Japan is too cool

(image credit: Xinhua)



Col. Robert Neville turned me on to this lovely slice of musicana (his bride is Japanese, and, like him, I share a love of that culture). Its title is misleading. It's NOT about food. The real title is "I shall walk looking up." Here are some of the lyrics:

I shall walk looking up
so my tears won't fall
remembering spring days
on this lonely night

Read more here.

To my lasting regret, I only spent 3 months in Japan, and only in Tokyo, having been stationed at Pacific Stars and Stripes for the short remainder of my military obligation. How I wish I could have had just one glimpse of the landscape captured in the picture posted here. And that's just one microscopic snippet from an amazing cornucopia of amazements hardly to be imagined in such a small country.

As it was, I had a heckuva good time in Tokyo, however brief. Best memory: Two Japanese high-school boys who attached themselves to me and Anne, a fellow soldier, in hopes of improving their English. They took us here, there and everywhere around Tokyo, filled with delight and pride. They introduced us to an extraordinary Italian restaurant, which was roughly the size of compact car, at which the food was prepared behind a bar the relative width of a two-by-four. The cuisine probably would have been sneered at by anyone whose only experience with Italian food consists of a greasy pizza at Pizza Hut, but the boys thought it was the bee's knees.

At 3 a.m. one night, after a long pow-wow during which Anne and I patiently transcribed pages of Rolling Stone magazine (with which the boys were endlessly fascinated), we wandered out in search of sustenance. NO ONE bothered us. NO suspicious and/or dangerous characters lurking in dark doorways. We did encounter one gentleman, dressed in khaki pants, a polo shirt and Dockers, who had a Doberman pinscher on a leash. Anne, a dog lover, exclaimed and petted the pooch, but our escorts were suddenly curt, and dragged us away. Turns out the guy was a gangster. How could they tell? He parted his hair in the middle.

When they found out I was being shipped out, they plied me with presents. Lovely, plummy desserts their mothers made, a beautiful teacup and saucer, and an amulet to bring luck.

Wherever you are, Hideki and Tetsuo, I wish you every happiness.

*****************************

My dear Colonel, what a lovely tribute as you and all Australians bid farewell to summer, readying for winter's long, quiet adagio. No accident that "hope springs eternal."