I sometimes wonder what happened to that
rosy, healthy, little Noddy on the left. And then I see the scrawny specimen hopelessly
attempting to look sporty on the right. And I wince. What went wrong?!
After secondary education at an all-boys
school near Liverpool (UK), and then a much
more interesting undergraduate course in archaeology at
Durham University, I jumped on the popular
JET bandwagon and came to
Japan at the tender age of 20.
Been here a few years now, and don't really have any plans to move on, 'specially with the
recent changes in my life...
In the summer of 2002, I did indeed marry Yukiko (Matsuo), formerly my JTE (Japanese Teacher
of English) in a very small wedding in Chester, England. For those of you who knew me a few
years back, and are curious to see, one of our wedding photos is shown on the right.
Everything turned out beautifully, and a big thanks to everybody who sent best wishes.
2008 Update - In 2006 we finally built and moved into our own house (no
surprise here - a house
I designed myself). So now I'm working from home everyday, with a view of the park and
surrounding mountains out of the office window. My little boy, Euan, was born in 2005 (so he's
currently 3) goes to the local nursery school, so I get to walk him to school and bring
him home every day. He's lucky enough to have come out chattering happily away in both English
to me) and Japanese (to Yukiko and everyone else). I'm currently enjoying the challenge of
teaching him to read.
Since finishing the JET Programme in 2001, I've seriously gotten into design as a hobby, and
more recently as a business. The fruits of my labours can be seen on my business homepage,
www.aTouchofTensai.com (see banner
below), in all sorts
of projects - mostly in the field of website design, but occasionally in interior design
(for shops, cafes and other commercial stuff).
Currently on my second interior design qualification (Regent Academy of Fine Arts, London),
I'm hoping to keep bringing funky and original
ideas to the Kitakyushu scene for a long time to come (because it sorely needs it!).
Apart from Yukiko and Mash, the other loves
of my life would have to be my motorbike (shown on right) and the house, for which I have
designed and built a complete fitted kitchen, a Bali-inspired office, a very
monochrome entrance hall, a games room (under house) with billiard table and
darts, vegetable terraces, and most recently a stone BBQ! Phew!
Lastly, I'll leave you with some photos of my main 'free-time' hobby - many of you might
have seen this at some point or other, and some of you will know that I used to be heavily
into it. Well my passion has been rekindled, so here is a shot of my tabletop wargaming
table, which is 6' by 4' of rolling hills, raging waterfalls, and deep forests.
For those of you who want details, I collect Warhammer fantasy miniatures, and also
Warhammer 40,000 science fiction miniatures. I cordially invite anybody in the
Kitakyushu area to join me, but I'm not going to get my hopes up too much - it's a very new
hobby in Japan!!
I opened a new site in 2005, hoping to strengthen ties between the few wargaming groups
active in Japan (both Japanese and foreign). An online database for listing wargames
clubs, shops, links and photo galleries. So please take a look -
WARGAMES JAPAN
