A New First Step

 

In Japan, my home away from home, we have a saying:

"千里の道も一歩から" (senri no michi mo ippo kara)

which translates to, "Even a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step."

21 years ago, at Chicago O'Hare airport, I stepped onto a plane that would bring me here where I would begin a new life as an assistant English teacher at public elementary and junior high schools.

I had no idea that I would still be here today, still teaching English (albeit now at the university level). I did not know that I would marry a Japanese woman and that we would have two children and buy a house here, nor had I any inkling of the many joys and occasional frustrations that awaited us as we built a life in this country.

Japan is a land of great beauty and tradition. It is evident in even the most mundane objects from everyday life. This little tray is a perfect example:

I found it lying on top of the microwave at my in-laws' house where no one, including me, had paid it any mind. Upon a closer look, I saw the intricate detail and delicate balance of its design. Had it been painted large on a canvas, it could easily have been hung in a museum not far from the Matisses and Van Goghs--A tiny treasure of visual delight that hardly anyone noticed simply because such beauty abounds here. 

Perhaps those who have grown up and lived their whole lives here can be forgiven for such an oversight. But I didn't have much of an excuse: I had come to this country as an adult and with a background in the arts no less, and yet I have barely scratched the surface in terms of my understanding of the culture and traditions of this amazing country that I have called home.

And so it is time to take a new first step--one that I invite you to take with me--as we explore Japanese culture and everyday experience and its intersection with the modern world at large.