“Hello Friends. Dogen here.

Well, I just finished my first semester as an exchange student in Japan and I have to say I quite enthusiastically devoured my first 4 and a half months here. That leaves just over 6 months before I cry myself home on a 12 hour flight back to Seattle. About a month ago I thought, “”No, there is no way I’ve been here for this long already!”" But now, I feel like I’ve really adjusted to life here, and I can easily cope with the fact I’ve been in the land of the rising sun for more than a couple weeks.

Here’s the fun part – you guys are going to kill me when you hear this – from now until the end of March, I have no school. Yes, I have a 2 month spring break. in Japan.

You see, in Japan the school year ends now and begins at the end of March. In America, we typically get out sometime in June and start up in September. So, that creates a 3-4 month vacation. In Japan, this break is split up between the summer and spring. 2 months and 2 months instead of an epic, forget everything you ever learned, part-time-work extravaganza.

I’ll be doing a lot of CRAZY things during my time off, but before that, I need to give my thanks.

Since re-launching Dogentricks in September I have time and time again received messages that brought me to tears. Here are some of my favorites – to those of you who wrote these, know that they did not go unnoticed.

“”Your site offered so much information, but most importantly; reassurance. It made me believe that I could really go out and start tricking like a pro, and that’s what I think is so important about your site – it gives people confidence.”"

“”I typed in “”crazy asian hair”" in Google image search and a pic of that male model came up( it was in your nov blog i think)…well i read… and read and read. and what started out as being so bored that i was tring to find cool Asian ppls hair. about 4 1/2 hours later turned into me reading pretty much everything i could find on your site lol, it’s really well done and im into tricking myself, and japan has allways amazed me. so i just wanted to say TY for not only haveing awesome samplers up but putting things that pertain to life and the beauty of another country.”"

“”I love the site, it’s really helped me along. So, you have my gratitude Dogen.”"

“”Your tutorials and general attitude when it comes to tricking and life have also greatly impacted me and my life in such a positive way.”"

and most recently, the most moving was a blog flipcast beautifully wrote about the ‘my life video’. My heart just about stopped while I was reading this:

An Impressive Walk

Thank you. Thank you for everyone that’s ever visited this site. Thank you for anyone that’s sent me any kind of message. Thank you:

Akeem – for continually sending me inspiring and thoughtful e-mails.

Austin – for handling everything tech, being a great friend and an incredible role model.

Mom and Dad – for giving me the most incredible opportunity of studying abroad.

Every user on the forum, especially gullie, ATAandTruong, Psych, Yakri, MIAtrix, SupperSapphire, Yoichi, Natein, Strider-Hajime, Lonewolf4524, jkarate212, Bissen, Teemu, 4LAO, Shoes Magoo, RuKuS, Cicero, Zerocool, ryanlq, Kibs, Ish, sky walker, 0_Grav, and of course my great friend and incredible training partner Scottykins.

The friends I’ve made since coming to Japan – David, Rodger, Luke, Andrew, Chris, Loren, Keishi, Hiro, Andrew, Sebastian, Oka, Pansy, Gigi, Hirotomo, and Sei.

Friends from before who welcomed me with open arms – Ayako, Toshi, Mari, and Hitomi.

My incredible teachers this quarter – Ikeda, Sakai, Katou, IZUMI, Asayama, OTOKO NO IKEDA.

Risa – for changing my life.

and to everyone else – you know who you are. thank you.

Anytime someone has been inspired by this website, know that it wasn’t because of Dogen. You’ve simply been touched by one of the people listed above working their magic through me.”

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