You may have noticed I've mentioned Fusayo Hattori in 2 or 3 of these essays recently.
Fusayo is a longtime friend from Japan with whom we exchange Christmas gifts every year, and exchange email messages frequently.
It wasn't easy reading some of things in an email Fusayo sent me a couple of days ago.
In it, she wrote, "Today, January 15 is the anniversary of Jiro's death 17 years ago. I remember, Ron, that you and Jiro were good friends. You always remembered Jiro. You sent me an email of some memories of Jiro. I was so glad, and I was touched by your email."
We became friends of Fusayo and Jiro a number of years ago through the Friendship Force, an international organization that promotes friendship with people throughout the world.
When the Des Moines chapter of Friendship Force organized an exchange with Japan, we were paired up with Fusayo and Jiro.
Consequently, we lived for a week in Japan with Fusayo, Jiro and their two daughters, Yumi and Yuki.
The following week, we stayed in the home of a family in another city in Japan.
We had a tremendous time with Fusayo and Jiro. They were intelligent, fun-loving people who treated us to a fantastic week full of everything Japanese.
Money seemed to be of no concern to Jiro, who was connected with a number of Mazda dealerships in Japan.
We did all the things Americans are supposed to do in Japan, including visiting Mount Fuji [Japan's highest mountain], the nation's vast green tea fields and just about every type of Japanese restaurant anyone could imagine.
The way I recall it, most of the meals at Fusayo and Jiro's home was catered in.
But we ate out frequently, and one particular trip to a fancy sushi bar really appealed to me.
Jiro had me outfitted with an sushi bar worker's authentic uniform, including a bandana, and and arranged to have me treat diners to the best food a Japanese restaurant could offer.
I stayed behind the counter for a while before sitting with the other restaurant patrons.
I can't recall all the food we had--courtesy of Jiro--but it all was delicious. I'm sure I ate some stuff I hadn't dined on before, and haven't dined on since.
Our friendship with the Hattori family has continued ever since that first visit to Japan.
The year after that, Fusayo and Jiro sent daughters Yumi and Yuki to West Des Moines to stay for a week or so with us.
Yumi and Yuki must have given us a good report because Fusayo and Jiro flew to the U.S. and stayed with us in our home the following summer.
I reminded Fusayo in an email yesterday that the highlight of that week was football media day at Iowa City when Hayden Fry was the Hawkeyes' coach.
I had alerted the Iowa sports information office that I would be bringing Jiro to Iowa's preseason press conference and the activities that followed on the football field.
Fry made friends with Jiro immediately by saying a couple of Japanese words to him. That was a very nice thing for ol' Hayden to do.
George Wine, Phil Haddy and others on Iowa's sports information staff went along with Jiro's visit in first class fashion.
Reporters wear name tags at media day, with the writer's name and employer included.
The sports information guys provided Jiro with a name tag that said:
JIRO HATTORI
Tokyo Times
Jiro got a bigtime charge out of that, so did Hayden Fry and so did I.
Fusayo, who had gone shopping with Maxine in downtown Iowa City during the time Jiro and I were at the press conference and on the football field, couldn't believe it when she saw Jiro's name tag.
That wasn't the end of it.
In those days, Iowa's sports information people treated a few sportswriters and broadcasters to a media day dinner at The Lark, a wonderful restaurant in nearby Tiffin.
The two of us, plus Jiro and Fusayo, were included in the group that day.
Following a glass or bottle or two of something or other, George Wine & Co. told Jiro and Fusayo they could order anything on the menu.
When Fusayo and Jiro were finished eating some of the best steak and seafood anywhere, Jiro insisted on paying the bill for everyone.
But that was out of the question. Iowa paid for it, and I will forever be grateful to the very nice people there for their kindnesses.
On another night during the same visit to West Des Moines by Jiro and Hattori, Jiro said he wanted to prepare dinner for all of us at our home.
So I took him to the Dahls supermarket that then was located on 50th Street in West Des Moines.
Jiro ordered all the groceries he needed, and also found some high-powered sake [prounced sock-ee], the Japanese alcoholic drink made from fermented rice.
Let's put it this way, sake was served and consumed often when Jiro was around, whether we were in Japan or West Des Moines.
Sadly, the trip here by Jiro and Fusayo turned out to be the last time we saw Jiro.
I guess it was in 1999 that we were planning to fly to Japan again to visit the Hattori family.
However, I went to an emergency room the night before we were supposed to leave. One of the doctors there told me, "I think you have pneumonia and I'm worried about you."
An hour later I was in a bed at Iowa Methodist Hospital in downtown Des Moines. I sayed there 12 days, and underwent surgery on a lung so the pneumonia could be swept from my body.
Consequently, we didn't get to make the trip to Japan that year.
The situation worsened after that.
I received an email from Fusayo saying Jiro had died of lung cancer at 63 years of age.
We were able to go to Japan to visit Fusayo at some point after that, and she and I have been communicating electronically and we have been exchanging Christmas gifts ever since.
At the end of Fusayo's email to me this week, she wrote: "I hope you are in good health. Please drink Japanese tea. Good for the health."
"Good for the health" was always what Jiro would say to me when he and I drank Japanese green tea together.
Sad stuff.
A note from both of us to Fusayo: Jiro was a wonderful man and you are a wonderful woman. We miss Jiro very much, and we miss you very much. Hopefully, we will visit you soon. We love you.
