His friends are very important to Tony Hogg. From his home in Brisbane, Australia, he keeps in touch with them wherever they are in the world, and plans to visit them whenever he can. Friendships from his Japan days go back more than 30 years, while those originally forged in Australia go back even further. Retired now, he came to Japan three times in the last year, filled with his "very fond memories" and eager to stay closely in touch.
Disciplined and alert, he is a man who rings true. Well read, well traveled and widely experienced from his demanding career, he has deep reserves of general knowledge and a range of special interests. He came this autumn to Japan especially to mingle at a Shinjuku music festival, and declared that his weekend "saturated in jazz" was marvelous. Jazz is one of his abiding loves.
Tony was born in Launceston, Tasmania, where he had "a conservative upbringing. In many ways Tasmania is idyllic, especially for a boy," he said. "There are mountains and lakes, trekking and climbing. But from a very early age I had a driving passion to go overseas. I had a feeling of being isolated in Tasmania, of not being part of the world." Today his mother, at 91, still wonders why he cannot stay still. "Tasmania is very nice, dear," she tells him, and he agrees.