Dec. 13 - I grew up just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean in San Diego. In the summer, my parents would often take us to the beach for a day of swimming and jumping the waves. When it was too cold to swim, we would go to admire the ocean view. At dusk we could watch the sun sink below the horizon, turning the ocean into a brilliant rainbow of yellow, orange, green and blue.

One evening as we were watching the sun set over the ocean, my father explained to me that the sun was rising on the other side of the Pacific Ocean at that very moment. In fact, he said, a little boy just my age might be looking east and watching the same sun rising over the ocean to begin his new day.

I did not really understand what he meant about the sun rising in Asia as it was setting in America, but I was fascinated to think that little boys just my age lived on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. My father's statement made me curious to travel to Asia and meet those boys my age.

It took many years before I was able to come to Japan. The first time I watched the sun rise from this side of the Pacific Ocean, I thought back to that conversation and wondered whether my father wasn't perhaps facing my direction at the same time and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. That thought made me feel very close to my home in California even as I lived far away in Japan.

Until next time,

Jim