Taro's Travels

I’m happy to announce that my music is now available in the US on iTunes as well as on Amazon, CD Baby, and most digital music retailers.  The cover image for my music release in North America is different from the original CD in Japan.  The US version sports a shot of me at sunrise in the El Mirage dry lake bed of California, which was one of the most popular images from my recent photo collection.

From the hot desert sands of California, I arrived in Beijing in late March to find a city covered in a beautiful white blanket of snow.  My hotel room featured a breathtaking view of the Forbidden City, and the snowy palace was even more spectacular in person than the many photos I’ve seen of it before.  My party and I enjoyed a private tour of the imperial complex as light snow continued to gently fall around us, and our guide emphasized that in her career this was the first time she had witnessed snow at the Forbidden City.  She said that in ancient Chinese legend, falling snow on the day a guest arrives at the Forbidden City is the greatest of good omens, and blessings galore will enrich the lives of all who share in the occasion.  What a treat for my first visit!   Although, it felt much more like a homecoming to me, perfectly familiar and comfortable.  Below are some photos we took, my favorite is the one with me walking in the snow along the Imperial mote with our guide up ahead and if you look closely you’ll see two soldiers walking in the far distance.  They were the only two other people we encountered!

The next day we visited the Great Wall of China, and again were treated to a majestic sight of this great wonder of the world covered in white.  It is much more of a hike along the Great Wall’s path than it appears in photos, and it made for quite a workout, especially with slippery ice underfoot.  After a day-long adventure at the Great Wall, we made our way back to the Hyatt hotel and enjoyed one of the best vegan dinners I’ve ever had, this time at the Loving Hut restaurant Beijing.

It was Friday night, and the car from the hotel could not stay with us, but I thought it was no problem - we’ll just take a taxi back. We soon learned, however, there are zero taxis available on Friday night in Beijing. One of the restaurant guys stood out in the cold night for 20 minutes trying to hail a car for us while the chef kept bringing us free desserts. Finally, the restaurant owner herself said “okay, let’s go!” and she drove us to the Hyatt herself.  I love the people of Beijing.

The next night, we discovered Pure Lotus restaurant Beijing, which is by far the most incredible dining experience ever.  Operated by Mongolian monks, it is Shangrila heaven, with guardsmen dressed in elaborate pink, gold, blue and red robes with Siberian hats who usher us with lanterns through the darkness from the bustling street outside, down cobblestone paths lined with candle-holding Buddhist statues to the massive golden Mongolian tent with towering wood door.

The doorknob is a giant golden Buddha hand, which pivots the door open to an incense-filled restaurant lit with hudreds of candles among pools of lotus flowers and video images illuminated on the floors and walls of modern and ancient spiritual imagery. The music is eclectic mix of 1930s and 40s from around the world. Our private dinner tent is gold and red with a table of wood and silk gauze cloth, seashells for plates and fine handblown glass of vibrant colors blue, white, black, yellow, red… each waiter wears a unique Mongolian robe, and each dish they bring is served in a unique vessel, one in a hollowed-out log, another in a white porcelain swan, another in a silver bucket on misty dry ice. Magic! Some of the best vegan food I’ve had in the world combined with the most dream-like atmosphere, it defies description. The menus at Pure Lotus are three feet long in the rectangular shape of ancient Buddhist scrolls with high-gloss cardboard pages that used artistic photos as backgrounds for each of the 30 or 40 pages of food listings. Another nice surprise is that we had 7 people at dinner and enjoyed a 10-course meal with too much for us to eat, and total price = $190 USD. Incredible.

That night, I enjoyed the best foot massage (and the most painful foot massage) of my life.  It was Chinese reflexology, and absolutely brilliant. My neck even cracked from pressure my masseur applied to my feet. Now that’s a foot massage! I felt like a new man from just 45 minutes of intense foot manipulation. With snow on the streets of Beijing we were 3 levels below the hotel in a tropical oasis, hot and humid like Tahiti! This huge underground facility looks like an ancient Polynesian ocean temple and on the skyscape-painted ceiling are tiny lighted stars. Deeply relaxing.

