Batzirra?

Today's meaningless post comes to you via The Canadian Press.

It seems that unbeknownst to me, there was a Batman craze over "here" in Japan in the sixties, and the comics drawn were quite bizarre and disturbing (much in harmony with Batman's character). So for the true Batman afficionado, I give you, "Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan"! And if there are any Batman-addicts out there who purchase this manga, please DO let me know what you really think of it.

I also hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve.

I love you!

The Christmas Catalyst

It all started back in September or October of this year...

I was thinking that this year for my Dad's 71st birthday I would surprise him by showing up at their door on the eve of his birthday. I spent a fair deal of time searching the Japanese internet for good flights that would offer me some sort of flexibility at economic prices (very hard to do these days). In the end, I opted to get my ticket via Osaka - Detroit - Minneapolis - Winnipeg (NWA) through Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the travel agent my mom and dad have been using for years here in Winnipeg.

I purchased and paid for my non-refundable discount ticket in October... and then the financial sector of the USA tanked, the American and Canadian dollars fell, and the yen rose... Of course had I waited the exchange would have made my flight much cheaper. But had I known this, I would either be in prison due to making millions of dollars on insider information re. the stock market... or I would ... or I would nothing!

I only told a very small group of friends I was doing this. I didn't even tell my brother Bruce who can absolutely keep not one single secret in the world from anyone... however it was Bruce I needed to come and get me at the airport. I had planned for this in advance, of course and told Bruce that I needed him in front of his computer Friday night (Dec 19th) so that I could show him some of the stuff that I was sending to my parents for Christmas, and explain some stuff to him. He was there, waiting for me.

Vonage (public payphone) in Minneapolis rejected my mastercard... rejected my visa... rejected my american express... and then it was time to board. So...I ended up taking a taxi to the head of the street, paying the cabbie the $35 for the 30 minute drive, and pulled my suitcases up the street at -28C (before windchill adjustments) to the house and rang the doorbell. I didn't want them to accidentally walk past the living room window and see a cab pull up with me getting out as it would ruin the surprise so I did it this way.

When I rang the doorbell, my mom was just about to come upstairs and go to bed. I looked downstairs through the thick plate glass window and smiled. She looked upstairs through the thick plate glass window and was dumbstruck. I guess her brain wouldn't register ME standing there because I was supposed to be in Japan! Well, she suddenly came up the stairs, flung open the door and hugged me as I stepped in. Then the "fight or flight" reflex took hold and she had to run off for a pee!

Dad came up with a big smile as I handed him his personally delivered birthday bottle of Suntory Old whiskey. He wanted to shake my hand, but I would have nothing to do with that nonsense, so summarily gave him a great big hug.

It isn't nearly as cold here as I had hoped it would be; I want the -40C + windchill bringing it down to the low -80s of my youth, but I guess with global weirding, that is no longer to be...

We just opened the Christmas presents and will have dinner at our friends across our back yard tonight. Tomorrow will be Boxing Day open house and all of my parents' friends will be coming by. I enjoyed this exactly two years ago as well (and then I went down to Fargo to meet with Robin, Adrian and Steph, and subsequently got stuck there an extra night in a snowstorm, if you recall!)

All of this traveling and visiting people in 2008... this is my third trip this year (thus I got a glorious upgrade to first class on the 1.5hr flight from Minneapolis to Winnipeg!!) and I have really had a great time meeting a lot of people.

I have been to Tim Horton's coffee several times to enjoy the coffee and listen to the weird Winnipeg Accents and hear all the Canucks using the word "eh". I have visited Sears and the mall to buy a bunch of towels (we can't get good towels in Japan that last for 20 years like our towels from Canada have). I went to SupeValu to stock up on anti-perspirant (can't get in Japan) and allergy meds (too weak in Japan). I did all this walking back and forth from the house, enjoying the bite of the wind on my face as it tried to crack my exposed skin...and wished for colder weather yet.

This past Sunday I visited my old best friends and their families for brunch. Then we went back to his place and enjoyed a hot tub party in the night at -38C. You can see the video on YouTube, entitled, "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDZZvFXYiEY".

On this trip, I am "stepping into my fear" to meet my high school friends and stop feeling indifferent to them due to the extreme bullying I got during those school years (hardwired into the brain... this time I choose to see things differently). There is an informal gathering of anyone from our graduating year who wants to pop into a (forget) place about 7pm on the 29th. And I intend to just pop in unannounced! Other than that, it is time with family, and time with anyone else who might like to meet with me (I haven't had a chance to contact them all yet but will).

(In case you are wondering where Mayu might be.. she has stuff to do in Tokyo at year end so I'm on my own on this trip. I'm hoping that we don't get too much snow while I'm away over the new year and that is the reason why I worked on the special snow protection before I left.)

The economic situation around the world is really difficult for us all. As strange as it may seem, the collapse of the American Empire has dramatically affected my business in the tiny village in which we have lived for the past 15years. So much, so, that I really don't know if we will even be in Kamishii for the full year next year. It seems that perhaps it is time to leave our Shangri-la and move on... And who knows where the future will lead, right?

I have asked my parents if they might like to come for a visit next May or June when the weather is nice. I know we will be there until June for sure as I have a little bit of contract work that keeps me tied to Fukui. As long as I have work in Fukui we will stay in this home as it is beautiful for the small amount of rent we pay. Sure we could leave it for a tiny apartment somewhere, but the space would be dramatically reduced, and the rent would dramatically increase, so why bother, right? I will see what they say as 2009 rolls in...

So with that.. I would like to once again (as I always do), open my home (while we have it) and my heart to anyone and everyone who might like to experience Japan not from a "tourist in a hotel life" perspctive, but from a relaxed, country living view. We could move in and out with ease, wining, dining, laundering (clothing not money), laughing, walking, talking, driving, RELAXING and most of all moving about through time as if we are LIVING and BEING in the NOW moment with no hotel-life restrictions.

I welcome any one of you who might think you would like to visit my beautiful Shangri-la. Feel free to write me privately and let me know you are interested. I would be more than happy to adjust my schedule for you, help plan stuff, and offer you suggestions on the best times to come. I am, and have always been serious. Just as Paula took me up on my suggestion over 2.5 years ago, I hope that in 2009 at least one person out there in our community will say, "Yes, I think I seriously would like to come and see your wonderland, Cam."

