Hello friends, Dogentricks.com here.

My character was shaped by a man who lived 800 years ago. His teachings showed how me to appreciate life, how to treat others, and how to live without regrets.

His name was Dogen Zenji, and this is a film dedicated to his life.

It will be shown at the University of Washington later this month; to say that I am excited would be an understatement.

After all!

The last major blog for this site was written on Northwest Air 17, Tokyo to Seattle, more than 2 months ago. I’ve been dying to write lately and get my head on straight after a series of significant circumstances.

Hello friends, Dogentricks.com here. I am back in America and this is what I think.

There are a lot of overweight people here. There are a lot of people here that do not care what they look like when they go outside. Fascinating. Although I disapprove of tipping the scale, having the balls to dress like a bulls-eye for harassment is respectable in it’s own right and something I saw very little of in Japan. Though I do miss the beautiful people all the time, everywhere.

I miss Japanese food. But I also love my current diet and wouldn’t change it for anything. Everything that passes through the morphing hole in my face is small on the wallet, big in quantity, and organic. There is a world class gym 10 minutes from my house, when I walk slowly. I pay 15 dollars a month for membership. The gumby green grass that lines UW is soft and free to trick/frisbee/pigskincatch on. Without any doubt, it is easier to live as an athlete in America. Though, I wish I had some ramen.

I have my pace. I have plenty of time to do the things I want and meet the people I need to see. There is no 60 minute commutes to school; there is no meeting in downtown Shibuya just for a coffee. My friends are all within a very large jump of me, all the time. I can lie down in the quad and listen to music with a friend or run around in circles screaming without a second glance from anyone. I chose to do what I want, when I want – because I have that luxury. I walked home last night at 4:30 AM without anyone batting an eye. Though, I am a bit unsure as to why I was walking around at 4:30 in the morning.

People here are loud. The volume is irritating, but it is refreshing to hear the rainbow of opinions which shade the late night talks that occur every day. People are not afraid to argue and stand up for their beliefs. Though, I do miss the virtue of patience.

People here study what they want to, and they do it with passion. I love it.

These are flakes of the limitless culture nuances I have noticed and for a very long time took for granted. More than anything else, America lives up to it’s reputation: free. We are a country of people full of dreamers, full of couch potatoes, and full of diversity. We are not a country of full of followers, full of uniformity, and full of teamwork.

This is how I view the world around me. Regardless of this, the borders of a country and the culture that comes when you cross them bear no relevance to the kindness of the people that live there. Be it the land of the free or the land of the rising sun, there exists kind, beautiful people living and helping others. Kindness over culture.

Enough of the ridiculousity.

I live with 3 great roommates in a wonderful apartment. I love it. I am taking all classes related to Japanese. My first period is Modern Japanese Literature – straight up Japanese novels. Extremely challenging, but extremely fun. I love it. I am training all the time and feeling the transformations surface on my body and mind. I love it.

I am single. Risa and I broke up and this blog will not go into the details.

I hang out with exchange students almost every single day and feel that my Japanese is still improving, albeit at a slower rate. They remind me of my passion for Japanese language, culture, and fried octopus balls.

I am planning on putting more work into this site in the near future, but for today, my time is up.

train hard.

Hello friends.

Dogentricks.com here, sitting in an internet cafe 5 minutes from my house because school is over and I have no internetNICE. Today I’d like to tell you about earth and it’s relative size. It’s actually quite a small world after all.

I went to Tokyo Disney Land last week with my wonderful girlfriend and had an absolute blast. We were there from the minute the gate opened in the morning until they kicked us out at 10:00. Rode more than a dozen rides, was blown away by a handful of incredible shows, and even had the time to relax in The Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.

Nice.

First impressions in being in Disney Land for the first time in nearly a decade. “LOL.” Why you ask, why would you laugh!? In Japan, as soon as the gates open at 8:00, a FLOOD of people rushes into the park looking to save a spot on their favorite ride. Now, when I say rush into the park, I mean it. Thousands of people – kids, middle aged salary men, young couples, all literally sprinting into the park at the same time, all anxious to experience the magic. So while I’m expecting to slowly soak up Disney Land, I suddenly find myself in the front seat of Splash mountain – at 8:05 AM. Quite different than the California experience, but very fun nonetheless.

So I’m walking through candy land with my girlfriend when she says, “You know, a lot of people don’t really like Disney Land. They say that it’s too commercialized.” And as I was watching the various shows throughout the day it seemed more and more like Disney was bloating itself. With lyrics such as “Mickey Mouse – the world’s best friend,” and “Miney, Miney, Miney, Miney, Miney…Miney” Granted the shows were all spectacular, I just couldn’t help but think to myself, “I wish there was more of a message – I wish the kid sitting next to me was hearing something rather than just the names of various Disney Characters.” At which point we lined up for “It’s a Small World After All.”

When I was a Child, Small World was always my least favorite ride. Not only was it the slowest ride in Disney Land, but it was also the…slowest…ride…in Disney Land. I stepped onto the boat with Risa and 10 months of experience living in a foreign country, completely unprepared for the beauty I was about to experience.

Ditch the commercialism, forget the boasting, soak up the love. “It’s a small world after all.” Hundreds of children from all over the world, all singing in unison. “It’s a small world after all.” Nothing but smiles, nothing but peace. I nearly started to cry as I finally realized the absolute joy and purity of the attraction that used to bore me to tears. Upon further research, I learned that Walt Disney created Small World at the request of President Eisenhower to promote worldwide peace. It’s my humble opinion, but I think he did a damn good job.

