JD making waves
A transplanted Californian, JD has loved the open spaces of Vancouver since May of 2000. Following graduation from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988, JD spent four years living in Japan where he studied Japanese language, worked at Tower Records and spent considerable time bashing his head against ancient historical manuscripts at Kyoto University.
While there, he applied for the Ph.D program in Japanese history at Princeton University. This led to his repatriation to New Jersey in 1993 and four humbling years of course work. Armed with a master’s degree, a smattering of Chinese and hilarious misconceptions about the difficulty of writing a dissertation, JD returned to Kyoto in 1997 to research the political activities of Japanese monastic communities in early Japan.
The research was difficult beyond his imagination, but more importantly he met the half-Japanese girl of his dreams, Sayo Nickerson. JD returned to Princeton in 1999 and engaged in a year of teaching and intensive research. During this year, he realized that while he enjoyed studying Japanese history, academic life was not for him. In May of 2000, JD took the plunge and moved to Vancouver to forge a new life with Sayo outside the Ivory Tower.
Over the next four years, JD continued to thrash away at the dissertation while pursuing additional work as a husband, independent mortgage broker (2003), landlord, and real estate agent. In 2005, he received his Ph. D. in Japanese history.
In addition to real estate, JD has been renovating a 1912 character home, playing French horn in the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra and various other ensembles while actively supporting environmental issues throughout BC. He also enjoys wakeboarding, squash, cooking and the company of friends!
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