Irena and I returned from our nearly three-week Japan trip last month and I’ve had time to reflect on that incredible adventure. The experience started the minute we boarded our Japan Airlines (JAL) nonstop to Tokyo. The trip focused on a 12-day cruise around the Japanese islands stopping for shore excursions at Shimizu (with a view of Mt. Fuji), Osaka, Kyoto, Kochi, Hiroshima, Hakodate, Aomori, and back to our home port of Yokohama. Oh, we also crossed the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to spend the day in Busan, South Korea. Six days spent in Tokyo included the Imperial Palace, Tokyo National Museum, Sensoji Temple, Hokusai Museum, a Kabuki performance, and an excursion to the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
One highlight for me was meeting up with my old friend Tadashi Nakagawa. Tadashi and I were graduate students together at LSU, having the same major professor whom Tadashi referred to as our “sensei.” We finished our doctorates and went our separate ways to teach, Tadashi to the University of Tsukuba and yours truly to the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Fast forward 38 years to the lobby of the Hotel Monterey Akasaka in Tokyo. We paid each other the highest compliment by saying “you haven’t changed a bit.” Yes, we’re kind of old now, but we’ve had the privilege of being a sensei to two generations of college students.
Postscript. My reading of Japanese authors continues: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I wholeheartedly recommend both of them.
Peter Mires 