Roger Pulvers

And I was about to be drafted.

The Vietnam War was at one of its heights.

And I just didn't want to stay in the United States.

And I left for Japan.

kind of with $300 in my pocket and one little suitcase.

And I thought, well, I'm going to do something in Japan.

And on the first evening, I arrived in the evening.

There was no Narita Airport.

It was Haneda Airport.

And I took a taxi into town.

And I looked out the window of the taxi.

It looked like a magic lantern show.

And I said to myself, in English, because I spoke no Japanese, I said, I'm going to stay here for the rest of my life.

And so I was terribly lucky to get a job teaching Russian and Polish at a university in Kyoto called Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto Sangyo Daigaku.

And during the five years of teaching those languages, I learned Japanese, started translating Japanese, started writing my own short stories as well, and plays.

And I discovered this writer who's had the most impact on my life, Miyazawa Kenji.

He's a little bit like Lewis Carroll.

He's also a poet, I think the greatest Japanese poet of the modern era.

And I translated a book of his poetry called Strong in the Rain, which was published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK.

And Night on the Milky Way Train is the most beautiful story of two boys who find themselves on a train going through the stars, going through the heavens along the Milky Way.