Jimbo's Japan: Project KICKSTARTER

I realize now that it has been since August since I last made a post about my life here abroad.  Things have been busy to say the least.  For those of you who also blog, maybe you can understand where I am coming from when I say that taking the time to upload pictures and write up a post can be quite time consuming depending on the day.  Since my last post, I have visited Jeju Island with Soojeong, my brother Seth, and his wife Lucy.  It was a wonderful vacation and the scenery there was beyond words.  I will eventually get around to posting those pictures here as well as my other recent adventures, but this post is not about me today.  Today I am writing about my friend James.


James and I met in an survey of art history at class at Oklahoma State University.  Realizing that we both had lived in Japan, and studied Japanese, we hit it off quite well.  We took another Japanese class at OSU together and would often meet up for drinks at the pub or at his place.  I have  spent many a good night reminiscing about life in Japan and other things with James as we drank and talked. James has also contributed countless man hours to the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund at OSU by participating in various events. That being said, my friend James and his wife Mayumi have been in the past four months, coming up with a plan to visit Japan next spring and film different episodes about Japanese culture and nature for James's blog Jimbo's Japan (http://www.jimbosjpan.com/).  James has the heart of an adventurer, and like me, believes in getting off the beaten path to discover things that are overlooked by most tourists who are most of the time content with just enjoying the things found in a guide book.  His writings are humorous, insightful, and really reflect a love and appreciation of Japanese culture and customs.

To fund his activities, James has started using a program called KICKSTARTER, where-in people have 30 days to donate up to a certain predetermined amount before time ends and the dream goes a long with it.  For more information on this program, please refer to his blog for details.  With appropriate funds, they will be able to travel more of the country and show people across the world the wonderful things that they find.  They also plan to make DVDs, take location requests (for a fee), and have other merchandise. 

I am rooting for him and Mayumi, and hope that their dreams to get the project up and running are realized. If you have a chance to, please check out his blog and help James and Mayumi start to realize their dreams.

Here is a link to their kickstarter page:
 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimbosjapan/jimbos-japan-season-one