#TBT - Japan Travel Log - Hanging out with "Taka"

by Skip Cohen

It's Throwback Thursday, my favorite day of the week, not just because of the old photographs I find, but the backstories and memories that go with them.

My first trip to Japan was in my Polaroid days in 1981 as the overseas Consumer Services Manager. Over the next couple of years, I was in Tokyo at least twice a year. I loved it so much that I bought Japanese-language CDs to listen to on the way to and from work. I was hoping to apply for an overseas assignment, but by the time I might have had a shot, the dollar vs. the yen had changed. Japan was too expensive to maintain an office, and the division consolidated a few of the Asia/Pacific offices, closing the one in Tokyo.

Twenty years later, I'd be back as a guest of Asukabook. "Taka" and I first met when he attended WPPI, later to become an exhibitor. It started a friendship I cherish today, and we've continued to stay in touch. Still on my bucket list is getting back to Japan, but as I get older and travel becomes more and more challenging, it's unlikely this trip will become a reality.

I think the time machine is set for 2003. The picture on the left is me with Taka and a woman from his office who was our interpreter. Taka spoke almost no English, and the Japanese I had tried to learn two decades earlier was long gone. However, that never slowed down the friendship.

The picture on the right is only appreciated by true sushi lovers. It's Taka's expression while eating uni (sea urchin)...it's so good that words can't describe the "taste of the ocean." If you've had uni and loved it, then you understand Taka's reaction.

This is where grab-shots like these become so important in a walk down Memory Lane. It might be 20+ years ago, but that doesn't change the memories of each time we got together, whether he was traveling in the States or I was in Japan.

Over the years, Taka learned English, and we email back and forth several times a year. Sadly, I didn't stay with learning the language, but that's never slowed us down.

It's Throwback Thursday!!! If you haven't gone off in search of your own throwbacks today, what are you waiting for? Old photographs serve two purposes- the first is the power they have to transport you back to another time.  The second is the appreciation they give you for capturing memories, and that's the business so many of us are in.

As I shared in a quote from yesterday's post...

Photographs hold profound value because they capture fleeting time,
preserve fading memories, and defy the changes brought by aging and loss.
Google AI