July 26th, 2011 Part2 @Glasgow, Scotland---Osaka, Japan
Coming back to home sweet home after three-and-half month trip.
It will take time to digest all the experiences I went through, but definitely it was worth doing.
Just wanted to show my gratitude to all the staff of street paper I visited and the vendors who shared their wisdom and philosophy from the street.
Since coming back to Japan, I keep facing the reality of 3-11 aftermath, and all the proverbs from the street really encouraged me to go through it.
Dreaming of the day when I can visit African and North & South American street papers too…

Special Thanks to:
Seoul, Korea／”The Big Issue Korea”, Lee Kijin, Sunnie Park
Taipei, Taiwan／”The Big Issue Taiwan”
Manila, Philippines／”Jeepney”, Simon Song
St. Petersburg／”Put Domoi”, Maya&Sasha
Oslo, Norway／”＝Oslo”, Per Kristian
Copenhagen, Denmark／”Hus Forbi”
Neumunster, Germany／”Die Jerusalemmer”, Andreas Family
Utrecht, Netherlands／”Straat Nieuws”
Amsterdam, Netherlands／”Z!”, Tomoko Take（http://www.tomokotake.net/）、Kingalita(http://www.myspace.com/kingalita)
Paris, France／”Macadam”
Salzburg, Austria／”Apropos”、Monica Pink
Munich, Germany／”BISS”
Berlin, Germany／Tomo Miichi（http://www.tram-magazin.de/article/54983473.html）、Manami Miura(http://punktchen-m.blogspot.com/）、Jun Nabara
Poznan, Poland／”Gazeta Uliczna”
Prague, Chez Republic／”Novy Prostor”, Daniella, Yuko
Vienna, Austria／Masayo
Bratislava, Slovakia／”Notabene”
Budapest, Hungary／”Flaszter”
Oradea, Romania／Mihwa & Branc Family, Michiko
Belgrade, Serbia／”LiceUlice”
Ljubljana, Slovenia／”Kralji Ulice”
Bolzano, Italy／Mocchi family
Milan, Italy／"Terre di Mezzo", Hisako
Glasgow, Scotland／INSP(http://www.street-papers.org/)
Edinburgh, Scotland／Homeless World Cup(http://www.homelessworldcup.org/)
Japan／"The Big Issue Japan"（http://www.bigissue.jp/）

July 22nd, 2011 Part2 @Glasgow, Scotland
Tonight is the night! Yes, conference is getting be over with a grand finale, “INSP Award.” The best interview award of this year was “Fighting back” by Philly street paper, “One Step Away.” The article was written by a homeless guy, Jose Espinosa. He interviewed with a former boxing light heavyweight world champion, Matthew Saad Muhammad, while the laureate was staying at a homeless shelter in Philadelphia. (http://www.streetnewsservice.org/news/2011/july/feed-289/fighting-back.aspx)
Applauses from all the delegates to the prize winners were so warm and encouraging.
Eating, laughing, talking, sharing, networking and Scottish dancing! The INSP conference 2011 had finished and all the delegates scattered to the streets of their own countries.

July 22nd, 2011 Part1 @Glasgow, Scotland
Had opportunity to talk with Juan who was the director of Colombian street magazine, “La calle.” He told me that each issue had the voices from the street…with slang! This Bogota-based magazine comes out every three months and is sold by twenty vendors.
“My dream is to make everyone’s lives qualified,” Juan, who has been an activist for sex workers and drug users, said with a gentle smile.

July 21st, 2011 Part2 @Glasgow, Scotland
At BBC Scotland, an exhibition called “Eyes of the street” was held. All the pictures were taken by award-winning photographer, David Burnett, and vendors of The Big Issue in Scotland for ten days. The pictures capture smell and breeze of the street, and viewers seemed to be feeling the temperature and humidity of it too.
　Being asked “Do you think this exhibition will affect how Scotland sees its homeless population?” by INSP, David replied like this; we don’t go out and feel like we’ve totally changed the world, but the littlest changes affecting the fewest number of people will always have the greatest impact in the end….as all the technology has taken over in the last twenty years, a lot of that person-to-person touch has been lost, and I think maybe this will make some tiny little step in bringing back some of that personal contact.”
(http://www.streetnewsservice.org/news/2011/july/feed-290/exclusive-interview-with-david-burnett.aspx)
At the site, there were numbers of circle of viewers to talk each other about the exhibitions.

July 21st, 2011 Part1 @Glasgow, Scotland
Rose is the only vendor who joined the INSP conference this year. She is selling a Canadian street paper “Victoria News” and writing a column for it too.
Living as a first people, she always looks so peaceful. Couldn’t help asking her the secret. “I always think that trials I can’t stand will not be appearing in front of me. I also believe that you can learn something from all experiences you’ve been through.”
“These days, people tend to be dying for immediate results. However, if you receive something today, it took a long journey to get to you. If you do something today, the result will be coming after a long time.”
I was gravitated to this street philosophy class by the river all day long.

July 20th, 2011 @Glasgow, Scotland
The annual conference of International Network of Street Papers(INSP) unfolded with hugs and chats. Eighty people from twenty-nine countries got together into Glasgow this year. We are going to spend three days and nights to share the wisdom and ideas through workshops and networking.
Talked with Samba with The Big Issue Zambia in the midst of conference. She said that forty vendors of 18 through 35 years old were mostly unemployed and didn’t have any means of income and access to education and medical service.
Not only bad news but Samba also shared a bright one too. One of the vendors, 20-year-old Rodgers, became a photographer. “He was so intrigued by pictures of our magazine and finally his dream came true!”
Some people wonder if the scheme of street magazine is working out in Africa, because severe financial situation sometimes forces African papers to be closed. “68 percent of our nation is suffering poverty, though some foreigners and middle-class people buy and read our magazines. My dream is to be a bigger voice of the voiceless people,” Samba said.

July 18th, 2011 @Milan, Italy
Visited Milan-based street magazine, Terre di Mezzo again, and happened to meet Miriam, one of the founders.
When I came here a few days ago, an editor Andrea told me that most of the vendors were from Senegal. Migrants are prone to be a political issue everywhere these days, however, Miriam are expecting that Terre di Mezzo will be a tool for encountering and having a dialogue with a vendor and a reader as human beings.
I popped up the question, “Isn’t it hard to work with somebody with different language and culture?”, but Miriam replied with her proverb she learnt from the street, “Respecting each other is the start of communication.”
Terre di Mezzo began hosting an annual event of Fa’la cosa guista!, where producers of fair trade, alternative energy, and organic vegetables got together with citizens. In 2008, they say 50,000 people visited there. This Milan-based street magazine will be making a bigger circle of community from now on too.