On April 4, 2025 at Lincoln South Rotary Club, we heard from Dr. Kenneth Keith. His topic is Letters From Japan: Four Seasons in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Ken opened by sharing an introduction to his book Letters from Japan: Four Seasons in the Land of the Rising Sun. His book is in sections, each opened with a haiku - a form of Japanese poem that usually includes a reference to a season.
He shared the story of how he was introduced to the Japanese culture. As a member of the Board of Governors at Nebraska Wesleyan University he would periodically be invited to events at the home of the NWU President. It was during a reception at the home of John and Mary white that he met guests from Japan.
Ken's wife Connie had been taking a course at NWU on Japan - learning the language and gaining insights into the culture. The reception, which normally would have been a casual social event, turned into a life-changing opportunity. Connie knew about traditions and greeted them in ways, and using language, familiar to them. They found that they had much in common - including knowing some of the same people.
By the end of the evening, Ken was invited to be a visiting professor at the Kwansei Gakuin University.
One thing led to another. Connie did more reading - learning more about Japan and the culture. Ken arranged his schedule so that he could participate in the course on Japan on NWU to learning the language and other Japanese skills.
Ken shared photos and images depicting the beauty and diversity of Japan. The University is a beautiful campus with buildings in the Spanish architectural style which is unique in Japan. On the map, we could see that Nishinomiya, where the Kwansei Gakuin University is located in a triangle area with the points being Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka. Nishinomiya has population of half million but it is not well known as it gets lost due to the number of cities in Japan with millions of residents.
Transportation around Japan is mostly by train or bus. Only about one half of the people in Japan have cars. Ken shared a little about he Bullet Trains that travel at high rates of speed and there are no train crossings - the trains are on tracks built to go over or under buildings and traffic to avoid the crossings. When traveling in the train Ken claimed that you have no sense of speed that reportedly travel between 160-200 mph. Because of the infrastructure and technology, there have been no passenger fatalities (having carried over 6 billion) since its inception in 1964.
We also learned about the neighborhood trains in each region of Japan. Many of the major terminals are under department stores that are owned by the railroad. They would bring the customers right to their doors.
Ken shared the first haiku with us - one by Matsuo Basho that refers to the cherry trees. The cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan, the trees spread through Japan. On the weather reports they include a forecast of when the blooms will be in different areas of Japan as the weather warms from south to north.
We were introduced to a number of temples in Japan starting with the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. It was originally build in the 1390s. Most of the exterior is covered in gold. It was burned to the ground by a fanatic monk in 1950 but was rebuilt and still stands today.
Another famous temple in Kyoto is Ginkakuji which is the silver pavilion though it was never covered in silver. He talked about the Byodoin Temple which is highly recognizable because it is on the Japanese 10 yen coin. The Tōdai-ji temple was for years the oldest wooden building in the world. Inside is the "Hall of Great Buddha" housing a 52' tall bronze Buddha.
Hiroshima was our next stop. Though it was largely destroyed by the atomic bomb, the ruins of Genbaku Dome still stands. He said that we may be usure if Americans would be welcome but they have made an effort to promote peace and it is one of the most welcoming places they visited. There is an International Peace Museum which holds reminders of the event - it is difficult to get through the entire museum in one visit which includes memorabilia, photos and stories of the event.
In the time that Ken had left he shared photos or the floating shrine (Itsukushima), a temple built without a single nail - using "tongue and groove" workmanship to connect the wood. We viewed some beautiful Japanese gardens which are meticulously manicured.
Ken Keith is Professor Emeritus of Psychological Sciences at the University of San Diego, editor of the Cambridge University Press series Elements of Psychology and Culture, and past president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. He is author or editor of a dozen books, including Letters From Japan, and more than 150 scientific and professional articles and book chapters, many of them dealing with cultural issues. He was a visiting scholar at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, and at St. Clare’s College, Oxford, in the United Kingdom, and has taught in University of San Diego programs in London and in Mexico. Prior to his time at the University of San Diego he spent 19 years as a faculty member at Nebraska Wesleyan University.