Peo Ekberg arrived in Fukuoka during an around-the-world journey 16 years ago and was immediately attracted to Japanese people's kindness and culture. </PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20071215f1a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='167'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Peo and Satoko Ekberg chat at naturalBeat Hamamatsucho, a Tokyo cafe where they can order dishes featuring organic vegetables, earlier this month. </B> SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>Five years later, the Swedish environment journalist fell in love with Satoko Nagae, who had taught the Japanese language in the United States for a year and traveled alone through Kenya for three weeks. She proofread his articles written in Japanese. The two married on Dec. 6, 1998. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>They started out in a small flat on a shoestring, but with a big dream &#8212; helping people adopt eco-friendly lifestyles. To this end, the Ekbergs moved from Fukuoka to Tokyo in 2001. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Now Peo, an environment consultant and lecturer at Musashino University in Tokyo, writes environment-related articles for magazines and talks about ecological lifestyles on TV and radio programs, while Satoko serves as a board director at Tokyo-based E-Square Inc., which provides consultations on the environment and on corporate social responsibility.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Busy working weekdays, the couple enjoy lengthy chats on a wide range of issues, ranging from the environment to politics and 'anime' animation on weekends. They speak Japanese most of the time.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH><B>Were your parents or relatives against you marrying a foreigner?</B></PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH><B>Peo: </B>No one was. Many of my foreign friends told me that Japanese parents oppose marriage with a foreigner. So I was afraid of meeting her parents, who had never traveled abroad and don't speak English . . . –

they don't have any prejudice toward foreigners.

Satoko: When I quarreled with him (before marriage), my parents told me I am the closest person to Peo and have to support him.

Would you relate one of the most difficult experiences you had after you two met?

P: I had been homeless for a week in Fukuoka. (After coming to Fukuoka again from Sweden,) I couldn't find an apartment and a job. I was nearly broke. I sometimes slept on the street or spent a night at a 24-hour restaurant. I couldn't ask to stay with her at her parents' home (in Saga Prefecture) because it was before marriage. I struggled to look for a new home and finally rented a six-tatami-mat apartment for ¥20,000 a month in Fukuoka.