Q: How can I contact you?

A: Send me an e-mail here: dogentricks@gmail.com. I can’t promise a quick reply, but I’ll try!

Q: How did you get into tricking?

A: I stumbled across www.trickbusters.com and saw Alyssa’s first sampler. I was hooked from that point forward!

Q: How do you define tricking?

A: A mix of martial arts, gymnastics, acrobatics, and breakdancing.

Q: What are your tricking goals?

A: To train in a manner that is honest to me; to train as hard as possible.

Q: What is the music used in your tutorials?

A: The music for each tutorial is now listed next to each tutorial.

Q: How do you choose the music in each tutorial?

A: I used to use “creepy” songs so that people would remember them better; now I just use music I like, which a lot of people still think is creepy ho ho ho.

Q: What does your training consist of?

A: I typically trick and condition in intervals. I.e. water training for a month, and then tricking for a month. I cannot trick frequently for a long time or my chronic injuries start acting up. In some ways it sucks, but I love conditioning almost as much as tricking itself, so I don’t mind much. As long as I’m working hard I’m satisfied.

Q: So you lift weights?

A: Absolutely.

Q: How can I get motivated to train more?

A: Get off your ass fatty.

Q: Do you have titanium ankles?

A: No

Q: How can I get titanium ankles?

A: Watch the tutorial; do the exercises, EVERYDAY.

Q: How can I get adamantium ankles?

A: Be born as a mutant that can regenerate, then have adamantium injected into your skeleton. Be wary of a mutant dressed in purple that manipulates metal.

Q: How did you get injured?

A: Terrible training habits.

Q: What is your diet like?

A: I try to eat as much fruit and fish as possible, and organics when I’m not poor. I have a weakness when it comes to Japanese food. Namely, ramen and takoyaki.

Q: Do you drink? Smoke?

A: I have never tried either intend to keep it that way.

Q: What is your plan for the future?

A: I am currently doing the JET Program, and have a 3 year Japanese work visa. While I enjoy my work, my ultimate goal is to become a published writer–specifically in Japanese.

Q: So do you write often?

I spend several hours reading and writing Japanese everyday. So far, I have written one book in Japanese—a translation of my English short story, “Crossing Lake Callahan.” I mostly study the works of Kanehara Hitomi, a brilliant young writer who won Japan’s most prestigious literary award at the age of 21.

Q: What is Dogen?

A: The name of the monk who brought the Soutou Sect of Zen Buddhism from China to Japan. I chose the name because the name “Kevin” was already taken on tricks tutorials and it was the first name that came to mind; I was reading books on Zen at the time.

Q: Do you speak Japanese?

Yes, it was my major at the University of Washington and also one of my passions. I study everyday, primarily through music and movies.

Q: So, are you fluent in Japanese?

I am conversationally fluent in Japanese and can make my way around the country without any problems. I cannot read every kanji compound and I cannot pick up a Japanese textbook and simply breeze through it. My speaking and listening abilities far exceed my writing and reading abilities – in contrast to my English.

Q: Why are you so interested in Japan?

A: The answer to this question can be found in the purpose section of the website.

Q: How did you learn Japanese?

A: By far, the greatest (basic) program for learning Japanese I have ever come across is Oxford Publishing’s ‘Take off! In Japanese.’ I used this and other programs and also took a year of Japanese at the University of Washington before leaving to study at Keio. In Japan I studied Japanese intensively at school and held an internship at East West Consulting – both of which boosted my Japanese abilities greatly. I also tooklinguistics classes before graduation, which help tremendously with phonetics (speaking). These days, I hang out with Japanese people whenever I can (oh wait I live in Japan now lulz) and also listen to Japanese while I sleep.

Q: Why did you go to Japan?

A: I was planning to work in Japan after college, so I studied Japanese at Keio for a year as part of my career path.

Q: How much does it cost to attend Japanese college for a year?

A: Total, including food, spending money, plane ticket, housing, and school was around $30,000. Yikes!

Q: So, do you live in Japan now?