This year is 400th anniversary of Japan-Mexico friendship. It means Japan and Mexico have been in friendship since 1609.  It’s such a long time !

I still remember that Japanese football team won the bronzemedal in Mexico Olympic and a weight-lifting player of Japan, Yoshinobu Miyake got a gold medal then.

Just recently, I met with an Mexican, surprisingly,he speaks fluent Japanese. I asked him where and how he learnt it.  He answered he studied by himself and textbook was animation and manga of Japan. I met a lot of Mexicans in LA or wherever in the USA, he was the first Japanese speaking Mexican in my life.

I was really glad to know it. I thought Japan was a far away land for Mexicans and nobody in Mexico could tell the location of Japan on the world map.  But he knew Japan and Japanese culture.  It was a nice surprise.

 Some years ago, a Beatles fan in Mexico gave me an email as I had a Beatles web site as a fan,  She found my site and asked about Japan, not about the Beatles.  She said John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, is Japanese, she wanted to know why John liked Yoko that much. She added, she understand why Geroge Harrison loves Mexican woman, Olivia, because she knows Mexican girl’s good points well.  So she often asked me about Yoko, or Japanese.

To be honest, Yoko Ono can’t be a typical Japanese woman, that’s why she could be wife of John.  Anyway, that was also a nice surprise to know how foreigners got interested in Japan. 

Mexico has been my favourite country for me since I knew Mexico. Now Japanese festival seems being held in Mixico city for each other’s friendship. I hope this relation will last long, or forever.

Congratulations, Mexico and Japan !