When Shogun Came to America
I was 14 years old when Shogun first aired here in the United States. As I remember that week – everybody was enthralled by it. It was the talk of the town, at least in my area of the world. Because of the way my birthday falls, I was nearly a whole year older than the kids I grew up with in school. November babies often had to wait for the next year before we were allowed to start in the school system – even though we missed our age mates by only about a month. So I was in the 8 th grade during that week – middle school. Every day while it aired, kids discussed what had occurred the night before. Toward the end of the series, I remember sitting behind three of my female classmates in homeroom when the subject of the best character in the series came up. They were going on about Blackthorne – which I guess is not terribly surprising. I spoke up and said that I thought Omi san (played by Yuki Meguro) was the best character. As I remember my thoughts back then, I was fas...