Consider this post a "catalyst", something that gets you started on a new adventure in 2009. I plan to have MANY new adventures in 2009 with many new challenges work-wise and life wise. I hope to grow, and expand physically, mentally, educationally and especially spiritually as I challenge myself to new heights, never-before experienced. That is what life is all about, right? As Mayu so aptly put it recently, it's time we "stopped just sucking air". And I agree. Ever onward, ever upward!!

And on that note, I wish you a most wonderful and Merry Christmas for 2008, I hope your Boxing Days are full of joy, and that on January 1st, 2009 you are not praying to the porcelain gods!

I love you as I always have and always will: UNCONDITIONALLY.

Cam

Hogwarts Uses Canada Post!

Well, this will be attempt #3.... I will have to roll back and delete this Internet Explorer Ver. 8 Beta I am testing as a HUGE blog I just wrote got all scrunched up into one line when I tried to add a photo... and it was gone! Poof! Just like Harry Potter might make a cockroach disappear. And then gone again... POOF POOF!!! (now I need to add photos...)

This has been a very busy two weeks; We've been winterizing, and getting ready for the new year. Last week Mayu and I took a mid-week driving trip to Tokyo for some family business (no worries, no condolences needed, thanks). This week we have been busy winterizing the house in a different way than usual.

When we get heavy snowfalls, the snow from the roof of the house can break things if it breaks off. Three winters ago, the sunroom roof exploded when a big chunk fell off the peak of the roof onto it. Also, as there are barely any overhangs, when the snow hits the deck, it is often perilously close to the sliding glass doors. And if it falls or bounces the wrong way, we could be looking at major damage.

It hasn't snowed much at all since that huge snow of three years ago, so we could be getting some big snow this year. It often happens that our snow patterns follow North America by about two weeks. So if you look at heavy snowfalls in the midwest, two weeks later we often have ours. And I don't want to be out there changing my tires, or cleaning glass out of our living room just because a big chunk decided to fall the wrong way.

I took these leantos you can see here, and affixed them to the deck, and to each other. But because we also get winds here, due to the angle, they can easily blow off. And if they are affixed only to the deck, that means they will go vertical, then fall the other way, damaging the deck as they crash against Dickhead's concrete wall and explode, quite possibly bouncing into our glass doors, and exploding them, too. That wouldn't be nice.

So, I took our bazillion kg deck chairs that even Mayu can't lift and bound the leantos to the three chairs, and now I cannot budge them. SO... I think we are good. The added benefit is that during the day the sun reflects off of them and Dickhead's Dad cannot come peering in like he often tries to do. I like these so much that I may even keep them up until the end of March!

Today I went into town to pick up my video camera that needed some repairs. On the way in I saw a store I hadn't noticed before and took a stop for a look-see. They had a lot of really great furniture, knicknacks, pottery, beds, wall hangings, drapes, fabric, and a ton of other stuff. I really enjoyed visiting.

The thing that caught my eye, though, was THIS plastic post box!

I was attracted strongly to it, however the $400 price tag is too rich for my blood. And really, the inside box is only good for letters, not for boxes, or any care packages that people may send this way.

But I loved it! And the first thing I thought became the title for this blog: Hogwarts Uses Canada Post!

Have a great end of the week, and I hope you don't freeze your asses off in the winter!

I love you!

Cam

Snot Quite What I Expected

Last week I finally decided to try and auction this Karcher Steam Cleaner on Yahoo Auction. We had originally paid about JPY 35,000 ($350) for it at the home center many years ago.

In the old house, using kerosene heat, the entire area would get a thin film of oily greasy dust that was never easy to clean off, and clung to everything. Add to that the mud walls, and you have the perfect conditions for greasy living.

I can't remember exactly when we purchased it, but it may have been a few years before we finally moved out of the old house into this one. We used it for one final steam cleaning of all of the floors, etc. cleaned it up, boxed it up, and never used it again.

We decided to let the auction begin at JPY 8,000. One week later we had amassed 631 people who had accessed it, 59 who put it on their watchlist, and finally sold it for JPY 21,500 (about $215)! We sold it on the auction! Yaaay us!

Today we needed to take it to Lawson's Convenience Store to send it off using the Yahoo YuPack Postal network tie-up (very cool system). I wanted to wrap the box up so decided to use a few of the kimono paper wrapping bags that all of my most recent batch of kimono came in. I went upstairs to the spare room where all of the bags are sitting, grabbed two, and taped them nicely to the outside of the box.

My nose felt a bit runny from the musty smell of all the kimono, but I had kind of expected that. What I didn't expect, however, was that for the next 30 minutes a green, bubbly, frothy liquid kept dripping, and sloshing out of my left nostril! Every time I blew the tissue (*salivation has begun here...*) turned this bizarre yellow-green, and then all of a sudden it would pour ot of my nose!

Thirty minutes later I was finally able to stop the flow, but Mayu had to take the package to my car, and we drove with the windows open to Lawson's in order to get rid of it! And now, just from that 30 minutes of foamy green flow, my nose feels like it is burned as if I had been blowing it for days!

I need to back up a bit here and give you some history now....

***** SHIFT! Back to July *****

In July I got the shingles. I'm still struggling with scars on my face, and a tickling itchy sensation that runs through the nerves on my face, but I guess I can get used to that. However, as the information on shingles says, it can take often over six months to completely heal, and energy is often down, while the immune system is also often compromised for long periods of time.

I have seemingly had one cold after the next from August on. It got especially bad in September, October and November with my sinuses completely clogged, tons of coughing, phlegm and such. I assumed it was due to a compromised immune system. Then in November I started getting severe sinus pressure over the left eye in that sinus cavity, in and around that eye as well. It was so bad that several times I had to sleep because I couldn't do anything. I KNEW it was a sinusitis of sorts as I used to get it regularly as a child because I suffer from a deviated septum in the left nostril which is often the one that gets plugged and has caused me the most trouble through my life.

I wanted to go to the doctor and get antibiotics but that was just at the point where Mayu and I had our "human docking" medical tests and I didn't want to interfere with the testing. As soon as that was done, I went and got five days of antibiotics. It didn't seem to help and I was really wondering what was going on because the pressure in the sinus cavity and my eyeball was intense (left one only, nothing in the right cavity) every day, about the same time of the day (between 2-4pm).

One day while I was doing my ab exercises I noticed the huge amount of dust under the piano, and I thought, "Aha! That must be it!" So we spent a good half day pulling, pushing, rocking and rolling the piano just enough to clean out the dust. It didn't help.

