What is the secret of lifelong friendships that form in elementary school? I would never have thought to ask myself that question until my father-in-law announced he wouldn't be home for Sunday's family dinner because he was attending a party. Though he put it quite casually, the amazing thing to me was that Toshihiko Wakabayashi was meeting up with his fourth-grade classmates.
Fourth-grade class? He has an enviable circle of companions, including among his close inner circle many of the same people he played with in Ueno Park more than 60 years ago. Together they climbed trees, gathered ginko nuts and smuggled them home in bulging pockets to roast over the hibachi. Theirs is not only a bond developed through studying together, but also through growing up together in Tokyo's shitamachi.
To my delight, my father-in-law invited me along too, to meet with these 70-year-old former classmates from Okachimachi Elementary School who've spent their lives as wholesalers, shopkeepers, factory presidents, cafe owners and suburban homemakers. The venue for this remarkable gathering was a restaurant in Ikenohata, near where their old neighborhood school had stood before it was leveled by the bombs and fires of 1945.