“Music can take  
you right back,  
years back, to the  
very moment certain  
things happened  
in your life.”   
Aretha Franklin

During my second visit to Japan, in November 1999, I was invited to visit the school in the coastal town of Sotome (a suburb of Nagasaki) where my host student, Saori, had attended elementary school. While I was there, I was invited to visit the sixth grade class. The teacher, Mr. Masatoshi Irie, was an energetic and creative educator. I had met him the previous year when I first visited Nagasaki and stayed with Saori’s family in Sotome.

When I arrived at his classroom, Masatoshi informed me that his students had a surprise for me. In Japanese schools, English is taught beginning in junior high school, so I had no expectation that I would be able to converse with the students. As I expected, I couldn’t, but with translation assistance by Masatoshi, I was able to answer a few student questions. Then it was time for the surprise.

Masatoshi pulled out his guitar. All the students stood up in the aisles next to their desks. The looks on their faces led me to believe that something special was about to happen. And it did.

“When the night has come,  
and the land is dark,
and the moon is the  
only light we’ll see….”

That class of sixth grade students, who had not yet started studying English, was singing the popular Ben E. King song… in perfect English. The smiles on their faces said it all. I can only imagine how they interpreted the smile on my face.

It was clear that a significant amount of time and effort had been devoted to practicing the song. It was also clear that that the students enjoyed the experience immensely. The moment was truly unforgettable, so much so that, since that day, every time I hear Stand By Me, I’m taken back to the sixth grade classroom at Shitzu Elementary School in Sotome… with intense feelings of love and gratitude.