Nearly every day about 3pm I would start to get the pressure headache over my left eye and wondered why. Normally I am here from morning until night, and then shut down about dinner time, and come and go after that. One night I was here reading until 2am and I found that about 1am I started to get the exact same pressure headache! So I knew it had something to do with this room...

To make a long story shorter, eventually it dawned on me that the piles of vintage, MUSTY kimono in the closet next to my computer were causing me to have an allergic reaction! So I took them all upstairs to the spare room, put them away in clear boxes, cleaned out the drawers in my closet, and all of the congestion, all of the headaches, all of the watering eyes, and phlegm, and coughing and general malaise of the past three months disappeared!

And life was good...

**** SHIFT! Back to this morning *****

Well, after having that green frothy, foamy, bubbly, pouring liquid attack coming out of my left nostril and soaking the front of my sweater... I decided to ask Mayu to throw away all those papers!

I soo wanted to use them in a recycled way and let them become my wrapping papers for ages to come. But after that attack... to hell with recycling!

Now it's time to see if I can start another auction to sell off one of our two industrial kerosene heaters that get the rooms so roaringly hot that we have never been able to use them in this house at all! These babies rock!

You may be wondering why we have two... well, one year in February, the coldest month of the year, our old beloved one kind of went on the fritz. And we had no heat exactly when we needed it. We could not live in our house with no heat in the coldest time of the year, for three weeks while they overhauled the components.

But that's life, I guess... Now we have two, and both of them sit in storage so it's time to try and sell them off!

I love you!

Cam

Terror in Mumbai

Last night, Rob (Dunnster) and I had a little chat about what we thought really happened over in Mumbai during the past few days. We both agreed that it couldn't have been some desert bootcamp trained uneducated zealots that alQaeda uses because the operation was too professional. Of course, these were just our thoughts and musings, from two dumb guys with too much free (night) time on our hands.

Then I wrote to my good friend Shivdeep who lives in Chandigarh, India (up north). And we had a good discussion. I wanted to make sure that he, his family, friends, customers were OK. They were. And that is good. Here is the convo. You may be interested in reading the link at the end, as it comes from a different news source than most of us in the west ever read. It is nice to get news from different angles; it helps to see the bigger picture without so many cloudy obfuscation getting in the way. (Did I use that word, properly?)

It seems that the general thought is that the commando attack squad (we like to call them terrorists) acted very much like a specially-trained group of soldiers that were put in place by the American government when Russia was invading Afghanistan. Interesting... Nicaragua, Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan..... all forces initially trained to be specialists, by the American government, and then set free... interesting.....

I love you!

Cam

***********************

Shiv,

How are you doing? Did the terror over the past few days in Mumbai shock you? It shocked me.... Are you and your family and friends OK? I hope so.

You know... those 10 guys were WAAAY too professional to be some Afghan Desert Terror camp trainees... The stuff they seem to have pulled off with the professionalism they did it leads me to believe that it was some SOG special operations group ... or a group of mercenaries... They were just too efficient to be your ordinary terrorist.

Tell me what you know that isn't coming out on Propaganda World News...

What does the Indian government and other special interest groups really think happened?

Cam

***********************

Hello Cam

Indeed they were not the regular bomb and run sort of people that we have seen in the past. What they did was quite intense, aggressive and professional. I guess I had trouble sleeping and still do because I have had this sudden realisation that if a person enters a place with an automatic rifle there is not much you can do about it.

Strangely I was thinking about you and how you always wanted to stay at a Taj hotel when you came to India. Overall the government here is saying that these people came from Pakistan (which is likely according to me) through the coastal route and basically they were trained commando style, to be more specific marine commando style. The Government is also saying that they had enough ammo to kill 5000.

It is a massive security breakdown when it comes to India. I hope the government now gets less lax, till now they had been butchering ordinary people on the streets but this time their targets were the high and the mighty. The westerners and the people who apparently matter. There is a lot of anger among the people here now and I just hope that it does not result in some further problems.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/terrorists-trained-by-special-forces--pounced-killed/79435-3.html

This link echoes your earlier thoughts quite uncannily.

Everyone I know is fine. There is nothing to worry about for me personally. I do some business in Mumbai and all my clients and their families seems to be fine as well. Do let me know of your news and how things are progressing for you.

Regards,

Shivdeep

A Sucker Born Every Minute

I thought I would slip one of these little chocolate sucker guys into every kimono sale I get on Etsy. Just as a little extra thank you! (while quantities last)... Doing my duty to get people high and shaky on cheap chocolate and too much sugar....

These guys are the main characters in the kids' cartoon series, "Anpan Man".

I love you!

Cam

Want to Sell / Auction this Eddie Bauer Hunting/Fishing Vest

I would like to sell or auction this vest off to anyone interested.

I purchased this vest through the mail order many years ago and have not worn it very much at all. It is a Mens Large Tall vest with 18 pockets in total. Made of 100% cotton with inner mesh for breathability, a zipper on the front and cinch ties on the sides, this vest would be perfect for hunters, fishermen, and especially photographers (I think).

I tried to sell this on Yahoo Auction but someone complained that I didn't give enough information and the system asked me to remove it. So now I am offering it here.

Will anyone offer me $5.00 plus shipping for this?

The total weight is about 1.1kg and I can send as a small package to most places in the world for $25 (unregistered), or via EMS to N.A. for $30 (trackable, one week).

Paypal charges 7% + for me, so $5.00 would cover the paypal charges and leave me with enough to buy a can of tea after going to the post office.

Anybody interested? If you would like to place a bid, as I have also put this on Flickr for people over there, please visit Flickr and bid over there. Thanks for looking.

Cam

Mayu's Got Crabs!

Yesterday, as I explained in one of my recent videos, Mayu went off to meet two of her former coworkers for dinner, and an overnight stay at an onsen restaurant in Miyama. It was a brief 30 minute drive to Miracle-Tei which is on the other side of the mountains that you see in so many of my photos, behind my house.

She met her friends about 5:00 in the afternoon. They talked, had baths, had late dinner, she gave them massages, they had baths, talked again, she gave more massages, they ate, they ate, and they ate. She said she got three hours of sleep.

The meal consisted of a large variety of traditional foods, including tempura, sashimi, some other various dishes, sukiyaki, soba (buckwheat noodles), mashed rice dango (dumpling), grilled fish, kani (crab) rice, frozen kani "pickles", dessert, and more. Then the chef brought out that crab you see at the beginning of my story. Mayu thought it was for all of them, but the other women told her that it was JUST FOR HER! So after many mouthfuls of crab after crab after crab, she was absolutely stuffed!

