ESSAY

Welcome to my home

By John Gathright

丸い部屋の中に丸いテーブルを置いて家族が集えば、家庭円満間違いなし！

"What? Are you crazy?! Your family lives in a miso barrel?!"

Well, to be more precise, we live in a treehouse made out of 10 huge miso barrels in the mountains of Seto in Aichi Prefecture

Is it cramped, living in miso barrels? Not really - except, maybe, when relatives come to stay with us. Our house is a two-story home, built off the ground and supported by recycled telegraph poles and trees. Trees grow though the decks surrounding the house. We even have a tree growing through the middle of our living room.

Our kitchen occupies one huge barrel, and our bathroom, dining room, piano room, guest room, kids playrooms and my office are each in a barrel of their own. Our bedrooms are on the second floor under a huge skylight that fills the room with moonlight and the light of twinkling stars. The house is very stable but it does sway a little in typhoons

たるの直径は約3メートル。ダイニングはちょっとしたレストランのおしゃれな個室のようだ。

The early morning rays of sunlight wake us and our two boys - Johnny, who is nine years old, and Denny, who is eight. They slide down a fireman's pole to the floor below for breakfast. In fact, our home is spread out in such a way that the boys have to walk across a suspension bridge and then traverse a space by pulley to get to their play room.

Does it smell bad? No, quite the contrary. If you like miso, it smells great!

One day, while riding the train, a middle-aged Japanese lady and her friend sat next to me. After a while they started sniffing the air. One of them then said in a whisper to the other, "That foreigner smells of miso!" There is a saying in Japan that is used when a Japanese person tries hard to act like a Westerner. He is said to "smell like butter." So I took the miso reference as a compliment and smiled at the two ladies

Am I crazy? I don't think so, but you can definitely say I am not normal. I am crazy and passionate about many things, though

I am crazy about my family and believe that no success compensates for failure in the home. I am a very family-oriented dad

たるの部屋同士をつなぐデッキは広く、いろいろな遊びができて、都会っ子にはうらやましい限りだ。

I love nature and am absolutely crazy about trees! I travel the globe to climb, document and examine the largest trees in the world. I am the founder of Tree Climbing Japan, an organization that has helped 10,000 people to climb big trees. I also founded Treehab, an organization that helps physically challenged people to climb trees. Our organization was the first in the world to help a paraplegic 57-year-old lady climb to the top of an 80-meter-high giant sequoia and spend the night in its topmost branches

I am crazy enough to start working on my doctorate degree at the age of 41 in a crazy field like Tree Climbing Therapy.

I am crazy enough to believe that we can live more harmoniously with nature, and so I am a producer for the Growing Village Pavilion at the World Expo 2005 in Aichi Prefecture. This pavilion will actually grow a village where trees are planted, grafted and shaped over time to become homes, and young trees are bent and shaped into living furniture. Imagine an existence where houses are pruned, chairs have leaves, tables are watered, and fences grow taller every year.

I am crazy enough to believe that world peace is possible and even small acts of kindness have great magic

And last, but not least, I hope that ST readers are crazy enough to read a column written by a guy who lives in a miso barrel!

Shukan ST: Feb. 13, 2004

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