Introduction
Wild Geese and Full Moon (Hiroshige)
Early in 2001, Agnes and I made the decision to travel to Japan together with our two daughters, Mary and Sarah, to join with our son, John, who has lived in Tokyo since February 1995, for the celebration of his wedding to Kyoko Hayashi at the Meiji Shrine. This was to be our first visit to Japan as we had not previously felt inclined to make such a long flight, preferring instead that John should come to visit us in England as and when he could. Another reason for the undertaking the journey was to take the opportunity to visit those sites that had been, quite coincidentally, associated with my father and his father and grandfather before him. My father was born in Yokohama in 1906, his grandfather, Dr Stuart Eldridge, having first sailed there in 1871 with a party of Americans who had been invited by the Emperor to demonstrate and teach western agricultural techniques to the Japanese, following the opening up of Japan that was the Meiji Restoration. Much more can be found out about my great grandfather, Stuart Eldridge, by visiting my web pages on which I have published my transcription of his journals. I was asked to give two presentations in Yokohama during our stay, one to the Association of Medical History on the subject of my great grandfather and one to the Medical College on my own work as a general practitioner and postgraduate medical educationalist.
We were particularly pleased that my brother, Bill Tegner, was able to travel to Japan as well to be with us, together with his partner (now his wife), Pamela.
The Cemetery for Foregn Residents, Yokohama