President’s Blog

A Free Day in Japan

Posted May 24th, 2009 by President Whitlock

Today, Sunday, was a free day in Japan for Joanne and me.   Tomorrow, we visit again with our friend Herb Donovan at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.   I am hopeful that we can build a relationship with this fine institution.  This is for a variety of reasons.   Rikkyo has strong ties to Dr. Paul Rusch, the Kentuckian who is revered in the Yatusgatake Highlands which is Madison County’s sister region in Japan.   Rikkyo is on the leading edge of green and sustainability issues in Japan.   And, they have a fine program in global business in which the language of instruction is English.

But, back to today.   We took a JTB-Sunrise Tour to Nikko National Park.  This park’s claim to fame is that it was chosen as the burial site for Ieyasu Takugawa, the first Shogun and the person responsible for locating Japan’s capital at Tokyo  — called Edo during his hey day.  Look back at my posts last October and you’ll see a photo of a statue of this fellow.

There was a lot of very ornate architecture, the original (1630) hear, speak, and see no evil monkeys (a feature of the Tendai sect of Buddhism) and the magnificent Kegon waterfall.   Its 97-meter drop makes this cataract one of the top three in Japan.

On the monkeys, I think I have met each of them, sometime or another in my career.

After our visit with Herb, we are having dinner with Kirby and Teresa Easterling, a couple of EKU grads and American ex-pats here in Tokyo, where Kirby works for Corning.  Then, on Tuesday, we head over to Kofu by train. . . a feat we will be trying on our own.

My Japanese is coming back pretty quickly.  That was handy tonight at dinner, where Joanne and I were the only two folks in the room who spoke English.