"Hello," wrote an old Japan buddy back on her native British Columbian soil. "I've met a woman — Rumiko Kanesaka — who's helping build a Japanese garden on Salt Spring Island where I live. Would you like to talk with her?"
This was last summer. The ground-breaking ceremony for what Kanesaka describes as a "garden of unity and reconciliation" took place Sept. 22. Now, thanks to the island's temperate climate — and the enthusiasm of volunteers like herself — the project is moving ahead.
Kanesaka moved to Canada in 1994 with her husband, Brian, and small child. "We felt our Tokyo era was over. Talking about conservation of environment and sustainability from a little apartment in Shinjuku was crazy. It was time to do what we could do. Also we wanted to raise our son in a better environment."