# Shigeaki Saegusa's Kanreki

- Author: Joichi Ito
- Date: 2002-07-09T23:07:19Z



Saegusa-san just turned 60 which is an important birthday in Japan. It is called kanreki. The first birthday party was a suprise party at Blue Note Tokyo after the Enjin01 meeting. The second party was at a small temple in Akasaka and we wore traditional Japanese summer ukata. There were booths with sushi, curry, yakitori and traditional Japanese games. And lots of beer. This picture is Mizuka, Saegusa-san and me at the temple. About 400 people came. It was a very eclectic crowd with ex-prime ministers, artists, company presidents, journalists and actors. I did feel a bit young. When someone asked me where I was going dressed in a ukata, I said, "to my friend's kanreki party", and they looked at me kind of funny. I guess it's not so strange calling people 25 years older than you "friends" in the US, but in Japan it is strange enough to be gramatically incorrect. For some reason, most of my best friends are all much older than me. Interestingly, many of their wives are Mizuka's age. ;-p





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