Cambodia

My wife and I founded Project Friends, a Japanese NGO working in Cambodia. We facilitate relationship based training and development as Japanese volunteers come to engage with and learn alongside Cambodian partners.

I'm also a writer and self taught photographer. I'm exploring ways to help young Cambodians document their own lives and cultural stories and working to bring Cambodian and Japanese artists together.

As I see it...

Child’s Play, short movie about living with HIV in Cambodia Child’s Play, short movie about living with HIV in Cambodia »

Last September I went to Cambodia with a group of Japanese volunteers, and during our time at Wat Opot I made this short movie. All the actors are kids, mostly orphaned by AIDS (having lost one or both [....]


Happiness, Contentment, Joy, Oh My Happiness, Contentment, Joy, Oh My »

A boy living beside the old garbage dump in Phnom Penh Today a Japanese student raised the question of happiness in a small group of students from five countries: Japan, China, the Philippines, the USA, and [....]


Makeover, movie, lizard Makeover, movie, lizard »

My blog has a new look. If you're using Google Reader, you'll have to come here to see it. Be one of the first to see the short movie I've posted on the front page. Are you a victim of the lizard? Recently, I [....]


The Butterfly Circus, a short movie with big hope »

If you can set aside 20 minutes and watch this movie, I think you'll be grateful you did. It's better than lots of films I've paid to see in the past. You can learn more about the project and see it in HD if you [....]


Hip-Hop Dancing in Japan - Japanese hip-hop dancers compete in break dancing at BBoy Park. The event was held during the summer at Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo. In a culture known rightly for it's conformity, it's refreshing to see youth expressing themselves if only for a day. You can see pictures here and here.

Child's Play - a short movie about friendship and living with HIV in Cambodia, made on location 50km outside Phnom Penh. It's my first attempt at movie-making and I trained the crew. The actors are kids orphaned by AIDS. Despite the movie's many flaws, we learned in the process, and I'm proud of what we did.