Since June, 2004

our friends who helped us during our journey

Thanks to all of our friends who helped us on our jouney.
We have no words to thank all of you, but we really appreciate your support!!

Place
Name
Comments
Jan.01
Amsterdam
(Netherland)
Kaoru & Rene

Amsterdam is the last destination of this journey. Kaoru is Shiho's friend from the university and Rene is her boy friend. We enjoyed staying at the nice apartment by the canal.

(stayed 2days as planned)


Apartment in Amsterdam
Jan.01
Lyon
(France)
Pierre and Emmanuelle family

We met them at the campsite in South Africa. They were interested in going to Japan, so we brought some information about Japan to them. They travel every summer and kids are good traveler too!

(stayed 2days as planned)


Kids before school
Jan.01
Paris
(France)
Fusa & Katsuru

Fusa,Katsuru and Shiho went to same campus in University. We found out where they were and contact them in France.

(stayed 2days as planned)


Apartment in Paris
Dec.05
Antibes
(France)
Julien & Mari

Mari is Shiho's friend and Julien is her husband. We spent more than a month in Antibes where there house was. This is the longest stay during our journey, Without them, we might come back a month earlier...

(stayed 39days, Planed: 1month)


Mari's apartment in Barcelona
Dec.05
Frankfurt
(Germany)
Sayaka

Sayaka is Shiho's friend from high school. She was in Frankfult on business. Without her, we might stay at the campsite in freezing weather.


(stayed 3days, Planed: 1day)


At the market in Frankfurt
Oct.05
Nairobi
(Kenya)
Mr. Sogabe & his colleague Taku's friends's friend helped to receive a package from Japan. Even though he didn't know us, he showed us around Nairobi not only daytime but also nightlife(!?).


At the Japanese restaurant in Nairobi
Aug.05
Kruger NP
(South Africa)
Chito & Yuko

Two frineds of Shiho got together in South Africa, and they carried our favorite Japanese food such as Noodle, Dried Plum, and Salmon flake and so on. We will never be able to forget those tasty stuffs Yum!


Eight hours delay of their flight made our meeting more memorable....


a lot of souvenirs(food) from Japan!
Jul.05
Omuthiya village
(Namibia)
Jennifer + Meme Uusiku, Hambelena, Donacky, Ndapewa, Rejoysa

We met Jennifer at Wild Coast, South Africa same as Darcy. She is from N. Y., but she is doing volunteer work such as teaching English, providing other education about HIV/AIDS at small village in Namibia for two years.

She welcomed us to help her, and we visited her village since it is quite difficult to communicate with local people and to experience their own life.

We spent 10 days at village, and completed the 'Library Renewal Project', and were thanked by teachers in the primary school. It was really good experience.


with Jennifer & her pets

with host family
Jun.05
Sossusvlei (Namibia)
Peet & Linda The last 4km to Sossusvlei was a sand road which is only passable by 4WD. We asked this family to give us a ride and they kindly accepted us. We also joined hiking at the dune, spent half day together.

Lunch at the dune
Jun.05
Fish River Canyon (Namibia)
Pretorias Family + Troy We were in trouble to trek there because we weren't allowed to trek if the party contained less than 2 people. This Pretorias family gave us a breakthrough, they welcomed us to join their party. We trekked one of the hardest trail in the world together, and had the best beer which I had ever had when we got to the goal.

at Ai-Ai hot spring
(the end of the trail)
Jun.05
Cape Town
(South Africa)
Colven family

We occasionally met Darcy and Clala at Wild coast, South Africa, and Darcy told us we could visit them as they lived in Cape Town where we would go.
We did hiking on Table Mountain several times, and they gave me lots of travel information. We had several Japanese dish party, as we could get fresh Tuna there!

Finally, we made a record of staying one place.....

( stayed 16days, Planed: 7days)


Colven Family
(Roy, Darcy, Gimmy, Clala, and Mali-the dog)
Apr.05
Pretoria
(South Africa)
Ms. Reiko Shiho's friend's friend. she gave us a lot of tips in RSA, and it helped us a lot since we had no idea how dangerous it was, and how/what to take care.
sorry, didn't find a chance to take a pic
Apr.05
Heidelberg (Germany)
Hans

The first time we met him was at minor trail in Torres del Paine Nat. Park, Chile. Since we were only three on that trail, we became friend. Nowadays, traveler exchanges their e-mail address, but he only gave us his physical address.

