Tokyo, Part 2 – Going Away. Late Aug, Summer of 1989
I love these pics. They are from my going away party the night before leaving for Japan, at our house on Prospect Ave near MCHS. The Class of 87 was well represented. It was a blast, and continued well into the evening at various locations in downtown MB, which I’m sure included 12th St. and Ercoles. I can’t remember many specifics about the night other than the ride to the airport the next morning was foggy.
I do remember on the ride not feeling any regrets about leaving, only ready. I had studied and trained hard for the last couple years for this opportunity, to live in Tokyo and attend and train at Waseda University, one of the birth places of Japanese Karate. And anyway, the SDSU-South Bay Corridor had begun to feel a bit “sticky.” It’s not like I wasn’t having any fun, just not the kind of fun that you can’t post on Instagram fun that my contemporaries were. I had kept my head relatively low, and shockingly making the Deans list a couple times. The State Chancellor‘s office brought this opportunity to me, wanting to know if I’d represent SDSU somewhere abroad. Seriously? Reluctant at first, when I looked at the list of universities and saw Waseda on it, I couldn’t believe it. For me at the time it would be like going to Mecca, and my mind was set. I was heading to Tokyo.41w
I tried to “pin” this comment but I’m so lame at this stuff: 1. I “found” these photos while looking through some old boxes for the “snow kick” photo in my previous post. I hadn’t seen them in probably 15 to 20 years. I went to my office and looked at them for a long time. Felt grateful to still be friends with so many faces, and at the same time missing some too (RIP Eric and Jimmy)
2. I dug through even more boxes and uncovered even more photos and more memories. I’ll probably post of series of things on some of the training I’ve done, but in particular my time in Japan. Mostly for myself because I’m afraid that in particular the memories won’t last another 15 or so years if I don’t jot them down. I also think some of the posts might resonate with who’ve had similar experiences. The next couple are about an injury and a book.
Series Tokyo 