Jay Gould

Jay Gould (not the famous one) was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1960, adopted and raised in the beautiful small town of Nelson, B.C.. Active in sports, he played ice hockey, baseball and basketball - all badly - before finally excelling at track-and-field, which led to a scholarship at Washington State University, which he squandered and left after only one year. Several years of working a real job as a medic in the northern oilfields of Canada then inspired him to return to university in Victoria, B.C. and accidentally attain a B.A. in Asian/Pacific Studies, supporting himself by delivering Chinese food and working as a model. Eventually graduating in 1988, he found himself, quite by accident again, in Northern Japan for three years and began his career in international relations and international education. Despite this awesome experience, he left Japan in 1991 - married and with children coming - and returned to Canada to build on his career for five years, then changed his mind again and returned to Japan in 1996 with his wife and their three kids, still following career opportunities and searching for what he wanted to be when he finally grew up. They have lived near Osaka since then and have their own business there, still connected to international education.

Jay loves travel, art, architecture, woodworking, outdoor activities such as hiking and climbing, reading and writing (of course). At any given moment, he has approximately 14 Great Novels on the go (possibly one the most prolific unpublished authors ever) and drives Melinda nuts by trying to improve their house any way he can (which is why she encourages his writing). They have traveled all over Asia and recently discovered Europe, which will figure prominently in future travel adventures of theirs. Jay waited 57 years before attempting to publish one of his books and encourages others not to do the same.