Well, not really true. I have a few in the works posts about this trip that I’ll finish up when I get home. I’m sitting in the Tokyo Airport trying to summarize in my head the past few weeks. I don’t know what I was looking for when I left Boston. Probably some of what I always look for, adventure, something new, a different slice of the world.
The trip started off wobbly – I mean, who likes spending the night at an airport? But a taste of what was to come was shown. The precision of providing us with food, water and blankets was something I’ve never seen (and I’ve spent my fair share of nights on airport floors!).
I’ve heard and read a fair amount of criticism for and about Japan for not having owned its history. While the statement is true and fair, I think of all the nations who that can be said of: yes, Japan never formally apologized for WWII. Our own history is filled with a lack of apologies. We skip teaching about the Japanese interment camps of WWII, the relocations of the Native Americans, slavery and the list goes on and on.
History is complicated. War sucks. I find myself arching my eyebrows one group of people says another group should do this about its history. We all should know the good and the bad of where we are from – it is only then that we can truly understand how small this world really is.
But the people of Japan were gracious hosts to a mongolot American who wandered into their slice of the world.
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