But look at the size of what she ate!!! (the photo above doesn't tell the entire picture.)

Apparently the seas are not "giving" their bounty nearly as freely as they used to. The kani that come from the seas off of Fukui (known as Echizen in the Edo period) are called Echizen gani. They are very well-known across the lands, and command a very high price. One this size at a restaurant usually costs over $100.00 for the crab alone!

Well, apparently the chef at the Miracle-tei restaurant could not get the Echizen-gani, but he was able to get one from the prefecture next door to us, Ishikawa. They are the same crabs, but when they come from NOT off of the Echizen coast, they are less expensive. It's kind of like getting Kobe beef. If it is kobe beef it is very expensive here, but if you get it from across the waters where they grow it, it is less expensive as it does not have that name.

After jumping into the early morning onsen bath and soaking at 7:00 in the morning, Mayu got ready for work, and headed out to a full day (including the evening volunteer work at the hospital hospice where she massages and talks with terminally ill cancer patients).

So, Mayu lucked out and apparently the chef was able to serve an even larger kani than originally planned for the price that Mayu's coworkers had booked for her!

Holy Kani, Batman, that's a whole lotta crab!

I love you!

Cam

Ootnaboot on Labour Thanksgiving Day Holiday

Labour Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday here in Japan. It takes place annually on November 23rd. The law establishing the holiday cites it as an occasion for commemorating labour and production and giving one another thanks. Events are held throughout Japan, one such being the Nagano Labor Festival. The event encourages thinking about the environment, peace and human rights.

Labor Thanksgiving Day is the modern name for an ancient rice harvest festival known as Niiname-sai, believed to have been held as long ago as November of 678. Traditionally, it celebrated the year's hard work; during the Niiname-sai ceremony, the Emperor would dedicate the year's harvest to kami (spirits), and taste the rice for the first time.

The modern holiday was established after World War II in 1948 as a day to mark some of the changes of the postwar constitution of Japan, including fundamental human rights and the expansion of workers rights. Currently Niiname-sai is held privately by the Imperial Family while Labor Thanksgiving Day has become a national holiday. (taken from Wikipedia)

It's weird... for an entire week plus now every day about 3pm I start to get a headache in my sinus cavity above the left eye. It gets pretty intense. I used to get a lot of sinusitis due to my deviated septum that we never bothered to correct when I was young (my brother did his). I can't figure out what it is...

The other day when I was on the floor doing some abdominal workout, I saw the huge amount of dust under the piano. As you likely know, Pianos are notorious for being nearly impossible to move. And as this one is very low to the ground we have not been able to vacuum under it. When I saw what was under there I went on a dust mammoth cleaning rampage and coerced Mayu into helping me while I lifted, pulled, pushed and dragged the piano so that we could pull out the carpet tiles and clean off the half inch of accumulation. I thought I had the problem solved, but I got another headache.

I usually sit here most of the day at work, but last night I was also sitting here until about 1am because I wanted to finish a book I was reading. I started to get that exact same headache again... the first time to get one so late. I thought then that perhaps it was the mildew odour of the old kimono that I put in the drawers here in the office a few months ago when I got them. That would coincide with my two plus months of congestion. When I went to bed, the doors were all open so the fresh cold air came into the bedroom, and I really cleared up quickly.

This morning I took all the kimono upstairs and boxed them away in the spare room. I then took all the drawers upstairs as well and will let them air out naturally for a few weeks. I disinfected the inside of the chest, and have left the doors to the cupboard where the drawers are, open. For most of the morning, and early noon I felt clearer than I have in a long time.

After pulling out all of the kimono and taking them upstairs to put them in the spare room so that I am not sitting here all day breathing potential mildew, I decided to go out for some fresh air and to clear my head.

I went out to Katsuyama to the home center to get some cat food. I LOVE going to home centers (and kitchenware stores - Robin will attest to that). I could spend hours in them! I just like to go and wander the aisles, looking at everything from plumbing, to toilets, to tires, to pvc piping to plants, to pet supplies, to furniture... and let my mind try to come up with ideas. I treat myself by exercising my mind at these kinds of places because I never know what I might find that I didn't know existed!

I also got a tube of toothpaste, a little ring of ... can't explain it well in English... things that keeps the drain from getting all slimy when water and food particles after washing dishes go into the aluminum cage that sits in the drain (we empty at each meal, but still...).

In addition to that, I picked up a special (but cheap) omelette-making frypan as well. It was a good visit to the home center. I did go looking for plastic tanuki, but they just don't seem to exist! I keep checking on the auction sites, and the internet, but ... nothing! It is almost like my plastic garden tanuki should not exist because nobody knows what I am talking about, when I tell them that I want it in plastic!

When I had spent enough time at the home center (Komeri... the logo is a giant red chicken or rooster, so I like to call it "Chicken Home Center") I went across the "highway" (Japanese highways are not anything like North American Highways... you will see when you visit me)... to the supermarket and did the shopping in that ice box. Why they make supermarkets so icy cold here, I really don't understand! When you are here for a visit, I will surely take you to some supermarkets so that you can experience the bizarre phenomenon of icebox grocery shopping! I did my regular purchasing of vegetables, meats, dairies, and even got an Asahi "Ginger + Beer" to see what it tastes like. Maybe tonight...

When all that was done, I headed over to Curry House Coco Ichiban and had a very good hamburger salad (hot hamburger in cold salad - pretty tasty!), with a side of curry roux (sauce) that had melted cheese and spinach in it. I skipped rice that always comes with curry here. I also had a pork cutlet and an onsen tamago. In total it was a very reasonable JPY 1300 for lunch. Not bad at all, considering I eat for two. When you come to visit me, I would like to take you to this restaurant to experience a curry meal. I think you will like it.

Does anybody need a frozen squid?

I love you!

Cam

Experimental Me

I love being experimental.

Tonight, as an experiment, I made and ordered two different kinds of business cards from VistaPrint Japan as a test. They had a special offer in the Amazon.co.jp package that arrived today with the new digital camera I bought (time for an upgrade). I have run out of my real biz cards, and had a hard time digging up three with my last interpretation job two weeks ago. I was seriously worried that I wouldn't have any cards to give the Americans who were there auditing the client...

