Countries I Want to Visit

How many of you like to travel? I would love to visit every country in the world. Yes, even the dangerous ones, as long as they’re not dangerous in the future. But there are some that I absolutely want to go to within the next ten years.

Below is a video where I describe the countries I want to visit. You’re welcome to read the list below the video, but you won’t get the reasons or why some of these countries are special to me. So, watch the video!

And here are the countries:

• Norway
• Germany
• The UK
• Ireland
• Russia
• Iceland
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Costa Rica
• Italy

So, which countries do you want to visit, and why? Let me know in the comments section below.

Reading International Books

I’ve talked about reading books from around the world before. You can go ahead and suggest more books from various countries. However, I discussed on YouTube about international books that I have read. It’s part of a new tag I started called the International Book Tag. Take a look.

So, I’d like to know about you. What books from various countries have you read? Let me know in the comments below.

Talking to Every Country

Have you ever wanted to visit every country in the world? That’s a very difficult thing to do, considering travel restrictions to some countries, but also the amount of money it would take to do so. It’s unlikely I would ever be able to do it.

One person tried reading the world, and succeeded. I have a bit of a challenge for myself to read a book from every country, as well. That’s not an easy thing to do, though.

But what about talking to someone from each country? I would have to wonder how to go about doing that. How do you contact people from every country? For many, it would be easy to just email someone. But for some, access to the internet is limited, and mail may be more feasible. But you know what? There’s a young boy in England named Toby who’s doing just that. For the past three years, since he was five years old, he’s been sending letters to people in as many countries as possible, and it seems he gets replies from nearly half of them. That’s pretty good!

It has me thinking. I’ve tried in the past getting comments from people from as many countries as I could, but it’s not easy getting the word out. So, knowing what kind of person and my interest in countries and geography, I don’t give up easily. I’d like to find blogs of people who live in as many countries as possible and compile a list. Searching will find many, but I’d like to focus on those that talk about books and writing or life and travel in those countries. And I won’t just stick to countries. For some countries, I’ll even include states, provinces, and territories.

So, if you’re reading this, I’d like your help in getting this started. Please leave a comment below with your blog’s address and where you’re from. If possible, please include your state, province, territory, prefecture, or another division within your country. And another favour to ask of you: Please share this post on social media or with your friends. I wonder how far we can go. And maybe you’ll find some interesting blogs, as well.

What’s In a Family Name?

Family names are interesting. In many cultures, they tell a story about your family history. In Japan, they often refer to where your family comes from, rather than a job. In England, it tells about your ancestor’s job. But what about other countries?

If I look at my family name, I can tell that someone in my family’s history was an archer. Someone used a bow and arrow. I don’t know when it happened, but that’s where the name originates from.

So, if you’re willing to disclose your family name, what country is it from, and what’s the story behind it? Let’s discuss this in the comments below.

The Global Community of Blogging

I love to connect with people from all around the world. I’m curious about different cultures and enjoy speaking to people who are from different backgrounds than I am. It’s fascinating. And I feel that the better we know each other, and the more we understand that many of us have the same feelings and thoughts, the better the world will be.

Blogging has allowed me to talk to people from different countries. Of course, I live in Japan, and most of the visitors to this blog are American, Canadian, British, and Australian, but there are many representatives of India, Singapore, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Russia, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Nigeria. But there are more from many other countries who drop by here.

So, I’d like to ask you where you’re from. Which country are you from, and where do you live now? Also, where have you been and made friends? Let’s see how global we are. Answer in the comments below.

A Book for Every Country

It’s been four weeks since I posted a request for the best books from your countries. I’ve received some good responses, and have covered the expected countries, but some surprising ones, too.

I now have recommendations from the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, and Nigeria. Nigeria? Yes! I know a lot of my readers are from India, Germany, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Australia. I know some of you from New Zealand, Malaysia, France, and Russia. I’d love to hear your recommendations, too. So, please go to my original post and give me a recommendation. That would be wonderful.

Also, please share the original post. If you have Facebook, you can share this Facebook post.

In the near future, I’m going to begin keeping a list of the books and authors that have been recommended to me, and updating frequently. I think I’ll have a map showing the countries that have been included so far.

