About Me

Who is Shinji Sverige?

Thanks for visiting my blog.

I own multiple blog websites as an independent professional blogger.

Please also check WORK WITH SHINJI SVERIGE for offering a job for me.

Dr Aeropress is the blog operated by me and you can learn

Everything about Aeropress
Home Barista Basic Tips
Coffee Shops around the world

with Dr Aeropress.

I am Japanese born and raised in Japan.

If I explain myself in one sentence, it will be like this;

A Japanese traveller who is obsessed with coffee, minimalism and travelling./

What I love about my life is I have a chance to...

visit many places on this globe.
taste great cups of coffee.
be able to be a minimalist to make my life comfortable.

I love writing articles to share the information or tips that I got from my experiences especially travelling, coffee and minimalism.

So, let's take a look at who I am by dividing my past life into 3 parts.

By the way, I will explain why my family name is Sverige (Meaning "Sweden" in Swedish).

My Past Chapter 1 ( Age 0-18 )

(I HEREBY HOLD THE BEAR DOLL)

I was born in a city called Kobe, Japan in 1993.

One thing astonishing about myself is that I started speaking when I was 8 months old repeating the word "clock" in Japanese.

My parents were so surprised about this and they thought I may have a potential talent regarding the language and next month, I was in the English conversational school.

Grew up like others, and went from elementary school to high school in Japan.

Since junior high, I had been playing Baritone Sax.

Actually, the sax ensemble I was in, has passed the prefectural contest and we were 2 more steps to the national competition. (Hope I was not the reason that we couldn't pass further lol)

At this moment, I was thinking of the musical university, but after I knew I was not that "super-good", I decided to take an exam for the regular 4 years uni.

My Past Chapter 2 ( Age 18-22 )

(This is me in Taipei, Taiwan )

So, chapter 2 is the beginning of my life; the truth of myself.

I have chosen the faculty called "language and foreign cultural study", and my parents were so sure that I would find something here; why? because we had to spend a whole year of the second grade in a foreign country.

I chose States (Salt Lake City, Utah), to discover the nature of the American continent.

Road trip with international students was so much fun

I have been to many national parks and states during my stay in America.

Boston, New Mexico, SF, Yellowstone national park, etc... Countless.

Yellowstone National Park

After coming back from States, I became 3rd grade and I wanted to make my last summer vacation the best.

(In, Japan 4th year uni students are busy with job hunting so 3rd-year summer vacation is technically the last summer vacation of their life.)

I was looking for an internship program and the country Taiwan was the one for me.

I had (still have) many Taiwanese friends, so I choose to teach Japanese at the Taiwanese high school as an intern for 3 months.

I spend a great time teaching Japanese to kids in Taiwan and interacting with many others from different countries.

A year and a half passed, and I was wearing my fresh suit to work at the Japanese Teleco Company in Tokyo.

My Past Chapter 3 ( Age 23-29 )

Look how fresh he is...

After spending 3 years at the telecom company as a sales, I quit as planned.

My goal when I was 22 years old was to become an entrepreneur.

My passion that I can notice by myself was and still is only towards three things;

Travel, Coffee, and Music.

To make it profitable, I decided to focus on Coffee.

Before registering my company in Tokyo, I wanted to go abroad again because I knew I will be very busy having my own company.

I went to China and Mongolia for sightseeing; actually visiting my friends in both countries was the main reason.

(me freezing in the middle of Mongolia)

people selling fruits and veggies in the street of China

Me with Chinggis Khaan Statue

After coming back from my trip, I registered my own company in Tokyo.

Me doing a Barista business in Tokyo

I was offering a Barista catering service and coffee machine renting service to companies in Tokyo with 2 other baristas.

It was just fun to have my own company and put every single energy into it.

Why Shinji started his blog?

Since the Covid pandemic happened, I could not continue my coffee business anymore because how we provided the service was nothing but physical contact such as brewing the coffee in front of the people...

When Covid happened and the Japanese government announced an emergency alert, in two weeks I lost all of my clients.

Luckily I saved a little money to survive for a couple of months, so I wasn't dead financially immediately.

Losing my own business was very painful for me.

For about a month, I had no idea what I'm going to do next, or do I want to do something next rather than put my passion into my own business.

Also, I started thinking about the lifelong goal that I really want to achieve.

It is "to live in a foreign country"

Me walking down a Japanese street

After losing my own business I decided to take a month's vacation in order not to do anything. Just to take a rest.

Then I realized that to promote my coffee business, I was also focusing on web marketing.

(Me finding the train at Mongolia / China border. Japanese government helped to construct it)

I was writing a blog that was doing that direct response marketing, and I realise that I can do something related to the web for web marketing from my home.

That moment was the second mind blow moment that I realized I could work fully from home.

So, I talked to some of my friends who own the company and one of them offered me a job related to web marketing.

While doing that job, I felt like I want to have my own blog again, and I want it to make it something related to my life deeply.

Chapter 4: Shinji became a travelling minimalist (age29- present)

Now, I am an extreme (that's what my family tells me) travelling minimalist.

Losing my business was a huge pain for me, and I was really thinking about what is important for me and what is not.

Then I realized that things such as clothes, books old objects from a long time ago are not that important for me if I compare them with the time I spent with my friends all the time I travel.

After this realization, I became to think of a way to try to enrich my life not by having a lot of objects but by having enough time and enough mental space to accept the future.

This was my turning point to becoming a minimalist.

The first thing I did was categorize the things I need and things I don't need.

It took about a half year to give up things that I have been owning for a long time, but I have never regretted this decision.

Coffee is beautiful, isn't it?

Owning less than 50 objects as my own is my concept and key policy, so I have a note to count how many objects I have right now.

By the way, counting your position will prevent from you buying extra things which you wouldn't need.

My Life Goal

Beautiful Sakura in Japan

So, as mentioned previously, my lifelong goal is to live in a foreign country and I was thinking about where to live...

There are so many countries out there and as I keep on my research, Sweden (Sverige) sounds very suitable for me.

The culture of FIKA, how society is moving, how people are acting, etc... I have some Swedish friends and as I have been talking to them, the sense of "I might fit in" is growing inside me.

Memorial moment of my arrival at the city where I am living right now.

I moved to Sweden in Jan. 2023, but this time I have applied for the Working Holiday VISA to see whether the Swedish lifestyle suits me or not.

So this time validity of the VISA will be only 12 months, but I think 12 months will be something enough to experience through the whole year of lifestyle experience

On my way from Stockholm to Umeå, the beautiful northern part of Sweden.

During my stay in Sverige (Sweden), I will travel to other European countries, so I would like to make those articles to share with you as well.

Also, as a serious minimalist, I am very motivated to share many tips related to minimalism, digital detox and other small subcategories related to minimalism.

Life is once, make it into something extremely fun.

Shinji Sverige 9.Feb. 2023