One of the name cards I made has my full address (in English) here at this address, with a simple address in Japanese on the back. Amazon offered a "special" of JPY 100 for 250 cards so I thought I'd try. I paid a bit extra and put Japanese on the back (in greyscale, as full colour on both sides would have made them much more expensive, but still cheap as heck). So I can hand it out in both languages. (You can click it if you want to see it larger, but it isn't really necessary.)

I also got "free" sticky labels and a JPY 100 ink stamp with my address on it so that I don't need to hand write any envelopes anymore. I chose the slow delivery which will take 3 weeks (NOTHING takes three weeks to go anywhere these days except the slow boat from .... oh yeah... China!). The shipping and the "process fee" of course ended up costing me about JPY 1800 which is obviously mostly free money for them because that little stuff never costs that much to ship from anywhere anymore, especially in 3 weeks delivery. But still... for 250 business cards (in colour), and 140 address labels, and a plastic address stamp, a total cost of JPY 2,500 is peanuts! It used to cost me JPY 2500 for 100 business cards.

I think that those 250 cards will probably outlast our living here at this address (not much work here these days, not enough to be handing out 250 business cards that's for sure) And of course, if we make a move, those cards, the labels and the stamp will no longer be any good.

So, after dinner, a brilliant thought came to me, and I made, then ordered another much simpler "global" card in black with a globe on it.

All I wrote this time was Intrmarket Solutions / Cameron Switzer / email address / business website address / and a catch phrase: "Bridging the gap between Japan & the World". And that is it.

These cards I can use internationally anywhere I go after leaving this house, and I think it is kind of cool. After all, who needs a fixed address when your business can travel through the net, right? And telephone numbers are always changing, so no number, either. I have to admit that this was not an original thought; when I visited Texas and met the Y.E.S. Supplements CEO for the first time, his business card had the company name, his name, and his email address. And that was it. And I thought... "that's really smart because everyone has email these days." Also, with this kind of thing, you cannot always answer your phone, but you can always access your email and write back when you have the time. This is how Ken described it to me, as he is often in meetings and unable to take phone calls. "Hmmm.... I thought... very interesting." And I tucked that thought away for a future day (one when I thought I might be as busy as he).

I chose standard templates from VistaPrint to keep the price down to the minimum. The one with the address... it struck me at the moment, having some colour, but not being too outlandish. The fixed image of the earth on black sky background worked out well for my concept of my business. I chose matte finish as well to keep the price at the JPY 100. It doesn't matter if it's not good quality. I just want to test it and am willing to pay the JPY 1300 for these cards as an investment to try out a technology that I know many other people (Jen and Stefnee for example) have been using for some time now. 250 cards for JPY 1300 is a really cheap price (JPY 100 + JPY 1200 for shipping and "processing" fees).

I realized when I saved these low res images that I forgot to include an F: by the fax number, but it allows me to chat with the recipient a little bit more. Again, I don't mind. Most people will figure out that the 090 is my cell number anyway.

Just a little experiment that I thought I would do with some of my free NOW moments yesterday.

I love you!

Cam

And you think...

... that I'm overexaggerating when I tell you how truly fucked up Japanese society has become...

Mamma mia...

This country needs a LOT more Unconditional Globalized Love, let me tell you!

I love you!
And unconditionally, to boot!

Cam

P.S. Maybe the cumulative pressure on the anus due to the jet washing unit of the ubiquitous Toto washlets has caused some altered reality in the psyche of Japanese, making them angry all the time... angry that their asses are always "getting kicked" (by Toto)... Maybe they are finally lashing back. Could this be a manifestation of a new kind of anger we might term "toto rage"?

Old Habits Die Hard

I have spent a lot of time this year reading about, meditating on, and writing about how our brains are hardwired through habits, through our ego, and through the culture and society in which we live. Believing that carbohydrates are good for you in spite of all the science to the contrary is one. Going on cholesterol-lowering drugs is another because there is so much science that shows how harmful lowering cholesterol is, and that doing so has absolutely no benefit to decreasing heart disease. "Spinning" over troubled times and having "imaginary conversations" in my head ... well, that's normal!

But seriously, we do so many of the things we do without realizing that either we don't need to be doing them, that they do us more harm than good, or that our egos try to convince us that we are going to do them come hell or high water!

We humans are lucky in a sense that we don't HAVE to be bound by our hard-wired neural network. If we become aware enough (through various methods) that what we are thinking, or believing is not appropriate, not beneficial, or downright wrong, we have the ability to CHANGE THE WAY WE SEE THINGS. This is a key point for overall well-being I have come to understand this year. In fact, it is crucial for success in most everything.

Other animals are not quite so lucky, however; they don't have the ability to make changes to their neural network. This is why, several decades ago, it was documented watching wolves swimming to an island in the St. Lawrence River that had a lot of indigenous deer on it. When the wolves got tired, they would turn around and go back. The only thing is, if they made it past the halfway point and they got tired, they would turn around and swim back. It is all that they could do because that is what their efforts programmed into them: get tired, go back. Little could they realize that if they went a bit further on, they would be on the island. If they have the energy to swim back past half way, then they would have had the energy to go on and make it to the island, for feasting. But they could not.

Keiko gave me a great example of that this morning. He has developed the nasty habit of standing up and putting his claws in our patio screen door. It makes a very nice echo in the house. I have thrown things at him, and yelled at him. Nothing works. Stefnee recommended spraying him, but that only works when the glass door is open. And in the early mornings, it is not open because it is too cool to do so.

Keiko sits there staring in the clear glass side where he watches us and meows until we go and feed him. If we ignore him for some time, he does a circle, meows a bit more, then sits in the middle of the other window (the one without the screen because he can see in). If we ignore him further, he circles, then stands on his hind legs up as tall as he can and puts his claws in the screen!

Well, I certainly do not like him doing that, but he has decided it is the fastest way to get his food.

This morning, he did that TWICE. The first time, he did it while I was just coming downstairs from waking up. I gave him his food. He wanted more, so came back and hung around again. Then when I was cooking my own breakfast he did it again! I couldn't throw anything at him or yell at him because the door was closed and he wouldn't have heard me or been bothered by it.

So... I opened up the door, petted him (I love petting the pussy), cood at him sweetly, and then took the screen door off, and put it away for winter. I have never needed to do this before, but I'm thinking that if we go to Tokyo over New Years, and come back to a screen door ripped to shreds, I will be none too pleased.

