Interview: We found the hipster tourist!
Akasha Wolf Orihara sleeps in a tent and travels all over the world. Mbl.is/ Eggert Jóhannesson
The tourist, photographed on Laugavegur for the cover of Tuesday's edition of Morgunblaðið wearing unusual outdoor gear and carrying a sheepskin has been found. His name is Akasha and he's a New Yorker.
"Some woman told me I was on the cover of the newspaper and I didn't believe her," explains Akasha laughingly after having being found again yesterday by Morgunblaðið photographer Eggert Jóhannesson. "I then went into a café and saw the paper. "
Speaking to mbl.is this morning, he explains that he's been travelling all around the world for the last five years. He's staying in a tent and hasn't decided when to leave Iceland.
Like so many other tourists, Akasha is here to see Icelandic nature. "I want to see almost everything here. It's quite funny, when I got photographed for that cover picture I'd only been here for two days. I haven't even left the city yet."
That cover of Morgunblaðið! mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
"I think I'll stay here until I want to go somewhere else," he says. He's just arrived from New York but before that, he lived briefly in Finland and in Tokyo, Japan. "I just go wherever I please," he explains. "I don't need much. I have an iPod and a phone and sleep outside. Last night was freezing but that's ok, I've got plenty of winter gear, a tent for snowy conditions and a sleeping bag, and my clothes are all made from natural materials, wool and skin, which are best for keeping warm. He tells mbl.is that he's aware of the fact that he doesn't look like the archetypical tourist to Iceland who comes here for a week, takes a few coach trips and then leaves. "That's not how you connect with your environment. I want to breathe in this country and the surroundings."
"There are plenty of people like me who travel and do incredible things," he explains adding that over the past five years he's changed his lifestyle a lot. "I eat less meat and don't need a lot."
The cover shot on Morgunblaðið showed Akasha carrying a sheepskin. "It's not actually a rug, it's my coat. It's a Nepalese sheepskin coat which I wear all the time. Last night I slept underneath it because it was so cold." He intends to travel around South and East Iceland. "I think I'll stay where it's warmest," he says, adding that he's intrigued by the number of swimming pools and how cheap they are to go to.
