Today was my thirtieth anniversary of living in Japan. On 9 September 1975 I was in Busan with Ham Young Wu who I spent a year with in the Ham residence in Yongdu-dong, Seoul. He came along to send me off after my Peace Corps tour.
After a dinner of fugu cooked in a hot pot, I boarded the Kampu Ferry and traveled overnight to Shimonoseki. From there I took a train to Kyoto and checked into a guest house for travelers in the north of Kyoto. From there I moved to Kansai Gaidai and stayed with Harriet and Charles Mason while I looked for work in Osaka. I got the Time Life job and was on my way back to Seoul on 6 October to apply for my work visa. I had also already found my apartment in Hirakata, not far from Naomi's home.
To celebrate we had dinner at Le Piatta near the Shim Uma house. Thor got to make his own pasta, I had a big antipasto misto, Anton had lasagna and Naomi ordered a special dessert for me. It was a very good meal and lots of fun with the boys. (I got to critisize Anton for sitting with his chin on the table all evening!)
I made a point of telling Anton and Thor the story of my coming to Japan. They were asking lots of questions about the places we have lived in Tokyo since they were born.
On the way home we stopped in the local coffee shop/wine bar and chatted with the guy running it. Lacking a stool, I went home and brought in the stool I had broght back earlier in the year from Minnesota, originally from the science labs at Johnson High School in St. Paul. I'm going to collect it this week to take to Izu.
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