Well, as I was sitting there eating and pleasantly ignoring him, yet watching him go about his begging routine, I became quite amused. He sat at the clear window as he always does for a while, meowing... then he circled and sat again... then...

Keiko circled once more, went over to the other half of the sliding glass doors where the screen sits, stood up on his hind legs and ...

made the funniest face as his claws pressed against hard glass, and there was no screen!

God, that was funny!

Old habits die hard, so don't be surprised or disgruntled if you want to change some of your thoughts, or habits, but find yourself slipping back into the same old routines. It IS HARD! Just keep at it, and pretty soon, before you realize it, you will have re-programmed your neural network and chosen to see things differently. If I can do it, then you can too!

(It's just too bad Keiko can't, eh? heeee heee heeee)

Have a great day, I love you!

Cam

Sweet Dreams Delivery Service

Today was a work day. Yes. I had work. Amazing, that there was actually something for me to do... these days, thanks to the sub-prime, and wall street collapse, work has been... scarce ... is a kind word. But today I went to a customer's business in Sabae and did some interpretation work as a very large American pharmaceutical company is planning on having a part made in their factory and wanted to do an ISO9000 audit inspection.

I think that things went fairly well, and it helped my client to become a little more global than before. They were given some observations, and suggestions on how they need to improve their ISO processes in order to meet the customer's rigid specifications for document control (that is what ISO 9000 is all about). It was an 8am to 8pm day, and I was glad to get out.

I have two videos that I plan to be making in the very near future. One... is a secret so I'll let that one be because it would spoil the fun. The other one... I think I can tell you a bit about.

I have a few videos on doing various things with futon. One describes the importance of drying out the futon as often as possible rather than letting it sit on the floor as one would a mattress. Because there is no airspace between the futon and the floor, they can get mouldy in a short matter of time. If you haven't seen this video yet, you may visit it @ Japanese Traditions: Futon Hoshi.

The other video is called No More Lonely Nights, and in that one, I introduce the futon kansoki that I sent to Jenny. She loves it as it keeps her bed toasty warm whenever she is alone on those long winter nights.

I have received a variety of comments on the Futon Hoshi video. One of them is a bit of correspondence from a Canadian Lad looking for information on how to care for the futon. Actually he wants one, but is having trouble getting them. He has found some manufacturers in the USA but the cross-border taxes make them more costly than his budget will allow. After a bit of talking, with him and with Mayu, she and I agreed that we would be more than happy to ship him one or two of our futon if he would cover the shipping, and the paypal surcharges to receive the payment. He agreed so in the next few days I am going to try to figure out how to pack a futon, and then determine what the costs will be, and let him know.

We have three or four futon and rarely use all of them. Of course we need to keep a couple here for when people come to visit, but we do not need them all. The gentleman was more than happy to accept one of our used futon.

So I thought I would just make a simple video documenting what I am doing, and tell the story so that others out there can once again see the Globalized Love Community hard at work making other people's lives even happier!

And that is what I am thinking this night as I sit here sipping hot water and slowly get a little more sleepy as the hours pass (did a heavy workout last night and then was up at 6:00 so my body is rather fatigued still...)

I hope you have a great day, whether it be sunny, rainy, snowy, windy, cloudy, morning, afternoon, evening or night!

I love you!

Cam

Autumn Laughter

The leaves that rustle

under the stroke stroke stroke

of the brittle plastic rake

in the waning light

of the crisp autumn afternoon,

they laugh like you.

*****

Today is the first day of late autumn that actually felt as if winter was approaching. I can see the snow on Mt. Hakusan waaay off in the distance. As the day progressed, the temperature slowly dropped so that now we are below 10C and I can see my breath.

I spent a few hour doing one more "comprehensive weeding" of the yard in hopes that come spring, there will be less fresh weeds to battle with than we had this year. Also, I tied up the fragile branches of my "freedom bonsai" for the winter, as we never know when snow might come now.

The ambient temperature was about the same as that outside all day (13C outside, 14C inside), but it dropped down to 10C in here this evening. I am considering turning the heat on to warm it up for Mayu when she returns from Tokyo. My fingers are numb, as they get every winter, and my toes as well.

I know that when I go to the sento tonight, the water will feel extra hot on my digits as I sink into the pool for a much needed core-heating soak. And, of course, when I walk out into the chilly night, my body will steam because it will have been warmed far more than the normal body temperature, and it will need to let off some of the excess heat through our ultra-efficient heat-exchange system we call skin.

I am sorely tempted to start a fire in the chiminea, don my hat, and sit outside enjoying the chill of the night with a Woodford Reserve bourbon melting the ice into a perfect blend of autumn wood smoke and oak, while pondering life to come and what the next NOW moment will bring...

I love you.

Cam

Celebrating with 'Shrooms!

On Sunday, Mayu and I went to Heisenji to take photos and video of the koyo, autumn leaves. It was too early. You can see the results in my recent video.

So on Monday, in the mist, I suggested we drive way up into the mountains, all the way up to Izumi-mura (35km from here, but 1.5hrs to get there) through some of the more rugged yet beautiful terrain in the prefecture. I used to work up there every Thursday when I was working for the School board. It was an absolutely wonderful place to go, a village with a population of about 500 people at most (including those in the cemetery!)

Unfortunately.... the leaves aren't quite ready up there yet, either, as you can see in these three photographs I took:

There are a few photos more on Flickr if you care to see, but the colours aren't there yet. Don't mind the turkey... it was a homing-device "gift" from a friend of yore...

But! On the way down the mountian we took a detour through the mountains up a river and to a village that is known for it's historic refuge of ronin samurai and their families who were escaping the Tokugawa Shogun's fall from favour as the Shogun was busy absconding with land and doing what it is that all dictators love to do (enrich their coffers).

Apparently the families of the local ruling clans that lost battles to protect their lands here had to run for the hills and run they did! Hiding up in the Kamiono area must have been an amazing feat before there were any concrete roads, highways and tunnels up in THOSE mountains! It is said that even now, some samurai swords can still be found when land is overturned as everyone hid their clan background by pretending to be simple farmers just in case the Shogun's army might happen upon them waaay wayyyyy deep in the mountains.

There also happens to be a deep mine up there and tourists can take a ride into the closed mine (for money, of course).

We didn't go there for the history. Nope. We didn't go there for the mine, either. We went there because we wanted mushrooms!

There is a mushroom factory up in that area, and we figured that since we were "in the neighbourhood" (only about 4km away) we would head on over and pick some up.

