CURRENT MISSION

My Japanese wife and I have traveled every, xmas, spring and summer vacation and enjoy meeting interesting people who also travel. We will be based in Hood River until we can afford to probably spend winter months in Mexico. I do not like paying for expensive hotels and want to be part of the community that makes inexpensive travel possible. WE are working on building an extra bedroom for guests.

ABOUT ME

My Japanese wife and I have been living and working in Taichung, Taiwan for 7 years and I was in Sapporo, Japan for 5 years. 2 years in Cairo and 4 years in Seoul. We spend summers in Columbia Gorge and travel in Asia on vacations. Travel became a passion after being a summer exchange student in Mexico city in 1960. We both love food, the visual arts,and are both working artists. We hike, play tennis and go to the local spa regularly. Serious and sometimes funny we are close to retiring to our passions of making things!

PHILOSOPHY

My wife and I are very serious about making and being creative people. We also spend part of are week playing in our sports and love of water. In the summer we take care of our land and /struggle to find time to meet new people. We are at an important transition in life moving into a time where we will be doing everything we have worked for. Interesting people who we can share our ideas with is part of our community.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We have been inactive for a long time as usually we find inexpensive hotels and friends to stay with in the USA. Can show people around the Gorge, suggest places to stay and share a meal and travel experiences. We hike, play tennis, kite
and I collect recycled junk!
COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have couch surfed around the bay area through the Hospertality Club. I did lots of couch surfing when I was in my twenties and now I am 71 and like a more comfortable bed!

Interests

Tennis, kitesurfing, sailing, hiking, surfing, beach combing, museum and art galleries, architecture, city tours, interesting ethnic food, showing people the things we find interesting in our home town cities and practicing Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese (wife)and meeting interesting people of all ages.

• arts
• culture
• architecture
• dining
• crafts
• flowers
• traveling
• hiking
• kite surfing
• surfing
• sailing
• sports
• tennis
• business
• teaching
• visual arts
• tours
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Haruki Murakami, Alice Steinbach, Pico Iyer, good biography, art criticism, architecture and fashion and anything to do with the visual arts. Classical music, Jazz and contemporary as well as 60 rock and roll.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Summers in Mexico city, Edinburgh, Munich, Germany, Circe Expendition with Scripts Institute of Oceanography, hitch hiked across North Africa southern Europe and Greece to Germany, got lost in Big Sur, Cal, ran the bulls in Pompalona lived in Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan) for 16 years, San Francisco and Carmel from 1970-77 and traveled the USA in VW bus in 1977-78. Placed a lot of wonderful visual art in a lot of homes and communities to make the world a better place! Fine tuning artist studio and hoping to build Japanese garden!

Teach, Learn, Share

I have been an art teacher for 20 years, and ran my own cultural arts business where I consulted to mostly business people about developing collections that were a part of their corporate culture. I have taught tennis and enjoy teaching the things that I have a passion for. My wife does Japanese cooking, flower arranging, crafts and is a strong tennis player. Hiking around the gorge will be a strong part of our retirement.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Intro to The Gorge hiking, inexpensive restaurants, tennis, kite surfing, snow boarding and other water sports.

Countries I’ve Visited

Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan