WHERE MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH JAPAN BEGAN

You know how some moments in life just stick? Like, no matter how much time passes, they’re etched permanently into your brain? Well, for me, it all started with a Christmas present from my dad—The National Geographic. My brothers and I got a subscription, and man, when that September 1967 issue landed in my hands, it hit me like a ton of bricks. On those glossy pages was Japan—a world so different, so vibrant, so mesmerizing compared to my little slice of life in Naperville. That issue wasn’t just a magazine; it was my passport to a dream.