Arrived in Japan to Start Travelling Across the Silk Road

Hello,

Finally after a long time of waiting I am starting this blog.
This blog will be about my trip along the Silk Road, music/arts, local language/people and pending social problems (esp. relationship between poverty/social injustice and environmental destruction).
















About one month ago I left the United States and started travelling across Asia.
I started in Japan where I stopped by for work for about two weeks (we were screening the 11th Hour (see the site I helped make: www.11thhouraction.jp)) along with the crew from Tree Media that put the film together. This film is often thought of as a follow up to Al Gore's an Inconvenient Truth. An interesting comprehensive review of the environmental crisis civilization we made and are changing now.















(Me, Stephan Mcguire, Richard Dent (from Tree Media) and a bank executive dude guy in Tokyo before the screening)














(Producers, directors, sponsors and experts from the film.)















(Translator/environment practitioner Kaori Kunita holding movie poster)

Couple of highlights: the first night we had a really interesting dinner with the executives of a big European bank who sponsored the tour... day two, I took the team down to see the Monja Machi (one of the premier cuisines in Tokyo). It kind of looks like pancakes yet filled with all kinds of seaweed and topped with Mayanaise. Everyone had a good time there... then I introduced them to the scary world of Pachinko parlors where people drone away on the game machines all day... both make for very interesting cultural experiences!















(Me and Aidan (one of the film crew members) on our way to Monja Machi by the Emporer's Palace in Tokyo)

In total, we did four screenings of our film, one in Tokyo, a set in Sapporo before the G8 summit, as well as Osaka and a Tokai University screening.

All went very well... with very different crowds at each... due to some technical difficulties at the beginning of the Tokai University screening, I had to get up on stage for about one hour to keep the crowd entertained... (had no planning in advance so it was truly an emergency) I managed along with a university professor to keep 297 of the 300 person crowd there while we sorted things out... it was fun to get a chance to speak in front of a large crowd in Japanese... it felt very fulfilling.














(Me talking on stage about environmental issues)















(the crowd who stayed and listened)















(Me and the co-host (Aligastar) of the emergency talk session)

Another interesting thing that happened in Japan was I stayed with my host family (from when I lived and studied in Japan several years back around 2003-2004). They helped and supported me out with my work endeavor this time as well... I was re-introduced to a couple of home stay students staying with my family as well... they are all great people... my home stay family is a big part of my life and I always look forward to seeing them again. They always say "ittaraishai" when I leave to let me know I am really part of their family.














(Homestay mom on top left, homestay father in maroon colored shirt towards right side, and homestay kids/parents from around the world)



















(Standing with my homestay brother Takumi)

I also met up with my friends one night in Shibuya and we went out and had a good time... ate dinner and went to Karaoke... some of the friends who came along were students at my old English teaching school while others were friends from school and elsewhere...















(Saidali, Andy, Asel, Yumi, Aiya, Rie and Yosuke)

Then I went down to Shizouka:
and met my good friend Tsuyoshi... I have known him since about 6 years before... we were traveling separately in Okinawa at the time and ran into each other... and since then always keep in touch. One time he visited the Grand Canyon with me and his friend Yoshihito... this June, for the first time in many many years the three of us met each other again at the restaurant he works... here is a picture:















(Yoshihito, Andy and Tsuyoshi)















(With Tsuyoshi's family)

I also stayed at Tsuyoshi's house one day, then we went on a day trip to Nagoya together using the bullet train... we met with some of his friends interested in southeast Asia... one of the by chance was also very concerned about the issues occurring in Burma right now... I also learned that Tsuyoshi had made a trip to Thailand and Burma and China a few months before... it is interesting.

After that I returned to Tokyo for a day and saw my friends graduation and then went on to China...(I was also introduced to a few people interested in Burma issues while in Tokyo... sometimes just meeting people in person is the most helpful thing of all to get something started, the human connection counts)

This last picture is the image I want to see more of everytime I go to Japan... (Took this shot on my way to Shizouka.)



















I wish this blog had as much of the feeling of the trip to Japan... it is hard to capture and remember everything...

A couple other things that I would like to point out:
In Japan, people are much more resourceful due to two reasons: higher ethical standard and higher expenses related to polluting wasting (fuel costs, garbage costs, electricity and water costs etc.)

The culture of environmentalist there seem to be still overinvolved with the technicality of environmental literature/global warming protocols and less involved with direct action. This is something I struggle with very much at a personal level, but I also felt this seeing the current situation there as well as in the United States... this is an interesting place to end this blog... I will post a speech by Al Gore a couple of days ago to convert to all renewable electricity within ten years in the United States:



I had what was personally a historic meeting with the general director of the oldest environmental NGO in China (Friends Of Nature)... we established a strong relationship and she cautioned that what is needed first to inspire China and India et. al. to change from green house emitting behavoirs to non-greenhouse gas emitting industrial infrastructure... that makes me want to cross the Silk Road and go back to our country and do something about this... and based upon that extend the relationships being built on this trip.

Andy-