I thought November would be a boring month. It wasn’t. December is shaping up to be an enjoyable month too – but one mostly at home, I think. In early November, on a whim because the rain, the short days, and the start of the cold wasn’t very fun – I booked a ten day…
There is one big reason I come back to America. I love my daughter and honestly that’s reason enough. My most recently completed book could easily be labeled roman a clef which roughly translates to fiction where characters and situations are more or less the author’s fantasy or desires from life translated to the page. Novel…
I could write a lot about Hanoi and I probably will – but for now, I think these pictures express it all pretty well. Amazing country, amazing people, amazing city. ~CD
As the weather started to get cooler in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan in late October, I realized that the time when it would be best to not be at Satoshi Manor was probably November. The issue was primarily that the great weather and wonderful colors of Autumn had almost ended and the cold and snow wonder…
I’m distinctly uncomfortable right now. Not physically and not emotionally – but mentally and possibly even spiritually. I’m unsettled. It’s November 14th here in Japan where I’ve just returned from an eight day trip to northern Vietnam. What I’m experiencing isn’t culture shock, it’s not that experience of being in a new place and and…
The first time Donald Trump was elected was a painful shock to many of us. The reason was hard to figure out at first, but ultimately it came down to the fact that we’d been lying to ourselves about what America represented, what it wants, and who it is. Don’t get me wrong, every person…
It makes me happy to say that Couchsurfing is not dead. I’ve been grateful for all the friends and experiences that Couchsurfing has brought me through the years and it was unpleasant to think of it as becoming irrelevant and a dying platform. It still might, but for the moment at least, my faith is…
I have to admit, there are many challenges so far to living here but one of the greatest joys has been the time and space to create art. Here are some of the things I’ve painted since I’ve been here. The latest to the earliest. The earliest piece I did here was the tengu (red…
Aloha Friends If you aren’t aware of Baoism, please take a moment to explore it. It’s a syncretic spiritual philosophical framework with an unlimited number of holidays, gods, and rules – because they are up to you. Explore more here (https://www.baoism.org) I hope that everyone is doing well and feeling the joy of life. I…
It occurred to me that some of you have not been on this journey with me from the beginning, so I want to take a moment to share my book writing career with you. At this point I have written more than twenty books and been a part of a number of anthology projects. Some…