Journey To Forever

When I first moved to Japan, I was living in a bed town in Chiba. I lived in a small one room appartment with one electric ring and a 'Space Bed' (It lowered down on rails from the ceiling to save space, but I used it for storage after experiencing my first earthquake whilst in it!).
The appartment was next door to a storage space for items too big to throw away normaly. Furniture, fridges, stereos etc. All free if you asked nicely. I changed my interior weekly.

One day I met a poacher on my turf. Foreign, tall, skinny and grey haired. I had met Keith from the Journey to Forever project.

South African by birth, Keith had worked as an editor of various newspapers in South Africa during apartheid, reporting the news that really mattered. Years pass, and in 2000 he was living just round the corner from me doing the groundwork for the overland trip from East Asia to South Africa. With him, his Japanese wife, Midori, also a journalist and pictured sitting on their land rover which they run as much as possible on bio-deisel.

Describing the project on the website, keith writes:
"The focus will be on trees, soil and water, sustainable farming, sustainable technology, and family nutrition."

For a more detailed description of the project, visit the website linked above (Japanese version HERE). It is a fantastic resource for environment related news and editorial, just as Keith was a fantastic resource and inspiration for day to day ideas to reduce waste in the home. My favourite were the worms. A special type of worm that you could keep in a bin in your kitchen and that would reduce your kitchen waste to usuable compost (Mitz refused to have them in the house).