This is actually a collection of mini-albums from lots of different trips I took while in Japan. I went travelling around Tohoku most weekends, and had so many experiences and met so many people that I'd like to put in here, but as this was still in my pre-digital camera life, a lot of photos were taken with disposables, weren't scanned, or aren't accessible right now. One day I'll organize them all!!

The timing was perfect. I moved to Japan just a few months before Kensuke's wedding in Tokyo. Kensuke's father and my father were classmates back in the day and our families have remained close. Ken and I have always got along really well and since I never got the big brother I asked my parents for, I kind of adopted him as my "Japanese brother". After not seeing each other for years (2 in the case of Ken and 6 in the case of Mari, his sister), we were finally reunited! In addition to getting to attend my very first wedding ever, November was also the time I was feeling a bit lonely and it was nice to be reminded that I have a family in Japan who I can speak with, visit, and who lets me wash the dishes so I don't feel like a guest!

Here is Kensuke with his fabulous new bride Yukako. Don't you love his tux?! Yukako is one of those rare people who is not only friendly, easy to talk with and cool, but who loves music as much as I do, which means we get along great! They had a beautiful ceremony in what looked like an old English mansion in the middle of Tokyo!

In the summer of 1990, I did an exchange to the south of Japan to participate in a "Junior Summit Camp". Part of the experience involved doing a homestay with a Japanese family. When I met my host family, I found out that their oldest daughter was also named Naomi and that we were the same age. Unfortunately we were unable to communicate much as I spoke no Japanese and she spoke no English. We did stay in touch though, and when I had a chance to, I went to visit. Here I am with Naomi on her family's boat. The building in the background is the summit camp building from all those years ago!

Happily, since the last time we'd seen each other, my Japanese had improved enough that we could communicate and find out that we have something in common! We both love music!! Naomi studied singing at a university in Tokyo and was able to recommend all kinds of great Japanese artists to me. We now get along really well and email each other often. Naomi is getting married in February 2003! Congratulations:)

After a big JET conference in Kobe prefecture, instead of taking the train straight back, a bunch of us took the "scenic route" through Osaka (a fabulous place, I must add) and spent a day at Universal Studios Japan. It was an incredibly hot day and the lines for the rides were insane (I think we waited more than 2 hours to go on the Jurassic Park ride). It was great fun though, especially at the end of the day when all the crowds went to see the fireworks and we were able to do the Jurassic Park ride 3 times in 20 minutes because there were no lines!!! Here we are at the end of the day.

It just so happened that I ended up spending the day with all the kiwis! It was a bit weird at first as I couldn't understand anything they were saying, but once I figured out that "bid", "bed" and "beard" are all the same word, that to "pack a sad" is a bad thing and "sweet as" is good, everything started making sense...sweet as! Here are Emily, Ang and Steve, posing for this picture...or photo...as they wait in one of the interminable lines...or queues...whatever!

One thing I was sure I was going to miss in Japan was horseback riding. I did some research before leaving Canada and discovered that it would be way too expensive a hobby to keep up, as the average cost of renting a horse is about 100yen/minute. That would make a one hour ride cost 6,000yen, which at the time was about $75 Canadian! Not to mention the transportation costs and all that, as I didn't have a car! Luckily, I met a great Australian guy called Clarrie, who owns Regroup Stables in Iwate. He was kind enough to let me hack around on some of his horses and do some jumping too! Here I am on Chatlan, a pony with a huge heart. Isn't he cute?!

In the autumn of 2001, there was a showjumping competition at Regroup Stables. I went to watch, but Clarrie convinced me to compete. I rode Clarrie's retired Grand Prix horse and we actually won our class! That gave me the confidence to start riding more, and I was excited to compete in the spring show too. This picture is of me riding Julius, a huge gangly guy who I got along with really well. He was great and we ended up with 1st place and even some prize money! Aside from the competition though, being able to go up to Clarrie's on the weekends, talk about horses and ride as much as I liked kept me sane and I really REALLY appreciate it. Thanks Clarrie!

I was very fortunate in my job to have a boss who thought that it was important for foreign English teachers to gain an understanding of Japan in addition to teaching their students about their home country. Because of that, I was given many opportunities to travel, take part in the community and so on. One of the greatest things the principal of Ichinoseki First High School did for me, was to allow me to be a supervising teacher on the annual cultural trip to Hiroshima, Nara and Kyoto with my second year students. It was an incredible experience.

