[INTERVIEW]Just with a bicycle and coffee.”Can we be free from money?”❷
A long interview "Part2” with a Japanese bicycle adventurer. It's been a few years since I met him in Portland OR on his journey up and down the west coast of the United States. His philosophy of adventure has undergone a major shift over the past few years. How did the change happen and what impact has it had on him? It could be called “independence from capitalism”,I believe in.
By Sakiko Setaka
With a five-year-old helper Masa met during the free coffee experiment in Tokyo
My own savings, not driven by the economy or a virus
The results of your activities and contributions to society will turn into compensation in the form of money. This allows you to do more of what you want to do. This is the basic structure of capitalism, and it is also its merit. Six years ago, when I met Masa, he was still an adventurer and was certainly searching for something in this capitalist system. But in the course of a journey that started with a near-death experience and the loss of his entire fortune in foreign countries, a journey that connected the value of helping, meeting, and spending time together without asking for anything in return, he was encouraged to deviate from this normal cycle.
“When they took all my money right in front of me, I realized that money can disappear in an instant due to force majeure or something unexpected. Then, as long as you replace your actions with money, you can't escape from that loop”.
That's why Masa asked himself.
"What can I replace money with?”
He stopped his footsteps, which had been rushing forward, and took a slow, deep breath and looked back at his own style of journey = the way of living.
“The answer was obviously not “money”. It was "something” I can leave in my heart. The unique relationships that emerge between me and the people I meet, the conversations we have, and the thoughts I have are my assets, and the accumulation of these relationships is my savings. It is not affected by global pandemic, stocks, or social trends, and no one can take it away from me. It was, above all, a stable asset”
After experiencing a completely new cycle of wealth in foreign countries, different from pay forward and donations, he wanted to experiment with it in Japan, where he was born and raised.
“I didn't want to answer to anyone's expectations anymore, just to do "what I really want to do”"
A “blank space” in his mind replaced by fear
After setting out on a penniless bicycle trip for free coffee with the goal of finding something that would leave a lasting impression on his heart, Masa's first thought was that his heart had gone “freezing cold”.
It was the moment he threw all his money into the bank in Tokyo, took the receipt and walked out the automatic door.
“When I encountered the rush of office workers at Shinbashi station[one of biggest office town in Japan], I almost screamed out. That's because I felt super scared, as if I had been forcibly ripped away from what everyone else takes for granted, or what they think is necessary to live”
Even though it was a trip that he had decided to take, I guess that's why more likely he was scared. Fear is always inextricably linked to curiosity.
Then after two weeks, something unexpected happened to him.
“The rate of giving back increased more than what I needed for my daily life. I realized that as long as I talked about the purpose of the free coffee and say I am "exchanging" for something, it puts pressure on people to give something back. So I decided not to tell people the reason unless they specifically asked”
It wasn't just the number of items that increased. People started leaving money behind one after another, and the amount of money in his possession also increased. What was amazing about him was that he was able to return to the starting point of his journey, which was “not relying on the system of capitalism” .
Yet, If it had been me, I can easily imagine that I would have kept all the money for future use…
However, that was not his case at all.
Then what did he do?
His solution was very simple.
“it would be fun to have a nice cup of coffee and chat with you”
He just told people like that only when asked.
Since then, he had been able to continue traveling lightly with moderate returns. This lightness may have been more about feelings than material things.
“without knowing exactly when, I was completely free from the anxiety of wondering if I would be able to eat tomorrow somehow."
With all that fear and anxiety gone, he had a lot of space in his mind and found the ability to enjoy it to the fullest.
“Before that,I had been looking for a place with a lot of people to make coffee.But It didn't matter if there were people or not, I became to have known intuitively where I fit in.
The hurdles I had set for myself, such as losing my quota and serving coffee only one person for a day is okay, became lower and lower.
After I let go of the "I should do like this" and "I have to be like that," I found myself believig that at the end of the day there was a moment when I thought, "No matter what happens, I'll be fine”.
It was as if I had left the journey, I was on in my mind.
Then, you know, the people I met throw all kinds of things into my blank space [of my mind]]!”
What did people threw into that space?
It was an unexpected encounter. A new guiding intuition, an exchange of feelings that comes from it.
Finally, he realized that the most comfortable way to travel for him was to let the flow of things happen and the people he meet, and to give his body and soul to them without hesitation.
Not only on the streets, but also when he was invited to the homes of people who had helped him and served them coffee.
Bicycle Adventurer. Masa started traveling by bicycle after graduating from college, and has traveled 97,200 kilometers in 37 countries.
Since 2019 visiting Korea, Hong Kong and other countries on a free coffee trip to create human connections through coffee.
He also does talk shows, live lessons from overseas, and bicycle adventure trips with children,and is a traveler who conveys the current state of the world as seen from the street.
https://www.earthride.jp
＊All photos are licensed to Masanori Nishikawa.