I’ll be leaving Japan in exactly one week. Yes, that’s correct. I have 7 days left in the land of the rising sun. I’ve had more out of this world experiences in 10 months than I ever dreamed possible and still have a couple blogs up my sleeve, but I’d like to write a pre-emptive conclusion to the most powerful year of my life.

A few days before going to Disney Land I went to a concert where a band called 大和 (Yamato) stole my heart. The main singer was a small, soft spoken man, but had the presence of a lion. He looked over the audience and made eye contact with me, letting out a slight smile. He then looked across the stage at Disco Volante, the band from Sweden about to play. He turned to the audience once more and gave a brief monologue that I’ll never forget.

Translated:
There is only one sky above us. Today we have people from all over the world gathered in this small, underground live house, but there is only one sky above us. Today we have Disco Volante, who came all the way from Sweden to play for us. Let us show our gratitude with a smile that can be seen all the way to Europe. There is only one sky above us. Today there are fans from all over the world gathered in this audience. And though we may be separated by distance, and though our faces may be different, our smile is the same, and there is only one clear sky above us.

And then he began to sing this.

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People are nice. No matter where you go, no matter who you meet, you’ll find that everybody has one thing in common – everyone wants to smile, everyone wants to laugh and just enjoy themselves. Over time the way people communicate and the means by which people divide themselves has become acute, but the dream of everyone on this planet remains the same – a smile. It isn’t money, it isn’t fame, it isn’t a new car. It’s a smile. It’s something can do at any time, and when you do it spreads to those around you.

To the readers of this site – today you have homework. Today you’re going to go out and make someone smile. Give someone you don’t know a genuine compliment from your heart. Be it their style, their haircut, or their posture, find something you like and let that person know. I guarantee it’ll make them smile, and I guarantee that you will feel absolutely fantastic knowing that you’ve made someone’s day just a little bit better. Share your results in the forum, I’m anxious to read : )

Train hard.

“Dear Kevin,

After reading the email you sent to the lead singer of SOFTBALL, I decided that I should finally write to you. This will be quite a long email, and I know you must get a lot of mail like this, but I hope you’ll read with patience and without any reservations. Just for the sake of making a baseline for this letter, my major interests are Tricking and Japan. I’ll start by explaining how I discovered both. I’ll start with Japan.

I remember my first real contact with japanese culture. I had just started 7th grade, and one day when I got home from school, I saw my big brother and his friend watching Naruto. Ofcourse at the time I was oblivious as to what it was. They explained it was an ANIME, a japanese animation. Just from hearing “”Haruka Kanata”" from Asian Kung-Fu Generation got me instantly intriqued. So I pulled up a chair and watched. Even though I didnt know it then, but that was the most life changing event in my life, because from that spawned things that make up a big part of me today. After seeing my first episode of naruto I was instantly hooked. From that point on watching anime became a part of my daily life. Ofcourse from that came also my love for the language and music. About the same time I got into Anime I discovered a show called “”Madventures”". It’s about 2 guys going around the world and filming a sort of documentary style series. It remains my favourite show even today. After that I decided: “”This is what I want to do when I ‘grow up’, I want to travel, I want to go to Japan, This is my dream”".

If I remember correctly It was around March 2006, nearing the end of 8th grade. Just another guy night, playing poker, watching movies etc. Me and a friend of mine were bored and we were watching random videos on Youtube. He told me he had found a cool website and started typing, www.bilang.com. In the end, that event was also a lifechanging event. The first trick I had ever see nwas probably one of Hans Wikkeling’s Double Legs. I just watched with my jaw open for atleast 2 hours. Something like I had never seen before. “”I wanna be able to do that”", I though to myself. I started stretching and working out, but not for long…

…Enter 9th grade. During that one school year my life completely changed, partly due to own actions, partly not. I hit rock bottom, and completely forgot any dreams about going to Japan and about Tricking. During 9th grade, picking on me got from something I could have lived with to something that made me want to disappear from the face of the earth. I was sorta fat, had long black hair, watched anime, doenst go hand in hand with being popular. It was considered weird not doing what everyone else did. Being different was hard. I barely finished school. After the sommer break, I began to further continue my studies, unwillingly though. I have never liked studying, I even lied to my parents I was going to Lukio(something like high school, the system here is a bit different), when in fact I was Spending my day walking around in malls, wasting my life. But the the best thing happened to me last christmas. I accidentally stumbled across dogentricks.com. Suddenly, both things I used to be so passionate about, Tricking and Japan, they came back to me. I instantly told my parents of the situation that I had been skipping, and I quit school. I’m currently working in a storage (not as bad as it sounds, well maybe paywise), small bit by bit saving money, maybe one day I’ll be ready and live my dream and go to Japan. And what comes Trickingwise, I’m training, strecthing, watching what I eat. The first time ever in my life when I take of my shirt and pump my muscles in front of the mirror I see pecks and a six-pack, instead of sellulite and spare tires. I just want to say, Thank You So Much Kevin. Your site gave me my life back, my dreams, my passion. It has bben such an inspiration to me, thank you. For you, Softball might be the most influential thing in your life, but when it comes to me, you are. Once more, arigatou gozaimasu.

Best of wishes to both you and Risa,

*******”