A Biohacker's Chronicle: Amsterdam 2023

Private

Nov 4

Written By Tateki Matsuda

Coupon Code TATEKI

Summary & Key Takeaways

I brought my family to Amsterdam for the 2023 Biohacker Summit. My luggage took a detour to Paris; our Dutch friends looked after my kids.
My wife ran a traditional tea ceremony at the VIP dinner and a live Kimono experience at the venue.
I ran into Alistair Overeem—we'd shared the fight card at UFC Fight Night 50 back in September 2014.
The closing ceremony fused a 16th-generation samurai's sword purification, water levitated in microgravity, a Ukrainian Siberian flutist, shamans, and Japanese Zen priests on hand pans.
It left me fired up for the Tokyo Summit 2024.

A Biohacker's Journey: Amsterdam 2023

Amsterdam, the city of canals, welcomed a crowd of biohackers in 2023, and I was glad to be one of them. But the story didn't stay inside the summit halls. It wandered through personal encounters and odd turns of events, a lot like the city's waterways.

We landed in Amsterdam with the family, only to find my luggage had taken a detour to Paris. Even with that rough start, the trip steadied fast—our Dutch friends took my kids under their wing and made the whole thing easy.

The summit was a whirlwind of innovation, but it was my wife who stole the show. She ran a traditional tea ceremony at the VIP dinner and a live Kimono experience at the venue. Her presence, after four long years away from the summit, was a proud moment—the past meeting the future.

One of the sweetest encounters was with a friend I've known since my teenage years, in Amsterdam for a family trip. We both left Japan back in 2004. I didn't expect him to bring his wife and newborn to the summit.

Another one caught me off guard: Alistair Overeem, at the summit venue. Our paths had crossed on the same fight card at UFC Fight Night 50 back in Sep 2014, and running into him here brought the adrenaline of that past right back.

As the days rolled on, I felt real pride for Team Japan. Their work through the biohacker week showed the discipline and inventive spirit of the land of the rising sun. Their execution was exemplary.

As the summit wound toward its close, the closing ceremony became something I still see in my head. A 16th-generation Japanese samurai performed a purification with his ancestral sword, precise and graceful. Scientists from Belarus and Russia levitated water in microgravity to the tunes of a Ukrainian Siberian shamanistic flutist. Shamans from different tribes chanted healing songs for Mother Earth. And Japanese Zen priests, calm in a way only they can be, played hand pans and sang in Sanskrit, weaving a spiritual air over the whole room.

Teemu was crowned the cocar (headdress) of *Yawanawá* spiritual leader (pajé)

As the closing chants mixed with the autumn breeze, something lit up in me for the Tokyo Summit 2024. The whole Amsterdam trip—the mixing of past and future, the camaraderie, the spirit of exploration—turned into a burning anticipation for what Tokyo holds.

Amsterdam 2023 wasn't just a story of a biohacker in a sea of innovation. It was a chapter of personal journeys woven into the biohacking ethos. Every encounter, planned or accidental, every shared laugh and every insight, became a lead-in to the stories waiting in Tokyo. As Amsterdam sits in the gentle autumn sun, this chronicle etches itself not just online, but in the hearts of everyone who lived it, laughed through it, and chased the optimized self in a city where old charm meets futuristic vision.

FAQ

What did Tateki's wife present at the 2023 Amsterdam summit?

A traditional Japanese tea ceremony at the VIP dinner and a live Kimono experience at the venue—her first time back at the summit in four years.

Who did Tateki reconnect with at the summit?

Alistair Overeem, who shared the fight card with Tateki at UFC Fight Night 50 in September 2014, plus a friend he's known since his teenage years.

What happened at the closing ceremony?

A 16th-generation samurai's sword purification, scientists levitating water in microgravity, a Ukrainian Siberian flutist, tribal shamans, and Japanese Zen priests on hand pans singing in Sanskrit.

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