I got to see some fascinating, beautiful, and sombre places, such as the famous "floating" shrine on Miyajima island. The view from the temple is considered to be one of the three most beautiful in Japan. I also went to the Atomic Bomb museum in Hiroshima, where I realized the devastation that can be caused by nuclear weapons and where I saw my students weep.
When I had a day to myself, I visited Fushimi Inari Taisha, a temple in Kyoto. The tunnel of red gates in the photo stretches for miles, and as you walk through it, you get the feeling that it is pulsing with life; kind of eerie.

After at least a week of hard riding in heavenly yet devilish powder (more for those who were able to get enough time off work to do the Niseko, Hokkaido portion as well!), here we are, catching a few rays on the hood of Hutch's Fox before going our separate ways and heading home. I was not confident enough in my snowboarding skills to take a camera up the mountain with me, which turned out to be a good thing considering how much time I spent under the snow instead of on top of it! Others took great photos which are on the web, so click on the link below to see them.

*I'm not sure what happened to the great photos of Powdertopia 2002, but you can see the most current photos here.

The trip to Sado island for the Earth Celebration is one of my favourite memories of Japan. I got to go on a road trip with my favourite Iwate boys, Jamie and Tadao, and I got to see KODO! Usually the EC festival is held in the heat of the summer, but it was rescheduled in 2002 because of the FIFA World Cup. May is still a bit cold for camping, but we set up an excellent tent city by the side of the road (the actual camp site was charging too much!), complete with kitchen, lounge and bonfire.

The Earth Celebration is a celebration of unity through music. Rhythm is a universal language and this festival promotes harmony through good vibes. Various workshops, taught by great musicians and craftsmen, give it a community feeling. When I looked through the list of workshops, I couldn't resist "Samba Reggae"...how perfect is that?! Here I am with my group.

After my workshop in the rhythms of samba with a reggae twist with Ryo Watanabe, we were asked if we'd like to perform on the "fringe" stage at the entrance to the main concert area to show people what we'd learned and to have some fun. I jumped at the chance and it was great. We even got the crowd dancing!

There were all kinds of performances all around the Ogi port. No matter where you went, there was something interesting going on; dancing, singing, flutes, drum circles, the list goes on. It was hard to decide what to do. Finally I decided that the best course of action was to plan nothing and just wander; following the sound of an interesting beat or a funky tune. I think I made the right choice.

The main concerts were incredible and indescribable. KODO is the host of the Earth Celebration and did two unbelievable performances. Feeling the beat of the taiko drums through the ground as you sit on the grass in the open air is amazing. It is impossible to keep still. Everywhere I looked, people were swaying, bobbing their heads, or dancing. The guest group was from Brazil and they used all kinds of objects, including shells, cans and their own bodies to make impossible sounds! After the full involvement required in such a concert, it feels great to get a massage. Here Greg, Jamie, Margot and Tadao start a train.

Cameras were not allowed in the concert area, so I have no photos of the performances. If you'd like to see more photos from Earth Celebration 2002, visit the KODO Earth Celebration gallery!

Before leaving Japan, I decided that a great way to finish off my two year adventure was with another adventure; this time to Hokkaido, where I'd never been. Jamie and I also thought it would be fun to do a little trip together before heading our separate ways for a while. We also managed to convince Tadao to join us and he even quit his job to do so...yay!!! Some happenings from the first part of the trip include camping in a castle, eating dinner on a mini golf course while listening to live jazz, having an ironchef contest with wild rhubarb, stinky rotenburo (outdoor hotsprings) in Niseko, and getting great rides from interesting people.

When we arrived at the Daisetsusan National Park for the gruelling part of the trip - a proposed 55km hike in the mountains in 4 days, we decided to take a little break. After taking the gondola up part of Asahidake, the tallest mountain in the Daisetzusan National Park, and seeing how much there was still left to climb, we decided to stay in the emergency shelter and take in the spectacular scenery. This is what it looked like at dusk during one of the rare rain-free moments of the trip!

Just after the gondola closed and everyone disappeared, we experienced the most incredible sunset. Each time we turned away from it to scare the wiley fox away from our food, we found that it had become even more spectacular while we weren't looking!

Tadao never ceased to amaze me on this trip. Here is a guy who is shorter than me, older than me, and who smokes like a chimney, yet he was able to leap from boulder to boulder with a heavy pack and get far enough ahead to hide his pack, climb a tree and then scare the shit out of me by shaking the tree and screaming like a monkey when I walked by! Crazy! I am so happy that my last trip in Japan got to be with Jamie and Tadao. Tadao because he's always happy and makes everyone around him happy and I won't be seeing him for a while, and Jamie because we can talk about anything, he's one of my best friends and...well, he's Jamie, and I'll leave it at that!

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