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SUSAN S. KATCHER ('90) so outrageous, after all. professor at Kyoto University and do a bit Assistant Director, East Asian Legal Studies From my Law School office, I used a of souvenir shopping; and on Tuesday, Center Rail map to figure out how to get to another short bullet train ride from Kyoto . From , the route looked to Kobe allowed time to spend much of In August, 1991, I went to Taipei, Taiwan, slightly tortuous. From Osaka, the the day looking at Kobe University and to attend an international conference on approach appeared more direct. Thus, the talking about its law program with a rep- the taxation of non-profit organizations Japan itinerary started to unfold: I would resentative of the law faculty. that the Law School's East Asian Legal fly to Osaka and avoid Tokyo's infamous On Wednesday, I took the non-bullet Studies Center had helped organize. I was Narita airport. train on the much longer journey to the editor of the papers being presented Alas, all flights (and I mean ALLflights) Kanazawa, into the mountains, which and I was appreciative of the chance both to Osaka were taken. So, armed with a were impressive, although not Alp-like to attend the Conference and to meet the ticket to Tokyo-Narita, a Japan Rail from where I sat. I passed rice paddies, authors in person. I had two weeks' time coupon, and the telephone numbers of an verdant green at its best, and villages and in Asia; the first week was taken up with academic colleague of Law School towns, some with impressively large activities of the Conference; during the Professor Emeritus Sam Mermin and oth- Japanese-style tiled-roof homes (many second week, I planned to go to Japan, ers of Professor Charles Irish, I arrived in with solar panels), others with uninspiring especially to see the old eighth century Japan. I "psyched myself up" for long apartment cinderblock-type housing. I capitals of Nara and Kyoto, with their waits and inevitable delays at Narita; noticed with amazement the terraced lev- magnificent wood temples. I was excited amazingly, the waits were not bad and the els of farming up the sides of the moun- at the prospect of being a tourist for one lines not so long; I purchased a bus ticket tains; every space seemed to be used pro- week, to visit a place that had intrigued to Tokyo (about 60 km, but 1 1/2 hours ductively: land is scarce. The mist on the me since high school, that, in a "former drive away, due to traffic) and soon was mountains was picturesque, and the sub- life," I had taught about with film and on my way to the city of millions. ject matter of graceful Japanese scroll food, artifacts and art. I arrived in Japan on a Saturday and paintings became clearly visible from the Instead, I became, unsuspectingly, an left the following Friday. I was in train. Here, away from the port of Kobe, emissary of goodwill representing the Law Kanazawa on Wednesday and Thursday. the industrial Nagoya, the active and ultra- School to people for whom the name The main island of Japan is ; its modern Tokyo, was the reserved natural "Wisconsin" sounded as strange as the cities are linked by a rail system that cov- beauty of the changing landscapes that phrase "Ishikawa Prefecture" must sound ers it efficiently with trains that run fre- continues to be the basis of "the enduring to most of us. I was given a wonderful quently and absolutely on time. Thus, art of Japan." assignment to discharge-a grand idea!- after meeting with students of Chuo In Kanazawa, I was met at the train to visit the city of Kanazawa, Japan, locat- University on Saturday evening and tour- station by a professor of law, and then ed in Ishikawa Prefecture, in the "Japan ing the campus on Sunday, I still was able both of us were chauffeured in a Alps." Featured recently in The Economist, to ride the Shinkansen (the "bullet" train) University car out of Kanazawa proper Kanazawa boasts an apparently ridiculous from Tokyo to Nagoya to meet with pro- into the suburbs, where Kanazawa number of universities-IS-for one small fessors from the Faculty of Law of Aichi University is relocating its campus over city (population 430,000); yet greater University and its Dean on Sunday; on three-year's time. The old site of the uni- Tokyo, with population around 27 million, Monday, a short ride from Nagoya to versity is on the property of a castle, the has more than 200, so perhaps IS is not Kyoto gave me time to meet with a law enormous gate of which still stands, tow- Kodatsuno Campus

Kanazawa University

ering over students, faculty, and staff. The a large, empty field with an imposing earned at the undergraduate level. If a land will eventually go to the prefecture sign. The words were in Japanese, but the university offers law classes, it does so for municipal use. The remains of the cas- message seemed clear: "Shopping Mall through its law faculty; the law depart- tle are across from the expansive and Opening Soon!" This was confirmed by ment is referred to as a faculty of law. The beautiful Kenruoken Gardens, which used the professor. Arriving at the campus, we faculties of law in Japan include the sub- to be the private retreat of the owner of went to one of the new red brick build- ject areas of both law and political sci- the castle. ings. This one housed the faculty of law, ence. At my meeting with the Dean, Before a tour of the old campus, how- and this is where I met with Professor whose area of interest is civil procedure, I ever, I had a good look at the modern lay- Sasaki, Dean of the Faculty of Law, and believe one professor was in law and the out of the suburban university. As we two professors. other in political science (international neared the university grounds, we passed In Japan, the basic law degree is relations). Both, however, seemed equally

