Prologue: Life's Times Embraced by Travel

Part 1 Me: As I navigate life

1.
The Power of Solo Travel: Life is Alone After All
2.
Finding the perfect space: What's there to do in Lisbon?
3.
Slow Travel Binds Me: Drifting Along the Mekong River
4.
Meeting the Best Human Being: Michelangelo, Finding Another Me
5.
My true colors revealed on the road: foolishness, obsession, and trauma

Part 2: Allow Freedom and Adventure

6.
Couples Travel Is Dangerous: Splitting Up in Slow City Luang Prabang
7.
Traveling with a Child is Special: A Special Time to Talk About Death
8.
Filial piety travel is a mission for everyone: finding the latent desires of mothers and fathers.
9.
The romance of traveling with a dog: Are we family if we don't travel together?

Part 3: The Journey: The Choice is Mine

10.
Poor Travel vs. Rich Travel: Is It All About Money and Time?
11.
A Stranger's Joke: We'll Never Meet Again, So We Connect
12.
A New Beginning with Stay Travel: It Could Have Been a Different Life
13.
Trips I missed, couldn't do, couldn't do: If I had gone, would I have been different?
14.
The Blessings and Curses of Digital Corner Travel: Should You Go?

Epilogue: Was it just a trip? I'm writing a travel prologue again.

Special Appendix: Kim Jin-ae's Urban Travel Guide

1.
Dilettante Style: Until the Stone Talks to You
2.
Pro Style: For that 'flash' moment
3.
High-class style: everywhere and nowhere

The driving force behind Kim Jin-ae's unstoppable energy is
It's time to travel!

The various adjectives used to describe Kim Jin-ae reveal the breadth of her life, which cannot be simply summarized.
He graduated from Seoul National University's Department of Architecture in his 20s, received a PhD in Urban Planning from MIT in his 30s, founded 'Seoul Forum', and in his 40s, he was the only Korean selected as one of '100 Next Generation Leaders' by Time magazine, raising expectations.
In his 50s, he was active in the 18th National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, and in his 60s, he was active in the 21st National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee. He then surprised the world by stepping down from his National Assembly seat and running for mayor of Seoul.
Although he is now widely known as a politician, his main occupation was urban architecture, and the Insa-dong alley and the first new town, which he designed and built while traveling the field throughout his life, formed representative architectural spaces in Korea.
Utilizing that experience, as a member of the National Assembly, he traveled to various areas of the Four Major Rivers Project to uncover the truth about overdevelopment, demonstrating how the role of experts can contribute to society.
In addition, he has contributed greatly to forming a public forum for urban architecture through planning, publishing, writing, and webzines.


In this book, you can see the secrets of how he, who has shown extraordinary drive and vitality to the point of being nicknamed 'Kim Jin-ae Energy', found the driving force of his life in 'Time for Travel'.
For Kim Jin-ae, traveling was a time to reexamine everyday relationships and reflect on them from a distance.
He confesses that the extraordinary experience of traveling has become a mirror that reflects his daily life, and reflects on his entire life experience to see how traveling has provided him with rich material and themes.
Travel provided him with insights and a path to breakthrough at every crucial stage in his life, from when he dreamed of majoring in architecture while attending Ewha Girls' High School in the 1960s to when he was balancing parenting and studying while struggling financially while studying abroad.
As you follow the story in this book, you will learn the brilliant wisdom of travel and life, learning what it means to take charge of your own life rather than simply accepting what is given to you.


Solo travel, family travel, business travel, etc.
The special benefits that various trips provide us

Part 1 is a story about how a human being called 'I' grows through time spent traveling.
Among all the different types of travel, the author considers solo travel to be the best, and honestly shares his experiences to explain why solo travel is necessary in life.
Having lived his entire life coordinating relationships with countless people, he defines his life as "a life I'm going to live alone anyway," which is impressive for its boldness and coolness. He emphasizes that solo travel is the most effective way to build the strength to navigate the challenges of life.
He also talks about how solo travel is a valuable opportunity to discover one's own foolishness, obsessions, and traumas, and reveals that the time spent traveling is the time to discover aspects of oneself that one never knew existed.


Part 2 explores how our everyday relationships are amplified, revealed, or rediscovered through travel.
From couples' trips, family trips, filial piety trips, and business trips, we share specific tips on how to reframe travel with others—a time filled with stress—into a time to discover new possibilities for your relationships.
Part 3 is about our choices about travel.
Travel involves countless choices.
Many of the choices we make when traveling—how much to budget, where to go, how long to stay, what style of accommodation to stay—reflect our values, tastes, and style.
The author suggests that we examine our choices, knowing that travel is a process in which all of life's experiences are integrated and chosen.


What kind of traveler are you,
What kind of traveler will you be?

In the special appendix, ‘Kim Jin-ae’s City Travel Guide’ is presented separately.
Kim Jin-ae divides travelers into three stages (dilettante style, professional style, and expert style) and suggests travel methods suited to each stage.
Of course, there's no single right way to travel, nor is there a single, easy way to divide it into categories. However, the author hopes that these distinctions will encourage individuals to examine their own travel styles.
His city travel tips, which he organizes in a clear and concise manner, as if he were a daily lecturer, are not only clear but also persuasively conveyed with insight and wisdom gleaned from countless experiences.


Kim Jin-ae prefers city trips to nature trips.
He confesses that his professional background as an urban architect played a role in his preference, but that he finds it much more interesting to understand the dynamics of the human mind, nature, and desire, their greatness and futility, than to understand the principles of the universe or the mysteries of nature.
The interest in humanity he spoke of would soon be nothing other than affection for humanity.
This book gently conveys the hope that readers will embrace the adventure of opening themselves to the unfamiliar experiences they encounter on their travels, and the precious truth that this is how to cherish one's own life.
While reading this book, I hope that those who enjoy traveling will feel inspired to travel in a different way than before, and even those who do not enjoy traveling will be able to experience the pleasant excitement that travel brings.