Without you, this project can’t go forward. So, please do what you can to let others know about it, and I’ll be able to make a great list of books. Eventually, I’ll narrow them down to the ones I’m most interested in, and I’ll attempt to read them.

Any comments? Leave them below. However, if you have a book suggestion, please leave them in the original post.

What Is Your Country’s Best Literature?

The Iliad, Greece

One of my challenges is to read a book from every country. But I have no idea where to start. What books are good to read? I’ve mostly read books from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and a handful from other countries like Japan and Greece. I want to know what is out there. It’s difficult to choose. So, I need your help. I need a lot of people’s help.

Here’s what I propose. It’s very simple. All you need to do is leave a comment stating which country you’re from and which book you’d recommend from your country. It could be a book that defines literature in your country, or it could be a book that’s your favourite. Anything is fine, as long as you’d recommend it.

Second, and this is important, I’m asking you to share this post with your friends and family. Do it on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Reddit, WordPress, StumbleUpon, anything. I want to see how far this goes. I want to see which countries this reaches, and what books everyone recommends. If you can do that, it would be wonderful, and I would appreciate it very much.

Once this is done, I’ll compile a reading list that I’ll attempt. I’m hoping to have a great list of books. Thank you very much. I’m excited to see where this goes.

Let the recommendations begin!

Quick Facts Geography Preview

I’m itching to get started on Quick Facts Geography. I have a few ideas about how I’d like to do it, as well as what I want to include. For each country, I’ll provide facts and information that you can quickly find, rather than having a wall of text to search through.

So, here is what I’m thinking about including:

Country Basics

• Country name, origin of name, and name in official language.
• Official language(s)
• Map (Google Maps embedded)
• Flag
• Official religion (if available)

By the Numbers

• Population
• Area
• Year of independence
• Highest point (with picture)
• Lowest point
• Borders with neighbours
• Coastline
• Administrative divisions
• Life expectancy at birth
• Literacy
• Human Development Index

Cities

• Five largest cities with population and pictures (these will be public domain or shareable via Creative Commons).

Physical Geography

• Description of general areas: mountain ranges, major lakes, major rivers, etc.

Environment

• Climate zones (Koppen classifications)
• Average high and low for hottest and coldest months at selected locations.

Some information may not be included, some may be added. This is not a complete list, and is subject to change.

So, I would like some suggestions from you. What would you like to see included in Quick Facts Geography? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

Reaching Out to the World Again

I just checked out which countries my blog’s visitors have come from since country stats started to be recorded. Here’s the map.

There are some interesting places that aren’t included. No Paraguay. A lot of Africa is absent. A bit of central Asia.

So, time to reach out to the world again! Please go to this post and follow the instructions. I want to know where you’re from. Let me know in the comments on that post, and I’ll add your country to the list. And please share that post so we can get word out to more people! Thank you.

Real and Fictional Geography Preview

As I mentioned before, I’ll be working on Geography Quick Facts and the Ariadne Encyclopedia’s country profiles at the same time. So, here’s a comparison between Earth and Ariadne.

Earth

Number of countries (official): 193

Total land area: 148,326,000 square kilometres

Largest country: Russia (17,075,200 square kilometres)

Smallest country: Vatican City (0.44 square kilometres)

Number of continents: 7 (Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Australia/Oceania, Antarctica)

Number of oceans: 5 (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Southern)

Ariadne

Number of countries (official): 249

Total land area: 150,930,246 square kilometres

Largest country: Name to be revealed (3,336,638 square kilometres)

Smallest country: Name to be revealed (630 square kilometres)

Number of continents: 4 (Ipeiros, Voreios, Tropikos, Notos)

Number of oceans: 4 (Tethys, Thetis, Proteus, Nereus)

As you can see, the land area is surprisingly similar. I didn’t plan it this way, it just turned out like that after measuring the land area of each country. There are also fewer continents and oceans on Ariadne, though its largest continent, Ipeiros, is huge. At 103,001,817 square kilometres, it’s larger than Asia’s 44.58 million square kilometres, and Eurasia’s 54.76 million square kilometres. It’s a supercontinent!

As I go through each country on each planet, you’ll get to discover many more stats, facts, and information that should be interesting. What are you interested in finding out?