Reminiscences 2024
One of the strongest connections of IWU with Asia was with the Technos Institute of Tokyo. Minor Myers hit it off with the head of Technos,
Kenji Tanaka, who founded a basically vocational college (mostly tourism), and shared some of Minor’s quirkiness. As I understand it, Tanaka funded five universities (one in New Zealand) to send faculty and students for a cultural exchange in Tokyo. Minor became part of it at Hobart and Smith, one of the other colleges, and brought that connection with him when he came to Illinois Wesleyan University. It was one of the best perks I had at IWU.
As a member of, and sometimes head of, the Asian Studies Committee at IWU, I was qualified to lead a trip. I was also in a position to choose the candidates among the sophomore students, and my goal was to ensure that one of them would be from Business Administration. That had never happened before at IWU. One of the other faculty pushed a student who. when she saw fish, went, “Ew, fish.” She found being a vegetarian avoided that potential cultural conflict, and thus missed some of the best foods on the trip.
The format was that we would be flown to Tokyo and all our expenses would be covered. Given how expensive Japan was, that was useful. We had a $50 voucher one night and it bought a hamburger and a coke. We stayed in different neighborhoods, which gave us a sense of the size if not diversity of Tokyo. As I recall, early on, we had a tremor, learning what the “rim of fire” was about.
Technos was a school focusing mostly on tourism, and one of the real treats we enjoyed was at a resort maintained in the mountains, with a hot pool in the mornings where we could sit watching the sun come up. It provided training to the Technos students, and joy to the guests.
Three other memories remain in my mind: the first was the Tuna market (I think it moved in 2018), where enormous Tuna were bought and sold. The
most expensive went for $3 million. Charlie the Tuna would have been as astonished as I was to see the activity in the wee hours of the morning.
The second was Japanese baseball. I did not realize the teams were corporately owned. That is, the Tokyo Giants were part of the Yomiuri newspaper and television empire. Equivalent to the Yankees, the Giants are the oldest professional team in Japan and one of the most successful (22 championships). Their games were in the Tokyo Dome, starting at 6 pm. That start time allowed the salarymen to come straight from work in their suits with briefcases. As you might expect from a Japanese crowd, the cheering was orchestrated and the audience followed the cheerleaders. Food was exceptional: bento instead of hot dog, with beer distributed via something like a fire extinguisher. It was great fun.
The third was a stay in a small town that looked like (and probably was) a locale for pictures of early Japan. Small shops, small buildings.
I should note that not only did faculty choose students, but many activities split faculty and students. It wasn’t like May Term–babysitting, guide, guardian, warden, whatever was required. It was a real reward!
Mrs. Hoyt joined me afterwards for Kyoto and Nara to be reported later.