rizal 12

• Early in the morning of Tuesday, February 28, 1888 - he arrived in Yokohama. He registered at the Grand Hotel.

   
• he proceeded to Tokyo the next day and took a room at Tokyo Hotel, where he stayed from March 2 - 7.

   
• Juan Perez Caballero - he visited Rizal at his hotel; a secretary of the Spanish Legation. He invited Rizal to live at the Spanish Legation.
• He accepted the invitation for two reasons:

  1. He could economize his living expenses by staying at the legation.
  2. He had nothing to hide from the prying eyes of the Spanish authorities.
• • March 7 Rizal checked out of Tokyo Hotel and lived at the Spanish Legation.

   

  -       He and Perez Caballero became good friends.
•  

  -       Rizal met Filipinos who were playing in a band one cool afternoon in March 1888 when he was promenading in a street of Tokyo near a park. They were playing a classical work of Strauss.
• The things which favorable impressed Rizal in Japan were:

  1. The beauty of the country — its flowers, mountains, streams, and scenic panoramas.
  2. The cleanliness, politeness, and industry of the Japanese people.
  3. The picturesque dress and simple charm of the Japanese women.
  4. There were very few thieves in Japan so that the houses remained open day and night, and in the hotel room, one could safely leave money on the table.
  5. Beggars were rarely seen in the city streets, unlike in Manila and other cities.
• -       One spring afternoon, a few days after he had moved to the Spanish Legation in the Azabu district of Tokyo, Rizal saw a pretty Japanese girl walking past the legation gate.
• Seiko Usui - lived in her parents’ home and that she used to pass by the legation during her daily afternoon walk.

   
• Together, Rizal and Seiko visited the interesting spots in the city—the Imperial Art Gallery, the Imperial Library, the universities, the Shokubutsu-en (Botanical Garden), the city parks (particularly Hibiya Park), and the picturesque shrines.

   
• Rizal saw in lovely O-Sei-San the qualities of his ideal womanhood — beauty, charm, modesty, and intelligence.
• With a tender tragic entry in his diary, Rizal bade farewell to lovely O-Sei-San.
• April 13, 1888 - Rizal boarded the Belgic, and English steamer, at Yokohama, bound for the United States.

   

  -       His sojourn in Japan lasted for 45 days.
• • 1897 a year after Rizal’s execution, she married Mr. Alfred Charlton, British teacher of chemistry of the Peers’ School in Tokyo.
• • Yuriko her daughter. She later married Yoshiharu Takiguchi, son of a Japanese senator.
• • Charlton After many years of teaching, Charlton was awarded by the Japanese government with an imperial decoration — Order of Merit, 5th class. He died on November 2, 1915, survived by O-Sei-San and their daughter Yuriko.
• Mrs. Charlton (O-Sei-San) - she lived in a comfortable home in Shinjuko district, Tokyo. She survived World War II, but her home was destroyed in 1944 by the U.S. bombing of Tokyo. She died on May 1, 1947 at the age of 80. She was buried in her husband’s tomb at Zoshigawa Cemetery.
• -       On board the ship, he met a semi-Filipino family — Mr. Reinaldo Turner, his wife Emma Jackson (daughter of an Englishman, their children and their maid servant from Pangasinan.
• Tetcho Suchiro - another passenger he befriended on board. He’s a fighting Japanese journalist, novelist, and champion of human rights.

   

  They parted in London.
• April 13 - December 1, 1888 - their intimate acquaintanceship was almost eight months.

   
• • December 1, 1888 after a last warm handshake and bidding each other “goodbye”, they parted ways — never to meet again. Rizal remained in London to conduct historical researches on Mora at the British Museum, while Tetcho returned to Japan.

   
• -       After the publication of his travel diary, Tetcho resigned his position as editor of Tokyo newspaper, Choya, and entered politics.
• • 1890 he was elected as member of the lower house of the First Imperial Diet (Japanese parliament), where he carried on his fight for human rights.

   
• • 1891 he published a political novel titled Nankai-no-Daiharan (Storm Over the South Sea) which resembles Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere in plot.

   
• • 1894 he published O-unabara (The Big Ocean) which was similar to El FIlibusterismo.
• February 1896 - he died of a heart attack in Tokyo (ten months before Rizal’s execution). He was 49 years old.