SHROPSHIRE, England -- Koji Nakamura says his life has taken many twists and turns.
One of the more surprising twists brought him six years ago on a summer vacation to a small English village. He now feels that the village is his second home, and the people he regularly stays with here are his adopted family.
Dean of Konan University's Institute for Language and Culture, Nakamura is a confirmed lover of English language and literature. Six years ago he was in the audience at a production of "Macbeth" in Stratford-on-Avon. Extrovert as he is and liking to talk, he spoke to a couple in the audience. He told them he didn't like a Shakespeare play to be presented in modern dress. "They agreed with me," Nakamura said. "I was very surprised to hear that they had gone by canal boat from their village in Shropshire to Stratford. After the theater they invited me to go back with them to their houseboat to have a drink." From that beginning, Nakamura comes each summer to the couple's home in the Shropshire village. While he is here he helps with daily tidying, and takes his friends' big black dog on walks across the fields and along the lanes. Each year his English family hosts a barbecue party in their garden for him, who by now has made several friends locally. "Very heartwarming," Nakamura said.