“Everyone should try a train,” asserts Tomoko. She wishes
everyone would have a bon voyage, be it on a boat, car, or plane. Tomoko has certainly experienced many forms of
travel, which reflect different way stations on her life journey.
When Tomoko when to high school, she used the train, sitting
in the back while the Americans sat in the front. This experience occurred
during the American occupation of Japan after World War II.
Tomoko flew for the first time in 1962 when she left her
homeland Japan for the United States, when she started to study at the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Tomoko would take the local bus to teach piano at the homes
of her students, and to go to auditions, including one that resulted in her
being awarded by the San Francisco Symphony Foundation.
While at the Conservatory, Tomoko traveled with her friends
to Arizona in order to meet the famous cellist Pablo Casals.
In the late 1960s Tomoko wanted to go to Europe, and well-to-do
supporters helped her with contacts and networking. She competed in several competitions: in Paris
and Brussels among other European cities. Later that decade she visited a
friend in Florence , and had a chance to see the Medici house and played an
antique harpsichord. In 1970 Tomoko married a Hungarian, and they visited his
home country from time to time.
Fast forwarding over twenty years later, Tomoko took her
daughter Beata to Europe for Beata’s own competition: in ice skating. In 2002
Tomoko and her husband traveled to Salt Lake City to watch their daughter
compete in the Olympics.
Even though Tomko doesn’t travel as much these days, she
still enjoys driving her car.
What has all that traveling taught Tomoko? In response, she says, "Open the door. Visit the country. A passport is your teacher."