From the latest Spring snowfall that Beijing has seen in years, to the warm beaches of my beloved Punta Mita, I enjoyed another great visit with friends in Mexico and then once again headed half way back across the Pacific to Kauai to begin work on my new book.  The incredible staff at the Grand Hyatt Kauai took such good care of me, providing me one of the most beautiful rooms on the property to inspire and help me write the most inspirational work possible.  I can’t wait to go back again!

While on my way to Tokyo again, I was delighted to learn that one of my songs, Itsuka, is featured in a new Sony PSP game called VIBES.  My song plays during the level in which players fly through Japanese-themed scenes and push their controller to the beat of the music and grab vibes in the air to gain points.  The game developers sent me some screen shots, one of which highlights a flight through Tokyo and then Kyoto and Sumo wrestlers surrounded by Japanese temples, trees and a rainbow.  I can’t wait to play it.  The game will be available for purchase worldwide starting June 8.

Back in Tokyo in May, I enjoyed reuniting with friends both old and new at Golden Week celebrations and a wonderful meeting with my greatest mentor in life, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda Our meeting was held at my beloved alma mater in the lush hills just outside of Tokyo, at Soka University. One of my best friends from San Francisco who also attended Soka University, Akiko, came for the festivities as well and we left refreshed by the perfect weather, good times with friends from all around the globe, and renewed determinations to contribute more to peace, culture and education now and in the future.

The Olympics are one of my favorite events, and visiting the 2010 Winter Games in Canada was absolutely dream-like.  I arrived in time to see the Olympic flame reach Vancouver city center and fireworks galore.  It was stunning, the city did a great job.  Some wonderful friends of mine in Vancouver managed to get Opening Ceremony and figure skating tickets, as well as a special Whistler highway pass for me, which was more than I could have ever asked for.  I’ve always loved Vancouver, and the magical Olympic “world peace culture” in the air made it even more beautiful to visit this time.

The Opening Ceremony had so many breathtaking moments my heart was on overload.  The magnificent “Both Sides Now” presentation made me cry, and KD Lang’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” surrounded by 60,000 candles was breathtaking.  The entire Opening Ceremony was filled with powerful joy.  I always feel happy at the Olympics, as if world peace has come true.  I wish the whole world could know that feeling every day.  So much goodness packed into one frame of time and space.

I was also fortunate to see Apolo Ohno skate some ice off!  He became the most decorated Winter Olympian in US history and deserves the honor.  For Valentine’s Day I saw the pairs figure skating, very appropriate for the day celebrating love.  After meeting some new friends from Mexico City at the Olympic Store at Robson Square, we attended the men’s figure skating competition, which was the best Olympic sporting event I’ve ever seen.  Sitting fourth row from the ice, I could literally see the sweat on their brows and hear the swish of the ice beneath their skates.  I was surprised how much more spectacular the event was in person – those athletes are incredible!  After a lifetime of watching skating on television, to see it up close and personal was surreal.  I was happy that Evan Lysacek won the gold, he deserved it.  I was also lucky to attend my first hockey game, US vs. Switzerland, a great introduction to the sport.

The one day it didn’t rain or snow in Whistler was the day I made it up there, and the drive to Whistler reminded me of the Swiss Alps.  Breathtaking beauty all around, and for some reason I was mistaken for Apolo Ohno twice that day.  Ha!  I took it as a compliment.  Then, by chance, the one Victory Celebration ticket I had received (given to me on the street one day) turned out to be for Canada’s first ever gold medal won at home!  Alex Bilodeau from Quebec won the men’s moguls, and you can imagine how the crowd reacted – I’ve never heard such thunderous cheering.

I also discovered my alltime favorite pub name in Vancouver:  Funky Winker Bean’s!  Who could come up with a more unique and fun name for a pub?  Leave it to Vancouverites.  And finally, beyond belief, I found that KFC in Canada offers vegan soy-chicken sandwiches.  They were so delicious I actually started craving them by the end of my trip, and still miss them!  Thanks to PETA and the lovely Canadian animal rights activist Pamela Anderson for negotiating the introduction of that item to the market in Canada.

