Last week, I boarded the Amtrak Zephyr with my husband for a journey that felt like stepping into a slow-moving novel. From Denver, Colorado to San Francisco, we watched the Rockies rise and fall, the desert stretch endlessly, and the Sierra Nevada roll past our window like a living painting. It was epic, not just in distance, but in depth.

As someone who spent years riding Japan’s trains, from the sleek Shinkansen to the sleepy Enoden, I couldn’t help but draw parallels.

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As September begins, Japan quietly shifts into a season of reflection. The air grows cooler, the cicadas fade, and the moon begins to take center stage. This is the time of Tsukimi, the traditional Japanese moon-viewing festival that honors the beauty of the autumn moon and invites us to pause, appreciate, and reconnect.

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Last week, I had the extraordinary privilege of sharing a quiet cup of coffee with Glen S. Fukushima. To say I was honored would be an understatement. Here is a man whose resume reads like a blueprint for global impact: former Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan and China, two-term president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and vice chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Yet, despite his towering achievements, Glen made time for someone like me. That gesture alone speaks volumes.

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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ryo Hagiwara of the Shizuoka Shimbun for a special episode of the Living Well podcast, where we explored the evolving landscape of wellbeing in Japan, particularly through the lens of youth, mindfulness, and the shifting tides of work culture. Our conversation was part of the broader Shizuoka Well-being initiative, a forward-thinking movement that aims to position Shizuoka as the happiest prefecture in Japan.

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On August 6, 2025, the gentle sound of bells rang through Memorial Park in Cupertino as the community gathered for the annual Bell Ringing for World Peace ceremony.

Organized by the Cupertino-Toyokawa Sister Cities program and the City of Cupertino, the event marked eighty years of peace between Japan and the United States.

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There’s a kind of quiet that settles in when you live abroad. Not silence exactly—Tokyo is anything but quiet—but something internal. A stillness. A pause. I felt it often when I lived there. It wasn’t loneliness, not really. More like a soft ache. A kind of melancholia that comes from being somewhere that doesn’t quite belong to you, and yet somehow feels like home.

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For many alumni, the JET Program is a turning point—opening doors to careers in education, diplomacy, international business, and beyond. But perhaps its most lasting gift is the global network it fosters: a community of passionate, curious, and culturally engaged individuals who continue to support and inspire one another long after their time in Japan.

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風が強く吹いている “Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru”: The literal translation of the title is “the wind is blowing hard”, but you’ll find this title translated in English as “Run with the wind.” Although the theme is long-distance running, which has no connection to my personal world at all, I was soon captivated by the story. One reason is that the characters are all so alive and relatable, and the very Japanese “underdog makes it” theme is one I really like.