To see a World in a Grain of Sand...

The day the earth shook...

It was a busy day as every day is in Japan. Business people running for trains, mothers charging around with kids on bicycles preparing for another week ahead.

Then things went silent, people screamed, the earth shook again and again.

Reports came in fast about the Tohoku area and Sendai.

I went straight on my cellphone to call my loved ones...no signal. Everything was down. Panic.

Trains stopped all around Kanto and the nation. People lined streets seeking information.

The public was glued to televisions, internet and radio.

More and more videos and accounts appeared minute by minute. Some too shocking and unbelievable to even fathom.

Night came and there was no food left in stores. Some train stations remained open so that people could rest there for the night. Other stations closed and people had to find a way home or just brave the winter night on the floor. Some were lucky enough to be allowed to sleep in their offices.

Have you ever seen a movie come to life?

A man using a video camera to record some people walking down a road trying to evacuate due to an incoming Tsunami captured a moment that will be frozen in my mind forever. A lady is helping an older lady who is possibly her grandmother. The older lady is moving very slowly. There are some children running. Suddenly screams can be heard from behined. The tsunami 6 ft plus high has caught up with them. Water is coming rapidly at them, unrelenting, cars are in the water along with everything else that it has gripped in its path. It's coming and coming and coming. The video ends.

I ask you now, who can prepare for such an event. Who can begin to imagine standing and watching while your home is destroyed in front of your eyes in a matter of seconds or minutes. Who can believe or put in words the time when you see the area that was once your home, just gone. Flattened, just nothing left. Who can begin to imagine the horror of losing your wife, family, children and know that you are the only one left. Who can imagine knowing that your family and friends are in the areas worst effected and not being able to speak or touch them. Who can imagine what is going through the minds of the people on the coastal areas who have lost everything and are surviving freezing snowy nights with only one blanket in a school gym. Who can imagine what is running through the minds of families as they are reunited. Joy, sorrow, relief, anger...who knows.

Life is...there is so much completely needless fighting, squabbling and pettiness over who knows what in this world of ours. This is not a naive observation, it is the truth. Why must there be so much suffering in order for a country and the world to pull together and stand as one.

I for one, am ashamed of so much that has passed in my life and the things that I have done. How could I have been blind to so much that was right in front of me?

It is time for a real change not just words of change from some random politician.

I believe in you and I hope you feel the same. We need to be stronger for each other and for the future.

Respect and all the love to those in Tohoku, my friends in Sendai and all those around the world who have suffered.

"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back. There are some things that time can not mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold..."

[I finally understand...]

Happy new year everyone...I hope life is good and keeping you busy.

The past year has seen the biggest changes of my life along with a fresh set of challenges. No matter which way one turns, life bites you now and again to make sure you are not on cruise control. I look forward to the path that lies ahead.

Love you and miss you all.

David x

Life...

Maybe I have become the thing I was fighting hard not to become. Maybe I have lost the battle already.

Upon arriving in the country, I marveled at the precise times of the trains, how people can sleep standing up, how efficiency, convenience and high customer service were all part and parcel of every day life.

The downside to peoples lives here is of course time. Free time that is. Ask a Japanese person what they are doing tonight and would they like to have a coffee is basically impossible. The usual response is, lets make it next week.

Contact is so easily lost between friends, even good friends. People seem to be so busy, but if asked have no idea what they are being busy with.

I too have fallen into this trap. Over the last few years I have lost touch with many if not all of my good friends, the ones who mean the most to me.

The part I am most ashamed of is losing touch with my own family.

There is/was no excuse for it at all and I hope over the rest of this year to catch up with all of you and rekindle the LOVE!

Without you all I am nothing...

Free & Easy July...

It was truly an honour to be asked to participate in my all time favourite magazine...although my name is incorrect and apparently I am French. HA!

Merry Xmas...

Xmas in Roppongi...a bunch of people freezing their butts off to take pictures at a sea of non-sensical flashing lights...including ME.

Beautiful handmade santas, each individual in its likeness...

So another year is drawing to a close. Change is fast and strong, this is something I have learned this year. Be it education or love there is little time to think, just time for action.

I am still fighting something at times, and on reflection it is no longer against my past mortal enemy, time. It is myself I am battling now.

This year loved ones have come to visit me and left with hopefully a better idea of why I am still here in this country.

Luck has as always been on my side this past year and has dealt me a great hand in terms of the new friends I have made and the return of old friends. Also in how I have progressed in my profession.

Back to Xmas though, you do not really feel it in this country as it just feels like another ordinary day. In fact Xmas Eve is a bigger occasion for couples as it is on this night that you go on that "special" date and eat extremely over priced set menus in restaurants. So off we went, me and the lady friend to Yokohama Bay and surprisingly it was not busy at all which was welcome.

So back to you now my friends and family. I wish you the warmest and happiest Christmas possible and I hope you all take care of each other at this time.

All my love people! xxx