15 After our meeting, which lasted slightly ended too soon; then I was back on a longer than thirty minutes, the Dean got bullet train, out of Kyoto, flying past the Map of Japan up from his chair, went to his bookshelf, scenery and on to Tokyo, to catch the took down a Japanese book. and present- Narita Express, the ultramodern commut- ed it to me. He explained that it was his ing train that makes the run from Tokyo autograph book for official visitors. I had to the airport, undisturbed by traffic, in glanced at the pages as he turned them to about 50 minutes. These train tickets had find a fresh page: people had evidently all been reserved earlier in the week by written appreciative words before signing Professor Osanai; I had called him quickly their names. So on receiving my blank from Tokyo Station to let him know that I Ishikawa Prefecture page-of special Japanese paper, of had made all the connections, and to say course-my individual identity became goodbye. Two days later (or perhaps "~ subsumed within my Official Law School three, considering the crossing of the Tokyo Persona, which suddenly appeared from international date line) I was back in nowhere, and I began: Madison. On behalf of the University of Now, once again sitting in my Law Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A., School office, I consider my trip to Japan and its Law School, I thank Dean Sasaki and the dreamlike quality that it had in for his kind hospitality ... and after a few Japan and continues to have here in complimentary words about the new cam- Madison. I have picture catalogues from pus, I signed my remarks as representative the faculties of law of Aichi and Kobe of the Law School and its East Asian Legal Universities; I have library recommenda- Studies Center. The Dean seemed appre- tions from the professor at Kyoto interested in hearing about the American ciative of the contemplation I gave to the University. Aren't these ample signs of my law school and its graduate degree pro- task, and presented to me-in return for week's pursuits-yet all could have been grams. my efforts, he said-two souvenir "tele- obtained by other means, such as by mail, As with many Japanese, the Dean phone cards," with pictures of the old could they not? But, of course, there are could read and write English, but did not (Castle) and the new (brick) Kanazawa the prosaic airplane ticket stubs and used speak it. He explained through the inter- University on them. boarding passes. Regardless of these bits preter, the professor of International The meeting was followed by a tradi- of evidence, is there nothing truly con- Relations, that World War II occurred at tional (i.e., shoes off and no chairs) tem- vincing to "give witness" not only to this the time that he might have learned to pura lunch at a comfortable restaurant train-centered trip in Japan but also to its speak English. Since it was, at that time, nearby, which had large windows that main purpose, to introduce our Law an "enemy language," he never learned to gave an excellent view of the city below School, its graduate legal studies pro- speak it. (This he explained in a rather and the mountains beyond. After lunch, grams, and its East Asian Legal Studies cheerful, pragmatic manner.) the Dean said his good byes and I was Center to the faculty of law at Kanazawa Dean Sasaki used a cane as he moved shown the castle remnants and the University? quickly around his office. He seemed Garden by one of the professors. And then I spot them: two credit-card- pleased to meet a representative from a Afterwards, on my own, I visited two size plastic, electromagnetic-sensitized U.S. law school and proud to show his museums, and then returned to my hotel rectangles, able to operate the public tele- new university and its comfortable sur- room to get organized for the next day'S phone with a single insert, capable of roundings. He was an amiable, gracious long trip back to Kyoto and, with one being emblazoned with pictures of one's person, who took time to make sure that change of trains, to Nara, Japan's first cap- choice, for example, an old castle or a one of the professors would be able to ital. modern suburban university building. The show me the Castle and the Gardens after The morning of my last day in Japan, I Japanese telephone cards of Kanazawa the meeting and our lunch. He received spent wandering the grounds of the strik- University given to me by Dean Sasaki in with great pleasure my small gifts from ing Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, again return for the Law School's autograph! Wisconsin: a photograph book on the unexpectedly caught, as I had been the The reader is most warmly invited to International Crane Foundation in day before at Nara, by the awesome see them, on display in a quiet corner of Baraboo and a "Bucky Badger" Parker grandeur and timelessness of the enor- room L455 in the Law School. Stop by. pen! mous wood buildings. This brief respite