And now, to my great joy, I can add another reason why I love Canada:  A publishing house in Montreal, Quebec, recently released the French edition of my book “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life.”  Now available in both Quebec and in France.  I was delighted to receive some copies of it and, although my French skills are not what they once were, it was fun to read.  My friends in Paris tell me it is excellent, and being well-received in France.  My gratitude to everyone who worked on this French edition, especially to the brilliant Québecoise translator Josée Guévin.  Vive le Québec! Vive le Canada!

The past 6 months have been a whirlwind of activity for me – I’ve visited 3 continents, 5 countries, 11 states, and 44 cities.  On more than one occasion this year I’ve woken up and wondered “what city am I in?”  In fact, I experience this just last week, only the answer that time was “home.”  Now, you know you’ve been traveling a lot when you wake up in your own home and can’t remember what city you’re in!   Perhaps another reason for my disorientation is that, on a deep level, I’ve actually felt completely at home wherever I’ve been this year.

Thankfully, most of my travels have been a good mix of pleasure and business, and a nice combination of new sights as well as familiar places.  With my visits to Paris and London, although I’ve visited those cities often since childhood, this year’s visits were my favorite ever.

New places, like Iowa, Wisconsin and South Dakota were also a welcome treat this year.  I stood by the cornfields in Davenport, Iowa soaking in the quiet, natural majesty of the heartland and was enriched by it.  I sat in the Neptune gardens of Versailles palace of France and marveled at the fireworks spectacular that welcomed autumn, my favorite of seasons.  By the way, the French edition of my book “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life” is scheduled to be published soon – can’t wait!

Maybe it was the evident French influence in Iowa, with Des Moines exhibiting reminder after reminder that it was once the capital of the French colonies, I’m not sure what it was but somehow the transition between the farmlands of the Midwest and the palaces of Europe was seamless for me.  I felt completely at home in both.  London also welcomed me with open arms, and I enjoyed the amazing musical Billy Elliot as well as a marvelous dinner at one of the Whole Foods markets in London, the biggest in the world actually, and I was in pure vegan heaven.  It was the best meal I’ve ever had in London.   Then to Oxford, and the Pink Giraffe vegan Chinese restaurant, and another of the best meals of my life!  Who knew they fixed the bad food problem in UK?  They should send out a press release to let everyone in the world know.  Love it.

Most recently, I visited my beloved Soka University in Aliso Viejo, CA for a scholarship fundraising gala.  I enjoyed bidding on all kinds of wild auction items and mostly left with lots of golf-related items.   My new friend Howard Jones from the UK came and played at the event, and his remarkable talent was the icing on the cake of a hugely successful evening.  Next year I’m planning to visit Soka University in Tokyo for the first time in much too long, and I’m looking forward to it.  Hopefully when the cherry blossoms bloom and the campus is covered in pink petals with majestic Mt. Fuji in the background.

Throughout all my travels this year, I’ve kept a journal of thoughts and I’d like to share a few of my favorites with you.  As they have done for me, may each of these simple thoughts promote lasting happiness and ways of thinking that truly open your life now and always:

• You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.
• There is no sunbeam that is separate from the sun, and so there is no person who is separate from the Source.
• What is your purpose in life? If you had all the time and money in the world, how would you express yourself? The answer to that, is your purpose.

Happy Spring!  Finally winter has begun to thaw from what seemed a colder harder winter than most.  With the effects of a global economic meltdown setting in along with the thaw, my heart goes out to everyone struggling around the world.  Yet at the same time I witness enormous charity and goodness springing from folks’ spirits now.

There seems to be a reality check going on in hearts of many, remembering what is really important versus what we’ve been told was important.  Perhaps we can all see now that the shiny veneer of America’s throw-away consumer culture has always been as superficial and unsustainable as the ad campaigns that sold us on it.

A universal and time-honored truth is that when we are challenged by hardships, we appreciate anew the simple and best things in life, those intangible riches that bring us tangible happiness.  The “best things” in life are different for everyone – yet as the old saying goes, almost always free.

