (and after paying my bills and withdrawing food money for the month) I will be up to almost $8000 in savings. Getting there. Slow and steady. I’ve also picked up a few private lessons on the hush-hush, for about $40 an hour. This should help, but makes my week pretty busy.
2) Write and record a 5-song EP. Pretty much on track with this one. See #4.
3) Revive my blog, Project Hitchhiker. I had mentioned adding a post every Sunday, and so far I’m on track. To be honest though, I’m not really impressed with what I’ve been writing. The last post about stress, for instance, felt like a cop-out because I didn’t feel like writing. Working on a few bigger posts at the moment that should make up for it.
4) Write and record rough demos of at least 2 songs per month. In March I finished writing 2 songs, but haven’t recorded them yet. I’m waiting on buying some new music gear – a new travel guitar w/ pickup (the intonation on the Martin backpacker is driving me crazy — looking at a new Baby Taylor or similar), a new microphone (I’m currently using the built-in mic on my Zoom H4N), and a new Audio Interface for my laptop (as I write this, I’m thinking “Ouch, that’s really going to hurt my bankbook…”)
5) Exercise regularly. I’ve slacklined a few times, and my diet has gotten much healthier since I’ve last written (I’ve cut out added sugar and processed foods almost completely), but as far as exercise goes, I’ve been falling behind. My new apartment location, however, has forced me to bicycle to work and back every day (about 15-20mins each way) which is good.
6) Become a better teacher. A lot of my classes have just ended and I have some time to look at using new textbooks, which will be good for the new semester. I’ve been focusing on giving my students more fluency exercises rather than grammar.
7) Start a songwriting lodge in Hamamatsu. I arranged two songwriters meetings with two other guitar players here in Hamamatsu, but for various reasons they canceled. I’m finding it easy to sell the idea of a songwriter’s lodge, but in practice, people don’t want to spend a whole 12 hours on a songwriting session. I’ll go it alone if I have to…
8) Learn Live Looping with Ableton Live. Have to say I’ve only opened this program 3 times since I wrote about this goal. Fail.
9) Do a long walking trip during my summer vacation. No ideas yet. I’m thinking I might hitchhike instead and camp along the way. Would be good for my Japanese.
10) Write and publish an ebook or self-publish a book in print. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. I’m contemplating something along the lines of Tynan’s Life Nomadic book, about independent travel. Still in the brainstorming stage.
Overall, I give myself a 7 out of 10. Meaning, at this rate, I won’t achieve everything, but I’m pretty happy with my results.
New Goal:
Improve my Japanese. Since coming to Japan, I haven’t really spent a lot of time on Japanese study. It’s so easy as an English teacher to just live in an English Bubble that I neglected it.
After the recent earthquake and tsunami, it occurred me that my Japanese really sucked. I could only understand about 60% of the news on TV and 40% of the news on the radio. Not so useful for an emergency. After that experience I read a book on language learning (Language Learning Hacks – some good info, however overall not recommended) and decided to at the very least try for 2-kyu (level 2) on the Japanese Proficiency Test by next December. Right now my Kanji reading is about 3-ku, so I need to crank it up a bit. This means I’ll be using free time on the train, between classes, etc. to study Kanji and grammar.
At my friend Derek’s suggestion (thanks Derek!), I’ve been watching a lot of anime (Bakuman is pretty great and inspiring, despite being aimed at teens; Kino no Tabi was a great story – it helped that it was about motorcycles and travel) and Japanese soap operas (Orange Days isn’t too bad) to improve my listening. I’ll also be trying to speak to the office staff more in Japanese – they’ve been very helpful with correcting my Japanese in the last week. Pretty excited about this goal.
Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable! Cheers.
This weekend has been a bit hectic, with all the earthquake and tsunami-related stuff going on not too far away. To be clear, I wasn’t directly affected here in Shizuoka (aside from feeling the earthquake), but it was enough to seriously change my weekend plans. On that note, my thoughts are with all the people affected by the tsunamis.
I decided to take a break from writing this week and introduce a monthly series, Unconventional Interviews: conversations with people who are living interesting, outside-the-box lives.
This month’s interview is with Tanissa. In the last ten years, she’s taught English in Korea and China, worked as a divemaster in Thailand, for an NGO in Azerbaijan, as a bike guide in eastern Canada, and even as a volunteer coordinator for the Olympics in Vancouver. She’s traveled all over the world, and she’s just an all-round awesome person. Here’s her interview:
Where are you and what are you doing now?
I am currently in Cape Town, South Africa, doing a three month term placement for my Masters degree.
Of all the places you’ve been, which is your favorite?
It’s hard to pinpoint just one, as every place is steeped with it’s own memories, relationships and experiences specific to the time and reason I was there, so every place has left a lasting impression on me. I would have to say that I have really fallen in love with the East Coast of Canada and that the Caribbean will always hold a piece of my heart, likely because Jamaica was the first place I ever lived/worked in for an extended period of time.
Was there a place that was your least favorite, most disappointing, or most challenging?
Undoubtedly, my time in Azerbaijan was one of the most challenging and frustrating years of my life. The combination of crusty, old-school (Soviet) mentalities, heated tempers and difficult development work was much to endure, which I credit to the support and companionship of my colleagues and good friends there. Visits from family and friends, as well as holidays outside the country, also made a big difference. Despite the challenges and the grief it caused, I still value this time in such a unique part of the world and often find myself longing for a bowl of delicious lentil soup and the random, absurd encounters only found in this part of the world!
What are the rewards of your nomadic lifestyle?
Being stretched outside my comfort zone and growing in new ways. Continously learning more about myself and others. Meeting wonderful and interesting people I might not otherwise associate with, and experiencing the kindness of strangers. A life where nothing is ordinary and every day is an unexpected adventure.