I LOVE Japanese mushrooms! There are so many varieties here, that Japan truly is a 'shroom-lover's paradise! Why just yesterday in the supermarket I bought five varieties alone!

In Japan, we may not be able to get butter, we may have a run on bananas due to crazy banana diets, but can we get mushrooms?

YES WE CAN!

I love you!

Cam

Gallery Max 2008.11

I visited Masaki and his family today. Every year around this time they display their art in a coffee shop/art gallery.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with their art, they work in paper. Everything they do is made of Japanese washi. They make their frames out of wire, and then begin layering on the paper, shaping the product as it goes along. Each and every piece of hair or scale is an individual piece of paper that has been pre-made, then glued on. Once the form is complete they colour it with a natural lacquer from grasses, trees, persimmon trees and the such. Then they use a natural finishing lacquer to give it the shine, the depth, the shadow and the glow.

Carrie, Jen, and Paula have seen their work first hand. I hope that more of you one day will have such an opportunity to see, touch, smell, and be amazed at the work they do.

This year, Masaki created these battling bulls that you can see at the top of the page. The colouring base is persimmon tannin that has been fermented. There are approximately 10 coats of this persimmon coating, followed by many more coats of special lacquer from the Japanese lacquer tree (which is highly allergenic).

Prices of product vary from $50 to $3,000 depending upon the size, and complexity of the product. Some may think that smaller means much cheaper, but due to the complexity of the work, that is not always the case. For example, the smaller the dragon, the more finely detailed the scales, etc. must be, thus the work becomes more complex.

If you would like to see more photos, please visit my flickr by clicking on the image below and following the link.

I love you!

Cam

P.S. I have asked this in the past, but if anyone is connected to an art gallery or some rich person who likes to work on this kind of thing as a philanthropic gesture, by all means please introduce us!

I really wanted to put their work on Etsy, but I am not allowed to do so. Masaki would have to do it himself, without a representative, but with no English skills whatsoever, it just isn't possible. I guess I could become him... but he needs an email address and these days, Max doesn't even have an internet connection! And he doesn't care!! Yes, he really is THAT analogue.

Click here to view their artwork in slideshow format.

This Week in Freebies

We are definitely rolling into November. The nights are cooling down quite nicely... and so is the house. Last night we slept in a balmy 10C/50F house. We needed an extra blanket for that one! .... speaking of which.. I need to go and pull out the futon kansoki for Mayu so that she can heat her side of the bed up as the sheets do get quite chilly. I'll be right back...

This week was a great week for "freebies", let me tell you!

After the gym yesterday, I was at Y Plaza shopping for groceries (exhorbitantly expensive, thankyouverymuch). I ran across our neighbour across the street from our old house in Sanno. She works in the food preparation section of the supermarket. She waved and smiled. I waved and smiled.

A little later on she came up to me and told me that a lot of their autumn vegetables were ready and asked if I would like some. Well, never to turn down food of any kind I whole-heartedly accepted her kind offer of vegetables. We agreed that I would pop by their house in the early evening, around 6pm or so.

Thanks to her kind offer I was able to return the broccoli and daikon to the produce department save a few hundred yen on an otherwise ridiculous grocery bill (nothing was on sale, nothing near expiry).

I made it home in good time and was doing a few things around the house when the doorbell rang about 5pm. It was Mr. Ito and he was delivering the vegetables that his wife had talked to me about earlier that day! How nice of him to do so! For the entire time we have been living here in Kamishii-mura they have been giving us vegetables all summer (eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes), and in the autumn and winter (daikon, broccoli, etc.)

This summer, because I suffered from the shingles and really haven't yet fully recovered, I never got around to visiting them, or receiving any vegetables from them in exchange for wonderful conversation. It is a shame because they grow so many that they really do appreciate it when we come and help them decrease their vegetable load. On this day Mr. Ito dropped off a beautiful healthy head of cabbage, along with three perfectly formed daikon radishes, two ears of broccoli, and several carrots.

Those fresh, organic vegetables were a very nice treat to receive.

For Free!!!!!

In addition to that nice surprise, all day Monday, and all day Tuesday I had the Japanese Tax Agency inspecting me! They grilled me, and dug up absolutely everything one might imagine from the kimono sales for Cam2PR, to my Paypal account. They even asked me to print out my Etsy online Store for proof that I am conducting an online business.

The went all the way back to when I started working for myself, namely 2003, and asked me a great deal of questions while pouring over every little detail of my invoices, and my bank books, as well as my investment statements from both Japan, and those received as inheritence from my grandparents. It was probably one of the most stressful days of my life, as anyone who has been inspected by the "IRS" will know. My entire body has been on ultra-high alert this entire month because I was informed at the very beginning of the month, that this inspection would take place at the very end.

What a long month!

In the end, they found some things that they said I really cannot deduct as expenses, like my MBA degree... which does seem strange to me because in order to be a consultant to management teams, one needs to understand management business, therefore taking an MBA for this purpose would make perfect sense. Of course were I an English teacher and took an MBA, I could very well understand that it would most likely not be business-related in a direct sense.

They also gave me a good indication of the actual amount of deduction I can use from my rent, utilities, gasoline, etc. based on the ratio of business:private use of space in our home, and non-work life.

They found where I had missed (accidentally... of course, I'm innocent!) a zero on recording one of my invoices for my revenue.

They found a few other things that they told me are not recognized as tax-deductable. Then they also pointed out that I accidentally overstated my earnings by about $15,000 in 2006.

So, in the end, they said that my overstatement, and my understatement kind of balanced out (not really, but...) and that they would leave it at that. The tax gestapo then packed away their stuff, took their bazillion photocopies of my documents, told my accountant they would call him for a formal final assessment ... and left.

And that was it!

The stress over the few days before and those couple of days was so intense that I had an extremely difficult time BEing. Thank goodness I was able to breathe, and be somewhat the observer of my thoughts, because had I not been practicing this since January, and without the absolutely wonderful support from friends, keeping me calm and cool, I swear the nervousness would have sent me over the edge! As it is, I lost a few pounds because my stomach simply did not want food for a few days (as often happens when my stress levels skyrocket). Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

But... what I want to say, is that since it ended (with a nice big triple shot of the best bourbon in the world after the second day of grilling), I was able to have a shift.

