Season Two Episode Five

Introducing Jessica Korteman, Legend of Solo Travel. Jessica Korteman is an Australian travel writer, formerly based in Tokyo, Japan, now residing in Melbourne, Australia. She’s travelled to more than 50 countries, about half of them solo, and circumnavigated the globe three times – once by plane, once by ship and the other mostly overland.

***We talk about child loss in this show. So please take extra special care when you are listening***

In this podcast we talk about:

• Her upbringing in the countryside and experiencing the cycles of life through animals and playing out in the neighbourhood
• How she got interested in travel as a child - where those childhood hunches and interests lead and how she followed them
• The humanities and her strong draw to International Studies
• Speaking Indonesian and the presence of Indonesian culture in her life through the years
• Following her instincts and intuition and making unusual and bold choices
• What she learned form working in the Lady’s shoe department and Tech departments of a department Store in both her home town and Melbourne
• Getting a job translating Indonesian during university
• Quitting that job traveling the world - expect Indonesia lol
• The seeds of their love for and living in Japan
• The special story of the Empire State Building  during her University gap year hen finishing and getting married
• Their move to Japan and decision to take extended time away from each other while Jess went to Peaceboot
• Return from Peaceboat and volunteering in Tohoku after the 2011 North East Japan Earthquake 
• How Indonesia cycled back into her life and she finally visited!
• Her marriage and how they are rooted in deep deep respect for one another and baked-in freedom
• How her Blog (story telling platform) blossomed and grew and how excited she was telling those stories
• The exponential growth of the Social Media and the business and how they created so much content and became top 50 travel Blogger in the world (Quick fire - what are her most popular posts and how many views they have)
• Dedication
• Starting a family and losing her first baby in Taiwan (My Miscarriage Story: What Nobody Tells you About Miscarriage & Our daughter's birth story)
• Leaving Japan and the heartbreaking loss people feel when they leave Japan
• Return to Melbourne and starting a new life
• COVID!
• What’s going on now and pivoting the business and following their sense of possibility as Melbourne comes out of strict lockdown and reinventing
• Ancestry and her husbands journey as a refugee from Vietnam
• Follow your inner voice and those little breadcrumbs to find what kind of information or helloing - believe in magic and Let it be huge - let those little things be sustenance - find out more about your self and more about who you are and don’t worry about what society says you should be doing - buck those trees

“I’m in a position to do more harm or do more healing”

Find Jessica here:

Notes of Nomads Blog

Facebook

@notesofnomads

YouTube

Travel Solo Anyway

Travel Solo Anyway Facebook

@travelsoloanyway