A Passage to Bangkok

By Avery Davidson,
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation

“We’ll hit the stops along the way.
We only stop for the best.”
-Rush A Passage to Bangkok

I have to admit, this is one of the blog posts I’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to write. Since I started preparing for this trip, Rush’s A Passage to Bangkok has been a steady, relentless earworm in my head. I’m sure I listened to it at least 50 times in the week leading to our departure for Japan.

First, let me speak about Japan. The people here are kind, warm, caring and extremely friendly. They are proud of their history, embrace the present and are poised for the future. Japan is, after all, the world’s 3rd largest economy. 

Miyuki Miyazaki, our tour guide for the week, is a petite, diminutive woman with deep, caring eyes and shoulder length raven hair with a few strands of experience mixed in her locks. Her given name translates into “beautiful happiness.” In her words, deeds and treatment of LSU Ag Leadership Class XVI, she exudes the meaning of her name. There was no question she would not answer and was especially kind when someone on the bus incorrectly guessed the meaning for the symbols representing “power” and “rice field.” (The meaning is “man.” A certain author of this very blog volunteered “saké.” I’m not sure Miyazaki-san has stopped giggling at that one.)

Sota Miyakawa is a healthy man of above average height, strong build and a willingness to share his passion for raising cattle and growing hay. I watched Miyakawa-san and class member Adam Caughern bond over their love of agriculture, especially growing grass. When Caughern told Miyakawa-san that he was a hay farmer, Miyakawa-san quickly pulled aside his jacket to show him the green and yellow logo for his hay processing company. The two were inseparable for the tour.

Miyakawa-san is the manager of Mizuho Beef Farm. The location Class XVI visited is the largest in all of Japan with 6,500 head of cattle all in one location. 1,500 of them are Holstein dairy cattle which board a rotating milking parlor three times daily and give an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow per day. The rest are either purebred Wagyu cattle or Holstein/Wagyu cross; all for beef production. Miyakawa-san smiled the entire time he led the class over hills and through hay barns to show every practice on the operation. 

Even when the Japanese people are asking a gaijin television crew shooting for a certain Louisiana based agricultural program to stop taking video, they’re nice… both times they asked that certain crew to stop, they were nice; only making an X with their arms or fingers and bowing politely. We obliged… both times… with only a teardrop on our foreheads and our cheeks a bit more rosy. 

But now, we’re at Narita International Airport prepared to say sayonara to Japan. We will remember the food and art, but, most of all, the people. We’re about to board the plane for Bangkok, though I don’t think it’s called the Thailand Express. Once we land, we’ll hit the stops along the way. We only stop for the best.