Less is more ... — Minimalist Traveler

Over the last months and few reads, after 1 year of work in London. I've chosen to go on travel again for a long period. Why?

I'm 43 year old, single, working in the Visual effect industry and I'm sitting a fair amount of hours in front of the computer all day long.

When basics questions came to you regularly as 'What should I do with my life ?', or 'Does this job is for me?' 'Should I go back to France to live there ?' 'What's next ?'. It's usually time to answers them but that's not that easy. My first thought was: I need to travel?, escape ? discover myself, I don't know.

One day after lunch it hit me! My flat tenancy in London was ending in September, my contract jobs a month later, that seemed to be a perfect timing. So : Let's go! But where ?

Being in Japan last year during a month, I really enjoyed it and felt that I had more to discover there. I've started meditation (yes ... can you imagine a year ago..it changed my life by the way...), Origami and did a lot of read about Japan this year : Zen, Japanese arts, Japanese cultures.

So why not going back to Japan I thought!, but why not take the time to visit all. Starting by Okinawa to do some scuba diving and finishing at Hokkaido to do some skiing. (I know that sound already too expensive....but let see..). South to North.

Three months seemed to me the perfect amount of time to road trip Japan and most important to be back in France for Christmas! Yeah, let's do it :)

Ok, that's one thing to take the decision but that's an other to organize it so it become real. I'm usually a 'doing at the last time possible' person. But here how it worked for me.

First I've started to think about my bag and my last travel back from New-Zealand, 2 suitcases, one backpack, 1 ukulele (you think you'll play some every night, well you won't haha !) and that was a pain to check-in/check-out, find a place to store it. One suitcase was full of my T-shit collection which I never wear since year... but you know : just in case ;)

Never Again! That's when I was thinking about it that I had a look on the internet, thanks to google : 'travel light' ... And I met minimalism .... I had no idea that some peoples could live with that small amount of objects, that sounded crazy to me, who don't need 100 books on his shelves and A collection of 50 T-shirts you never wear. OK, ok ... digging more into google, here I am, some guys are packing a bag with the essential ... That's what I need yeah ! OMG, 4 T-shirts (yes I know that's crazy) / 4 underwear / 1 pair of shoes / 1 Shirt / 4 pair of socks and so on ...

Well... that sound not much but maybe I could try! And I will.

Over the last month, I've started to unclutter my flat, my objective was to live my flat with my 38L backpack,my Scubadiving Gear and avoid to store anything somewhere. Considering the amount of objects I had in the flat, that seemed to me impossible in the first place, I just bought a piano 3 months ago, how funny!

That's started by throwing away what I'm not using and what I cannot give to a charity or sell, basically things that you put on the side because 'I can use it later', well 10 years later it's still standing in your living room! Yes you know this old fashion computer that you were planning to repair one day...or this lovely collection of coffee maker that you will use one day ...

Then I put on the side what I wanted to give to a charity, starting by emptying my wardrobe and put all my cloths on my bed. HA my lovely collection of T-shirt. Ok lets do it! the one I give on this side (the ones I never wear or will wear) and the one I keep on the other one. that's was hard, and I have to do it few time to make my mind, but finally I've ended up with a fair amount of clothes to donate. Putted all in a bag... and boom... go to charity shop, clothes / books / DVDs ... I think that's the first time I entered a charity shop in London and in a way even if what you give is nothing, well it's something, and that gave me a nice feeling.

About the 4 Tshirts / 1 Shirt / 1 Pair of shoes etc.. i have to admit that I'm still not there haha ... but I'm getting there :) I've sold most of what I had, using this money to buy flight and trains tickets.

As my flat became less clutter, I've started to enjoy more and more the empty space. As I was having less and less objects, I felt more and more happy and had a kind of a freedom feeling, hard to describe, but yes.

So here I am, writing this first article for my blog in a beautiful cafe-library in Hampstead, heading to Okinawa in 2 weeks. I'm planning to write few articles along my trip to share my Minimalist experience, my photos and videos.

Apologize for my English and pardon my french ;) But if you made it until the end of this article without burning your eyes ! All good!

Take care ...