Letter of Introduction

The best thing about living in a place like New York or even Los Angeles is you meet and become friends with people from places like La Ciotat and Cape Town and Kyoto.  And those people, your friends, will send the contemporary e-mail version of a letter of introduction along with you when you travel to their country.  And it just flows.  These new people in these new places are your friends by default, because of the connection, and it feels somehow as if you've known them all along.

This is the joy of travel for me, meeting the people that live where you happen to land, and doing what they do.  There are the tourist spots, the important cultural and historic landmarks of a city that are in every guidebook in every language.  These are of course amazing to see.  But spending an afternoon or evening eating and drinking with new friends, locals, even if you don't understand a word of the conversation is worth as much to me as any of the "must-see" sights.

Domo arigato Mineko and Aki.  You are golden!