These days for me, the best things in life are many – the pure joy in my puppy dog’s face after we play a long game of catch…  the impossibly deep blue of the water and sky off my lazy balcony in Sayulita…  that look from a friend with whom I need not exchange a word to know exactly what we’re both thinking…  the shining double rainbow in the desert on my drive to San Diego…  the buzz of a diligent wild bee through the tiny blue flowers in my backyard.

To remind ourselves of the divine in this life, sometimes it takes facing difficulty, an emotional jolt, or a shift in our collective cultural consciousness.  Adversity has the magical ability to snap us out of a living sleep, helping us live more widely awake in the here and now, purely aware of what this moment is and has to offer – what this moment needs of us.  Such an awakened state of life is a gift beyond measure.

So maybe the hard times our country and world are going through are a blessing in disguise.  “There is always a piece of fortune in misfortune,” goes one of my favorite sayings.  I hope we all find pieces of good fortune in any misfortunes we may endure now and in the future, always appreciating the present moment and seeking to find joy within it.  After all, if we can be happy here and now, we will forever be happy, for there is only the here and now.

As I wrote in my book “Living Wabi Sabi: The True Beauty of Your Life:” Appreciate this and every moment, no matter how imperfect, for this moment is your life.  When you reject this moment, you reject your life.  You don’t have to settle for this moment, you are free to steer a different course, but for now, this moment is yours, so be mindful to make the most of it.”

May you make the most of every moment now and forever.  May you appreciate the best things in your life, the smaller the better.  And may blessings shower down around you like fragrant petals in the fresh Springtime breeze.

Happy New Year!  I hope you are off to a great start in 2009.  I am filled with great hope, for America and for humanity.

As I do every January, I’ve been pondering what causes I can contribute toward, to help create a better world for us all.  My focus this time is on the little angels we call dogs, cats, horses and other animal companions we are blessed to know on this Earth.  The immense joy and unconditional love my heart has received from my animal companions over the years is too great to measure.  I hope you are one of the lucky people who has had your life enriched and enlightened by an animal angel.

With great happiness I now devote my support to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and to the no-kill animal shelter in my local area.  The ASPCA was the first humane society to be established in North America, founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment at the hands of humans, and must be protected under the law.  They are a privately funded not-for-profit corporation, so your donations are tax-deductible.  The ASPCA provides local and national leadership in several key areas: caring for animal guardians (that’s us) and animals, providing positive outcomes for at-risk animals, and serving victims of animal cruelty.  They also support efforts to find loving families for shelter animals.

In my experience, animal shelters are run by some of the most compassionate people in the world.  They need help in many ways, from donations of simple items like pens and paper, to blankets and tasty treats for the animals.  They work day and night to care for the most needy animals, while they wait for their new families to find them in the shelters.

Please urge everyone you know to STOP supporting pet stores that use puppy mills, and instead support your local animal shelter.  Please choose to save the life of an orphan animal waiting in a shelter.  They are dreaming of finding you, they just want to join a loving family in a forever home.  Please educate yourself and your friends and family members about the sad reality of puppy mills that stock our nation’s pet stores with animals.

There are countless gentle animals shivering alone in shelters tonight whose only wish is to be saved and adopted into a safe place.  The love, loyalty, and friendship you will receive from rescuing an animal in need will be your eternal reward.  It’s as if there are rooms filled with gold (the spiritual kind) available now to enrich your life, and all you need to do is go get it!  Please join me and stand up for the rights and dignity of animal angels in need today.  Please look up your local animal shelter, and visit the ASPCA website to learn more about how you can help now.

“Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama never talks about how people see him: I’m not the one making history, he said every chance he got. You are. Yet as he looked out Tuesday night through the bulletproof glass, in a park named for a Civil War general, he had to see the truth on people’s faces. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, he liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began.” TIME Nov. 5, 2008

Enjoy will.i.am’s new music video, It’s A New Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHWByjoQrR8

Since my post “Oprah and Obama” just over one year ago, I have been dedicated to helping Senator Barack Obama win the Presidency. So far so good. Instead of detailing the many reasons why I am proud to support Barack, I believe it should be crystal clear to anyone paying attention to his campaign (and that of his opponent) why I voted for him.