Instead of the tax gestapo coming and inspecting my ass off... what I got was three tax specialists for an entire full two days to inspect every single record of my business over the past five years and tell me exactly what I can and cannot do must and must not do in order to meet the tax laws of this country.

For Free!!!!!!

Talk about a week of freebies!

I love you.

Cam

Autumn's here, so let's enjoy the leaves!

Today was another clean the yard day. Yesterday's rain stopped, and it is an overcast, cooler day (18C). It feels really nice to be outside working in the yard. Mayu started it with some sweeping up and cleaning of leaves because we have someone coming over today to practice AHR (Aroma Hand Relaxation).

This woman, Taniguchi-san, works with Mayu but she does "Body Balance" or a dry massage that is deeper than aroma massage which is designed to relax, not to work the muscles. I got to be the model for her practice. Yaay! I sure can't complain... I get to have two women's hands sliding all over my body... up and down my legs, my back, arms.... (no no no no happy ending gang, this is not Thai Massage). The only sad thing is that I usually never make it past about 10 minutes before I start snoring! That means I'll miss all the fun! Drat!!

I thought I would fall asleep, but I had my mp3 player with me and was listening to some wonderful stuff that kept me wide awake, elated, and totally at peace. I didn't fall asleep once, enjoyed both of their hands all over my back and legs and just was in the zone... and I must admit that Taniguchi-san's touch is a lot deeper than Mayu's, who is trained in relaxation. It is a different feeling all together.

We cleaned up as many leaves and weeds and stuff as we could in the yard and around the street. Mayu went in for lunch at the 11.30 bell and I stayed out and did some more because I had a later, larger breakfast than she did. I took a stump in our yard (one that I had peeld, burned, and buffed many years ago) , one that isn't rotten and used it to stand on so that I could finish trimming the tree out by my car. It is the tree I showcased last year about this time to show how bald everything got after the Silver Center Gardeners came and prepared our yard for winter. Now that tree is ready for winter, by me. Last year i thought I had cut it back too extremely, but this year it grew like never before! So I did it again, and cut it waaay back, and I think it looks just fine the way it is. I like it like this! Wait until you see (maybe) the yard after the Silvers come and prune it all waaaay back.

The Silver Center gardeners will come by in November (we booked but they are filled up until that time) to do the entire yard. It will cost us more this year with the extra costs we have to pay to have the clippings carried away (trucking fee) and burned (new bylaw). Such is life, I guess. We have paid for this every year and just haven't bothered to ask our owner to help. I consider it a part of the fees to enjoy this place as long as we have been able and as long as we can. If any of you ever come for a visit while we are still here, I think you will agree that it really is worth the cost, and the effort to have the greenery that we are graced with in this home.

I cut away a few of the hostas that are finally starting to turn yellow; I'll cut the rest in the coming months as they turn, little by little until the entire yard is clean of them until next spring when they grow like crazy of their own volition. I also cut the rose "bush/tree beeste" back down to about chest height. The branches on it are as thick as a mechanich's index finger and this year the thing kept growing and sprouting and blooming so that finally in the rain yesterday, to prevent my umbrella from always getting caught in the thorns as I walk Mayu out to her car in the mornings, I cut it back. It was seriously about 12ft high! It just kept growing! AND it kept blooming, so there were roses waaay above the tree that it was standing next to. I found that rather humourous.

I needed to label our trash bags, and take a few out to Mayu. We have to label them with the area we live in, and our names. Why? Because those damn Japanese don't follow the rules! They throw non burnables out on burnable day, and so on. And then they refuse to come and collect it when the garbage collector won't take it away! So it sits there until the next day comes around and they just pretend that it wasn't theirs. It really bugs me, this aspect of the Japanese culture. They don't want to take responsibility for anything, don't like "inconvenience", avoid any sort of admission until caught, and then bow, say "I'm sorry" and expect to just be forgiven. It is like that in the traditional businesses as well.

Today one of the old guys across the street came by to say that we should ask the owner of our house to have the big zelkova tree cut down because in autumn time the leaves fall and make garbage everywhere! Yes, he isn't the only one to believe this shocking thought. When we left the previous place we lived in, one of the big reasons was because our neighbour (and a nice guy, too) complained about the same thing about the big old beautufiul trees there, so many times, that our landlords came and cut all the trees down, killing any green that was once there, and driving up the temperature in the house. If it falls... it's garbage and an eyesore and should be cut down.

This is shocking and probably hard to believe coming from a culture that seems to love gardens, and bonsai, flower arranging, tea ceremonies, and all that stuff. But it's true. Very very sad... very sad indeed because they won't realize the true impact of what they say until it is too late.

As Mayu said, it is really sad that they forget the beauty of the falling leaves, how poets for thousands of years have been writing about it, as a beautiful part of the life cycle. We get to enjoy watching the trees grow, expand, fill out. They give us shade, moisture, and a comfortable soul. In the autumn they change colour and give us more pleasure, and then we watch them fall. But for so many people here, even the old ones who grew up with so much more greenery around, to them it is "garbage" and the entire tree should be cut down. It's a very very sad statement of this entire society.

The people in Tokyo, the concrete jungle, appreciate it so much more because they don't have it nearly as much as here! They try to recreate nature, and greenery because they know the stresses of living in a heat island, a concrete jungle where it is very hard to find a quiet place to enjoy some peaceful nature (this was the hardest thing for me when I first moved to Yokohama in 1989). And they do a really good job at it, too!They know, so they try to recreate what over here, they want to just cut down, toss away, and forget. How sad.

We live in a relatively new community of 50 homes surrounded by older communities. The greenery here is surprisingly lush for the rest of the area. When Max first came here for a visit when we moved, he was shocked because it looks so completely different from the rest of the village. Well, if this mentality of "falling leaves are but an eyesore, and garbage" continues, then the beautiful large trees in Japan, even out here in the country don't stand much of a chance to continue growing, and giving us such beauty, and peace in the soul.

I love my Shangri-la so very much. I hope that you will come and visit me before either I am gone from here, or here is gone from me! Seriously, this is an open invitation to anyone who wants to visit. I have always offered this since I started writing blogs as I do so want to share with you what I have experienced here for the past 20 years. Who knows how much longer we will be here? Seriously! Take me up on my offer if you can; because I will take care of you with all my soul and once your time here is done, send you lovingly on your way back to family and friends so that you too can share the wonders with those dear to you, and perhaps instill in them the dream to visit Japan some day. This chair is here, and waiting for YOU!

I love YOU!

Cam