We try to visit him when we landed Germany. Even though we couldn't let him know about our arrival, he warmly welcomed us and helped to prepare for our journey in Africa.

He no longer live in Heidelberg, and he mentioned to move somewhere in West Africa or Brazil. Although we sent several e-mail to him, we haven't had any reply from him yet....


cooked pasta together
Apr.05
Narita airport (Japan)
Jin Shiho's friend from junior high school.
before her job, she came to our house at 6am to take us to the main bus terminal.

at bus terminal
Feb.05
and
Jan.06
Narita airport (Japan)
Ken

Definitely one of the best friends of Taku. He took day off to pick us up!!, and we headed to our favorite noodle soup restaurant right away.

He came to pick us up the airport again when we finally returning home.


Ken (wearing orange jacket)
(couldn't hold my camera caz I was so impressed)


Ken again!!

Dec.04
Patagonia (Argentina)
Shio A friend of Taku from his last job. He had two months off before his new job, and he just decided to join us at Patagonia. Even though he didn't have any camping experiences, our meeting point was a small campsite at Torres del Paine Nat. Park, Chile. He had to show up at that campsite with full of Japanese foods asked by us to celebrate new year 2005.

Shio's first sleep inside sleeping bag
Oct.04
Galapagos Island (Ecuador)
Mr. Hiyama

We met him on a diving boat at one of the Galapagos Islands, and had dinner together. We found that he had a guide book of South America, and we knew he was going to come back to Japan soon. We asked him if we could borrow it, and then he just said O. K.

We were served a nice hot pot when we visited his house to return his book....


at Quito Airport
Aug.04, Feb.05
Los Angeles
(USA)
Shimmy & Tomo

A friend of Shiho's from University and his wife Tomo. He just moved to L. A. for his MBA degree right before we got to L. A. Our returning flight was from L. A., so we visited them twice, and spent 13 days in total, which is the record for staying one place in American round
( Stayed: 13 days - planed: 5days)

In addition, those are some of what they have done for us...
1. bought a tent for our African round, and sent to Japan
2. kept some of our stuffs sent from Belize
3. fed us at Chinese restaurant as he won at a golf game.
4. introduced us some of their friends who knew about Africa.( See below)


Cheers! with Argentinean Wine, a gift from us on the way back
Shimmy & Tomo mentioned that we should meet Mr. Kinai who loves Africa, and he could find his time to give us some useful and important information with his friends.
 
Mr. Kinai (left) and members of 'African Lovers'
Aug.04
Breckenridge (Colorado, USA)
Justin & Kevin Taku's best buddy in the U.S., Justin, and his room owner, Kevin.
Even though Justin was out of town, we stayed at Kevin's house, and he gave us great travel information of Utah and Colorado. We had good time by cooking some asian dishes.
( Stayed: 7days@-@planed: 3daysj

Justin(center) & Kevin(right)
Jun.04
Eagle
(Alaska, USA)
Gold miner, and a couple

Due to a big wildfire, there was no boat from Eagle to Dawson City where we parked our car, and that meant we had no way to come back.
A cool guy from gold rush era and an alaskan couple helped us.

1. A gold miner living in Eagle took us to a small village on a border. Since he knew Japanese loved salmon eggs, he gave us a big plastic bag of them,

2.An Alaskan couple who took us from border to Dawson city. No one but them wanted to take us because there was a border on the way, but fortunately, they could take us from the border (we had to walk more than 4 miles to border from 5am...)


a gold miner


an Alaskan Couple

Jun.04
Anchorage
(Alaska, USA)
Kurt & Claudia It was the Triathlon race at Saipan island where Taku and Kurt met, and they didn't contact each other for more than 5 years since then. Kurt was kind enough to pick us up at airport even though Taku called him up at Anchorage airport.
He and his wife Claudia kindly took care of us, and provided their guesthouse. Our journey would be never started without Kurt & Caudia.
(stayed: 5 days, planed: N/A)

at Kurt's hose
(built by himself)
Jun.04
Narita airport (Japan)
Yuza, Gen, Gan, Senoh, Inazo
Chitose, Jin, Nori, Yuko
Our best friends took us to Narita Airport

at narita terminal

Not only all of them above, we cannot believe that there are so many people who has been helping us!!
Again, Thank all of you very much.


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