Yes, I am happy to say I already voted for Barack! Where I live, the polling booths open in mid-October. There I was on day #1 of early voting, lined up with a packed room of other citizens to cast my vote for real change, hope and security for our nation and our world. Now I eagerly await seeing the Obama family as our first family.

I and many friends and members of my immediate and extended family have also volunteered our time to support the Obama campaign. It has been both fun and exhilarating. I encourage you in these final days of the campaign, the most important days, to get involved now. The time is now! Visit this link to Barack’s website to help out and volunteer even a few hours of your time. You’ll be glad you did: http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/newvolunteer

As I’m always wearing an Obama/Biden shirt or cap these days, I seem to get a constant stream of compliments. Sometimes there are folks who tell me they are not sure about supporting Barack Obama and Joe Biden. After a few minutes of conversation, they usually say they’re happy they could ask questions of me, since I’ve had the privilege of meeting Barack and Michelle as well as Joe Biden. All three of them are even more impressive in person, and I’ve come to know a lot about each of them, their histories, their character, their judgment, and their hopes. I wish everyone had a chance to meet with them personally, as I’ve been fortunate to do.

If you are like one of the good folks I’ve met along my journeys undecided in their support for the Obama/Biden ticket, please feel free to send me a question about the campaign. I would be happy to hear from you.

This week I am so happy to return to my hometown of Del Mar for my family’s annual reunion, which takes place every 4th of July. Even before we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the concept of “independence.” Although it is obvious we are all interconnected in direct or subtle ways, underneath it all, it seems people tend to interpret “independence” as a solitary gateway to their own happiness, freedom, rights, liberty, and peace, often in ways that simply preserve self interests while encroaching on others.

The truth is, all facets of the natural order — the physical natural world and the human world — are completely connected and interrelated, and cannot be separated even the slightest bit. Disorder and aberration in one sector will affect other sectors. If we want to live in happiness and peace, we must learn how to live in balance and harmony with all spheres of our natural environment: the internal and the external, the individual and the social, the physical and the spiritual.

To create true happiness, we must reflect on the interrelationship of all things, see ourselves clearly as one part of the causal relationships within the natural order. To do this we become aware first of the internal mental/spiritual factors we create, then we see how those factors attract to us and manifest various effects in our life experiences, in society, and ultimately in the world around us. Once this system of causal relationship, of interdependence, is understood on the spiritual level, we grow to see the connections between our inner factors and their causal relationships in our lives and every aspect of our environment. What is unseen inside us, we will attract, and it will be seen outside us. This simple ray of understanding can lead us to true independence, an independence that honors our connection to all others and all that exists in the universe while cherishing ourselves and looking to no one but ourselves to solve our own problems from the inside out. This is also known as the law of attraction.

Speaking of attraction, I just can’t seem to stay away from my favorite spot in Punta Mita, Mexico this year. It pulls me back all the time. Above is a view down the coast toward the residents beach club near my home. And the one below that is a view of the famous Malecon boardwalk down the coast in downtown Puerto Vallarta. My family and I have decided to open up our homes in Mexico to guests for vacation rentals, and my web designers are now creating a separate, beautiful site just for the vacation properties, so stay tuned for that. I hope you can visit my little piece of paradise sometime soon! For now, you can see more about the beach properties via the links on my Yoga and Contact pages here on this site.

In other news, I have teamed up with my buddy Oded, who is a genius Israeli jewelry designer living in Tokyo, to create the first pieces of the Taro Gold jewelry line. Oded owns and operates one of the coolest jewelry stores in Tokyo, on Harajuku Street, called Oz Abstract. The first piece we’ve created is a pendant of the Taro Gold logo, a diamond inside a lotus flower. My logo signifies the diamond of wisdom and joy we all possess in our hearts, and the flower of strength and beauty that blossoms from our lives as we overcome each challenge, down, and hardship (the lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud). Here’s a preview of the lotus pendant for you:

As we move into summer, I wish you all the very best of health and happiness. Thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes for my grandmother earlier this year. To all the doctors’ amazement (and ours), grandma is still hanging in there, making us smile each step of the way. This independence day as my family and I salute her strong character, one example of a truly independent spirit, I vow to live with as much vigor, courage and laughter. May you always know such joy as well!