One year ago today, I wrote my first-ever blog entry (Like A Virgin?), in which I joined "the millions online who share their joys, sorrows, thoughts, ideas, opinions and more, in a worldwide orgy of information."

At the time, I thought it marked the end of a journey, and so I wrote:

Most of the time I’ve traveled alone. I got lost, stumbled, tripped, fell, took wrong turns, and had to

In Memoirs of a Geisha, the young Japanese heroine suffers mightily at the hands of a "Mother" who controls her life, and elder “sisters” who torment her.

My impression during my conversation with Kiku ne, the 18-year-old meiko (apprentice geisha) I interviewed in Kyoto, Japan, was that, while her life is not easy, it's one that she herself has chosen, and for which she is willing to endure

I love, love, love the Internet.

I just keep finding cool blogs, sites and resources everywhere, all the time. I could spend my life surfing and exploring a learning new stuff. Pity I have to earn a living somehow (more about that further down...).

Speaking of stuff, as I previously blogged in a post paradoxically titled “I want more,” I’ve discovered I need less of it (stuff that is).

I

This interview with meiko Kiku ne when I was in Japan in November was one of the most interesting experiences I've ever had.

I didn't analyse it at the time, I wanted to let myself be in the moment. But afterward, while producing the edited version you are about to watch, I reflected on the fact that we are all the same in so many ways.

Kiku ne's story is like that of millions of young

During my amazing trip to Japan in November (which I’m writing about, ironically, four months later in Malaysia), I had the incredible good fortune of staying with Fukiko Yuki Teramachi in her traditional Japanese home, which she operates as a guesthouse.

Fukiko is a fantastic hostess, who provided me with one of the richest travel experiences I’ve ever had.

I slept on a futon in a

“What would you ask a geisha, if you had the chance to interview one?”

Fukiko asked me the question, and I passed it on to AWR community members in November, the day before I was to do such an interview in Kyoto.

The queries came back fast and furious; they included:

• How many geishas are in Japan and how accepted are they in this day and age?
• What is the most rewarding