The man who biked across Canada

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Yukari

Last week, I had a privilage of meeting Ryo Ambe, Japanese man who cycled across Canada.

I didn’t know anything about his trip until I got an email from Mike Abe, president of Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, and well respected leader in Japanese-Canadian community in Victoria. Soon after that, I found Ryo on Twitter and made contact with him. And I attended the press conference at the city hall the next day.

There were about 20 people gathered, most of them wearing Support Japan T-shirts. Ryo talked about his trip and showed us some slides from his massive photo collection.

Unfortunately, I was unable to accompany the group of cyclists to Mile Zero, Ryo’s official goal of this trip, but you can see the clip from CTV here.

The next day I took Ryo out to lunch at Daidoco (Best Japanse lunch spot in Victoria in my opinion) and got to chat about his experience.

Ryo used to work at the department store Isetan. But after losing his friend to cancer,who told him to follow his dreams, and after the 311 earthquake and Tsunami, he decided to come to Canada, his favourite country, and bike across it from Halifax to Victoria to thank the people in Canada for their support. He started in May, and arrived in Victoria in late September. That’s 7900Km!

We talked about a lot of different things, my living in Canada, his experience in Canada….we both agreed that this is a very fine country.

He is going back to Japan in October, and hopes to do another quick bike trip in Taiwan, which also helped Japan so much after the disaster, to thank the people there.

He also said he wants to write a book about his ride in Canada. Good luck Ryo!

You can read his blog (mostly in Japanese) here. http://transcontinentaldiary.blogspot.com/

Lunch and Learn with The London Chef

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Yukari

If you live in Victoria, you might have heard of The London Chef by now. It’s not quite in the downtown core, but lucky for me, it’s close to my home, and I have enjoyed their delicious salads, baked goods and sauces from their cafe and pantry before. (Try their Smoked Tomato Butter – it’s excellent)

Dan Hayes- The London Chef himself – has kindly invited me over to join his Lunch and Learn cooking class today. I knew he was offering cooking classes but didn’t know much about it. But I have walked by when the class was in session and have been curious. So I accepted his invite in a heartbeat!

Today’s menu was Vancouver Island Seafood in a Thai Red Curry Broth.
How the class works is, basically, you sit around the beautiful kitchen, and Dan will cook the meal in front of you. So it’s not really a “cooking class” par se, it is called “lunch and learn”, and I bet you learn a lot. Dan showed us how to prepare Dogfish – which I have never seen before – and it was really interesting. I have cooked some easy, North Americanized Thai food at home before, but in this class Dan showed us various ingredients, such as Shrimp paste, Palm sugar, Galangal and Kaffir Lime leaf(this was my favourite- smells incredible)…now I know where to pick up these ingredients and I’m so excited.

Dan’s a great teacher and storyteller, I honestly enjoyed watching him cook and listening to him. One thing he said – that he liked watching people eat what he makes at The London Chef, because that doesn’t happen in a restaurant environment so often -made a lovely impression on me. He seemed like he really enjoyed cooking for people.
And here’s the best part – the lunch!

Lunch and Learn classes are typically $25 per person.
There are other classes/events available – for more info, check out The London Chef website.

What we can do – in memory of Trey Pennington

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Yukari

Today we lost Trey Pennington, an author and Social Media consultant based in Greenville, SC.
He lost his battle with depression and took his own life this morning.
I didn’t know Trey personally, but I read his blog and knew him on Social Media. I wouldn’t say I was his friend. Still, this news saddened me deeply and I’ve been thinking about him all day. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

I’ve lost a friend by suicide before, and as Mark Schaefer described in his very touching post here, my friend was, also, the last person to do such a thing. She was almost an extreme extrovert, super outgoing. But she, too, lost the battle with depression.

I have a very minor case myself. Mine are just a fog that hover over my head, and I don’t feel like doing anything. So far, thankfully, I am not needing any medical help. But I know many friends and family who suffer from depression.

I am angry, frustrated, and sad. And I feel helpless. I recently helped out with Courtnall Celebrity Classic, which was a fundraiser in memory of Archie Courtnall, who took his own life 33 years ago. I had just posted the article on Facebook/Twitter about Russ Courtnall getting phone calls from fellow NHLers after Rick Rypien and Wade Belak’s suicides.

I feel like we are doing all we can to tell everybody that depression is real, and it’s an illness, and it is OK to get help. There is no shame in that. Still, these people took their own life.
I’m not blaming them, of course, but I just feel devasted and feel helpless.

Then again, after seeing many touching posts by Amber and Bridget Pilloud, I am reminded that all we can do is to keep talking. Get the conversation going, and don’t hush it up. Amber has asked her readers this, but, I want to ask my readers too – if YOU are reading this, and need help, if YOU feel like there is nobody to talk to, if YOU have the thought of suicide… please, please talk to me. I promise, I will be there for you.

By reading about Russ, I found this website – Lost Behind By Suicide, a website to offer open dialogue on suicide. Have a look.

Trey, Rest in peace….we miss you.