It has been 23 years since my graduation–the swiftest hours, as they flew.

I still remember fondly the nostalgia of arriving at Tokyo Station on Japan’s vernal equinox day (March 20, 1993), after studying the Japanese language at Osaka University of Foreign Studies for six months. I then went straight to check in at Ichikawa International House, with a low proficiency level of verbal communication. On Monday of the following week, I went to the TMDU Dental Hospital. I met Professor Soma, was led to observe the orthodontic clinic on the 12th and 2nd Floors, respectively, and was greeted in Japanese by everyone. Since I understood only some important sentences for social conversations, it was so difficult for me to say anything and I felt like being deaf and dumb.

I always wondered how my educational life in TMDU would be if no one assisted me via their verbal and non-verbal communications. My orthodontic class was commenced on April 1, 1993 and my Japanese instructors and classmates showed up there. Some spoke in Japanese so very fast that my Japanese-English electronic dictionary was useless, while some tried to make me understand what they wanted to convey by reducing their conversational speech. After learning that my language abilities were equal to those of the 6-year children, they cradled by various language supports. I then gradually understood intra- and extra-curricular words, phrases, sentences, and conversations.

I am sure that TMDU personnel always welcome all foreigners who have strong will to be TMDU students, despite their deficiency in the Japanese language.

I clearly remember the embarrassment I had when I first met my Sensei, Dr. Yasuhito Yuasa at the Narita airport in 1994. I spoke no Japanese and did not realize he was (is) my Sensei, since he was (is) so young. Five years as a graduate student at TMDU taught me Japanese, although broken according to my TMDU Japanese teacher and my classmates. However, I am still very proud of my Japanese since I was able to do a blend of Japanese/ English thesis defense, and believe or not, I delivered a graduation speech in Japanese to represent the international graduate students of my graduation year---1999. Five years at TMDU also gave me five first-author papers, and I remember I was a bit “nomi suki (drunk)” when the lab had the celebration party for my paper on Nature Genetics. Yagi Sensei, my labmate from Brazil, used to joke with me that every time when we have a paper published, we should have a kid. It’s gonna be impossible for me, but I remember he returned to Brazil with three kids.

Trained in TMDU and by Dr. Yuasa gave me confidence to pursue an academic career in US. More than 20 years of moving my family from Cleveland (Case Western Reserve University), Portland (Oregon Health and Science University) and Denver (University of Colorado) made me keep climbing the academic ladder to success. The research focus switching from colon cancer to head and neck cancer differentiated myself from my mentors in Japan and US, and shaped myself as an independent and established investigator, but the education, critical thinking, and seeing role models from them are the keys taking me here today. More than 20 years in US also made my Japanese even broken. However, I am proud of myself again when I re-visited TMDU at the 90th anniversary in 2018. I felt my Japanese kept popping out of my head and was able to communicate, although I cannot underestimate the contributions of my body language and English. Language can be broken, but it does not stop the flow of my communication, memories and friendships with my Sensei and friends at TMDU.