Chuck on House Hunters International

So among other news, myself, my girlriend Mari, and our Tokyo apartment are going to be featured on the HGTV TV show House Hunters International sometime in the next few months. About a year ago, I got an email out of the blue from one of the show's casting directors saying that she thought I had a pretty interesting life and was wondering if I had planned to buy a house out here anytime soon.

Originally, I actually told her that I wasn't and referred her to a few friends of mine who had recently bought homes, but after a friend from the states spoke to me about it and told me what a great show it was, I decided to see if there was someway I could manage to do the show anyway. (It also occurred to me that this show could be a great way to show all those people at home who ask me about my life out here what it's really like.)

After speaking to the casting director further, I told her that my girlfriend and I were thinking about moving in together in the next year, but that we were only looking for apartments to rent, and not buy. From there, she said that that could work out well because from next year, the show was going to be expanded to cover apartment rentals as well.

To make a long story short, we stayed in touch over the next year, and when Mari and I decided to move in together, the show had indeed been expanded to cover apartments rentals so it worked out just right. At the time, this was immediately after the tsunami, so even as I was telling them Mari and I were still committed to our plan of getting our own Tokyo apartment, it was a bit intimidating. (I actually wanted to stay in the states for a while longer to see how things panned out with Fukushima, but she was eager to return for her family). The tsunami complicated matters further because even though the show had given us the green light, they wanted to hold off for another few months for the same reason. Finally, when they decided to arrange the shoot, Mari and I were back in the states, so they started by filming our backstory in my hometown in Michigan. We were coached through the interview process (which for me was doable because I'd done it before), and Mari won the respect of all for not just doing a good job, but doing it in English, which is her second language.

From there, we met the second film crew in Tokyo. We had a chance to look at several apartments and then there was one final filming in our place with all of the furniture in it. Overall, it was a very very cool experience, but exhausting as well. For myself, the best part of the shoot was getting to spend 3 days with the director (An Aussie who was part of the production crew for Moulin Rouge) and the camera man (who has worked on everything from Green Planet and National Geographic to Nova) Both very cool guys with lots of cool experiences to share. As I said while I was working on SeTup, I will never take being able to work in my own language for granted. Every time I get a chance, Im grateful for it- and probably always will be.

Beyond that, it was also cool because I ended up bringing home a few friend as a function of the show- a small cactus-like plant that Mari and I have appropriately named "Hunter".

Anyway, I'm excited to see how the show turns out and what will come about as a function of it. In the meantime, I am working to get a myriad of projects up and online and having them done before the show airs is a good goal, I think. Let's see where this goes!