I am a native German, but I came 45 years ago at the age of 22, to Japan driven by the idea I HAVE to learn the Japanese way of archery, called kyudo. Originally I planned to stay 6 months practicing kyudo and then be on my way through South East Asia, later traveling via Australia to San Francisco and be back in Germany after one year.

However, shortly after arrival I met a certain Buddhist priest about my kyudo practice and immediately followed the priest's advice to stay longer – if I really want to learn kyudo.

Later I realized, I had to make a living somehow and decided to enroll in a vocational school for acupuncture and moxibustion.

After obtaining my three licenses (acupuncture, moxibustion, shiatsu & massage) I began working=studying in a general hospital.

Today I can look back on about 38 years of clinical practice and 29 years running my own little clinic as one of VERY few western foreigners in Japan to do so.

For the most part of my clinical activity I earned our living through translation. Recently I actually translated the autobiography of aforementioned priest.

Technological progress has contributed to manual translation becoming obsolete, so maybe I will try and write one or two more books – hoping for the best.