Who I am
From a small 0.29% —
toward the whole world.
"I want to see everything this world has to offer — and know, one day, that I truly lived."
11
Countries
400+
Days on the road
461
Stories written
5+
ZINEs published
The story
Hi, I'm Hiro. I grew up in Japan — a beautiful country, but just 0.29% of the world.
I wanted to see the other 99.71%. Not as a tourist, but slowly — staying longer, looking closer.
In 2023, I set off for Australia by bicycle with barely a plan. 162 days later, I couldn't stop. Southeast Asia came next: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia.
Along the way, I started writing — the quiet moments, the small conversations, the things guidebooks never mention.
Those notes became this site. Some became ZINEs — small books, one country at a time.
The journey so far
Coverage
How far I've gone
World
Field Mission
What I've Tasted
Ikan Goreng
Kuey Teow Goreng
Rujak
Nasi Katok
The world holds an impossible menu. Ordinary home cooking. Food you'll only find in a market that feels like it shouldn't exist. The drink that only comes out once a year, poured for a wedding or a harvest, in a language I don't speak.
I'll never eat my way through all of it. Nobody could, not in one lifetime. So I've stopped trying to finish the list — I just take it one dish at a time: taste it, learn what's in it, let it sit in me a little longer than a photo ever could.
Logged across 3 countries so far, with more added as the journey continues.
See the Food Checklist, country by country →What drives me
Not how many countries.
How deeply I know each one.
I'm not interested in collecting passport stamps. I'm interested in understanding — the food, the rhythms, the way people think about time and money and connection.
That's why I stay longer. That's why I write. And that's why every ZINE I make is about one specific place, one specific feeling — not a highlight reel, but a real record.
I'm also thinking about what happens beyond travel — how being on the road changes the way you think, the way you handle uncertainty, the way you find calm in the middle of chaos.
Follow the journey