Last week, one of my students asked me what I was looking forward to the most when I go back to visit the US this month. It will be my first time home in 5 years, so it’s a good question. It took me a minute to come up with a good response.

The obvious answer is my family – I’m excited just to be at home with them for a couple of weeks, so I didn’t plan any big road trips. However, we will be spending a few days in New York City together, and there’s one big thing I’ve never done there before: a live jazz show.

The reason I’m excited about about this show in particular is that the musician is from Okayama! Her name is Kyoko Oyobe, and she’s been working as a jazz pianist in New York for quite some time. Her quartet is playing at a place called Cellar Dog, and we’ll be there to see it.

Hopefully I’ll have some good stories to share when I come back to Japan!