Last year young Luke climbed his first mountain, Mt. Tateyama, here in Toyama Prefecture. This year’s trekking trip was more ambitious- 3 days, 2 nights in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. What an amazing trip! This episode, the first in a series of three, tells the story of our 1st day, one that featured a climb up the largest field of year-round snow in Japan, the “Daisekkei”. With this video I’m aiming to not only tell a family story, but also to introduce what it’s like to trek in this beautiful part of our world. Hope you like it!

For his summer English project, Luke uses English to tell the story of a vegetable garden he and his sister Max planted this past spring. Shinobu got the idea rolling, which was to create a small, manageable garden that the kids to help out with. This sort of “micro gardening” is currently VERY popular in [...]

Here’s a video clip that shows a family doing something they really love- carving tracks in pure powder snow! Known in snowboarding lingo as “shredding”, this clip features rock and roll highlights of Luke, Mama, and me tearing it up. I hope you can get a sense of the thrill this sport can provide! We [...]

Hey! Long time no video. Winter vacation has started, and I FINALLY feel free to make time for video editing. Since 2009 is about to end, it’s time to take a look back at all the fun stuff and memorable family moments. The clip is roughly chronological, starting back in January and progressing through the [...]

Hey everyone, I’m usually pretty passe about natural disasters here, but this time a big typhoon is heading straight for Toyama! This is very rare; last time it happened, about 6 years ago, it washed out the park across the street. Anyway, it’s now 11pm Thursday (9am EST), and I’m off to bed. The thing [...]