Climbing a Few of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains - Volume 2: Mt. Chokai (Choukai)

Kazuya Numazawa was born in 1979 in Shinjo City in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. He was raised in Funagata Town in Yamagata Prefecture. He graduated from Tokyo University in 2005. Since that time he has worked in several fields, but primarily in Cram Schools around the Mitaka City area of Japan. In 2016 he moved to Fairbanks, Alaska with Daniel, where he is now the owner/baker of "Kazuya's Baked Delights".

Daniel Wieczorek was born in 1947 in Ionia, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Forestry in 1969. He moved to Oregon to work in the field of forestry in 1971. That was followed by a move to Alaska in 1975, where he continued his career in forestry. After about a 14 year career in forestry, Daniel decided to do something different and he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Philippines from 1985 - 1987. Upon completion of his Peace Corps service he returned to Alaska, where he attended the University of Alaska - Fairbanks and received an M.B.A. in 1991. This was followed by a move to South Korea in 1992, where Daniel taught English to Korean people wishing to improve their English Language skills. Daniel's next stop was in New York City, where he worked as temporary staff at Deutsche Bank from 1998 - 2001. He left NYC in March 2001 and moved on to his present home in Mitaka City, Tokyo, Japan. He is teaching English in Japan and at this time he's been teaching as a career for about 17 years. He has been hiking, climbing and doing photography since he was about 12 years old. At the present time he's been in Japan for 15 years. He and his same-sex life partner were married in Ashland, Oregon on August 10, 2015 and at this time he and his partner are in the middle of the long process of getting a green card so that they can go to and live in Alaska. It will, of course, be a return for Daniel, but for his partner it will be his first experiences of Alaska, his first opportunity to see the Aurora Borealis in the winter, the midnight sun in the summer and much, much more. By the way, if you're curious, he never did make a return trip to the Philippines. Eventually he lost contact with George, Ronald, Nestor and everybody else in the Philippines. At the present time the only fellow PCV's that he still has contact with are JB and Katie F.