2007

Thomas at Chinzaso Park,
Mejiro, Tokyo, May, 2007 ...

"Thomas with Alice Gothic"

Aug, 1st. Mejiro, Tokyo, Japan.

I have moved to Japan after going to University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus, Honolulu for six months, studying International Tourism and Hotel Management and also Japanese and Chinese.

In January I started a new series of artworks and will gradually add them to my "Art" link page.. Some are my old style, very detailed portraits, and some are acrylics of Japanese and Chinese subject content, and then a playful series such a "Japanese Girl with Balloons."

I am now in Mejiro, a very beautiful, classy, area in Central Tokyo with six parks walking distance from my home. I will be doing some English teaching and continue my painting and drawing... My school there will be called Thomas McCain School of Arts and English.

I love Japan. Always have.  Such a cultured place. In the home next to me a man gives koto and shakuhachi lessons, so I get to hear classical Japanese music each afternoon.

A friend took me last Sunday to Harujuku where thousands of teenagers go, shop, hang out, and dress up in Gothic, Neo-Gothic, pink "Alice" outfits, and any imaginable dress, outfit, costume, hairstyle and make-up. Totally wild scene...

" Gothic Japanese Girl, Harujuku, June/2007"

" Free Hugs, Harujuku June 2007"

" Thomas with Gothic Geisha"....

All for now."

2006

Three weeks in China ...

In January, I visited China for three weeks, searching for young female singers of traditional Chinese old melodies for a future recording. I went everywhere! I did find two singers,
very extrtaordinary, in remote towns. Along the way, met "Tony the Tiger" below, a few pandas and amazing people of an amazing land, China.

Interestingly, after I returned to Hawaii I discovered Liu Juan "Angel", 21-year-old, fascinating, very spirited Chinese girl, dancer and singer, and will return and record her in China I am currently going to Japan May 1st for three months to search for a property to buy in Nikko, north of Tokyo, to purchase and build a home and eventually build a new wind harp there.

"Angel" Liu Juan

2005

Music was in the air ...

Click here to listen to
Christephanie sing “If I Ain’t Got You" by Alicia Keyes.
(1.4 MB MP3)

When Chris-tephanie was 14, I had her record at the Mauriitus Gov’t MCA studios. She was amazing for recording so young, her first time.  So self-assured.

Click here and download to listen to her sing “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. (coming soon)

Thomas (left) Big Music
Producer now? Haha
But I did make a sincere, super professional foray into this trying tough world. I love music and great singers

In August, 2005, I brought Christephanie Marie (above), a French /Creole girl from the tiny island /country of Mauritius, off the coast of South Africa, to Hawaii to record a promo CD at a studio here.

I met Christephanie 7 years ago when she was only 14 and I was living in Mauritius. I felt her voice so extraordinary. So I finally managed to extricate her for a few weeks from her homeland to record here. She sang two songs, one by Alicia Keyes and one by Lauren Hill, her choices. (Note: most top record labels request aspiring un-recorded artists to sing songs by other popular artists to measure their talent.)

Christephanie did fantastic. So did half- Japanese, half German Linda Sachiko Tannen (in photo with me) who I also brought to Hawaii at the same time to sing a new duet Sachiko created while here. Linda/Sachiko is also a magnificent creative singer/composer. Both are dear friends and we are waiting for several labels to respond. mmmmmmm...

Click here to hear Linda/Sachiko Tannen and Christephanie Marie sing an original duet by Sachiko, “Earth, Wind and Fire.” (2.1 MB MP3)

Thanksgiving dinner Nov. 2005,
my mother on right, my business partner on left and friends.

March 10th, 2005 - Waimea, Hawaii

Greetings.

I am just leaving for Japan where I will live for a few months--teaching English and making more progress on the construction of a new wind harp in Nikko, Japan. I love Japan and lived there last Spring studying Japanese at Asahi Culture Institute. Hope you enjoy a few fun photographs from 2004.

I can always be reached on my Japan mobile 81-090-2919-8294 or my email nipponforest@aol.com

Playing golf with my brother Gene in Hawaii, August, 2004

My two dear friends, Yasuko-san and Okada-san. We all played golf right beneath a towering snow-capped Mt. Fuji. Magnificent. March, 2004.

My father passed away in 2004. Here he is last summer with my sister and her ekdest aughter Maggie. Insert: my father and his wife Joan.

Trying to look cool. No, I don’t drive motorcycles, but in Nikko, young couples come up to Nikko and park in the town square and show off their cool bikes!

My mother at Lake Chuzenji, Japan, near Nikko with a flush of autumn red maple leaves behind her. November, 2004

This cruise ship captain patiently let me take this photo! April, 2004

My dear friend, Linda Sachiko Tannen, half-German, half-Japanese, an extraordinary singer and knows me well enough to tease me!

I was in Tokyo briefly in Dec. 2004 where “year-end” parties abound. I celebrated with good friends.

< My dearest friend for more than a decade, Shakti, extraordinary dancer, half-Japanese and half-Indian.   ^ This Chinese/Japanese kanji means Joy but also means music.

View from my home of Mauna Kea, 14.000 feet, January, 2005. It gets snow every winter.

2004

Jan 29th 2004

Greetings.

I returned from a month in China and Japan - In China interviewing and auditioning singers for a new movie I have scripted about 4 Asian singers on a Music Scholarships/Cultural Exchange program.

Here are two singers I found quite extraordinary.

Moon Soon Li, My friend, singer and cabaret dancer, who lost her father when young and supports five younger sisters and two brothers. Her voice is as special as Celine Dion. She is from a poor Mongolian family now working in Harbin, northern China. She will co-star in my movie "Songbirds" due to start filming Jan 2006, a romantic musical love-story of two Japanese and wo Chinese singers coming to University of Hawaii on scholarhips but fall in love!

While in China I visited the 1,000 year-old White Crane Monastery.

White Crane Monastery, Changsha, China

Me, at the entrance to White Crane Mountain Park

In Japan, I saw my good friend Haruhiko Okada-san,
movie producer.

Dinner with Okada-san

Dinner with China Official Tour Guide

Here are a few photos of where I live in Hawaii,
a village at 2,500 feet elevation on the Big Island,
Hawaii, Waimea (Kamuela).

My brother's home. I rent one wing of the house.

Mauna Kea, visible from my bedroom, here with snow! It is 14,000 feet high.

Kwan-Yin in my office.
My bedroom.
My office.
Me in the garden of my mother's ocean home.
Here is my drawing for a new wind harp planned for Nikko, Japan.

ADDRESS: USA:
65-1316 Lihipali Road,
Kamuela, Hawaii, USA 96743

JAPAN ADDRESS/TELEPHONE:
2-20-27 Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan 1710031
Home: 81-03-6426-0664 Mobile: 81-080-6767-1950
Email: nipponforest@aol.com