"On July 29 I saw over NHK - Japanese TV – the opening of the new museum at Sigiriya. I also saw the Rock I had visited many times. I felt immediately I must visit Sri Lanka again. So I came here on Aug. 6 and will be returning home today." (Wednesday 12th )

That was petite Chiho Akaishi speaking with me, Sunith Gamage interpreting when necessary since Chiho’s English does not flow easy.

I took an immediate liking to her when she walked in through the door - very slim, elegant yet with that air of modest uncertainty, ever ready to smile and shake her hair-cropped-short head to giggle deliciously. She had the refinement of the Japanese; a cultured way of sitting, listening, speaking. My instinctive liking for her was reinforced a hundred times when she said that she loves Sri Lanka, more especially its people.

Gamage intervened here to say that she has been coming to our country every year for the past 15, and her total number of visits is 25. She often travels alone, stays over a couple of days, moves around; or else brings along a group of friends or relatives for whom a sightseeing tour is organized. Depending on the crowd she has encouraged to visit this land of ours, Gamage - her tour guide over the years and she decide on the places and sites to visit and the hotels they will stay in. I guessed they would patronize up-market hotels, knowing how concerned with cleanliness the Japanese are and their comparative wealth. Yes, her favourites are Heritance Kandalama; Deer Park, Giritale; the two Habarana Lodges and Tea Factory in Kandapola.

I did ask tangentially whether her trips here were commercial; whether she was making money on her arranged tours. Fortunately, Chiho did not understand my admittedly snide question. Gamage said she loves our country and wants to share it with relatives and friends. She also knows she will benefit Sri Lanka since her groups are free spending tourists and she is well aware the money they spend trickles down. She says that sort of aid to the country is better than handouts or money sent to people. She also says she is helping her friends and relatives to spend their time and money seeing a beautiful country and meeting lovely people.

That is the uniqueness of this woman – she helps our tourism through love of this country and us Sri Lankans. This is why I took an instant liking to her, admired her and felt rapport since anyone who loves Sri Lanka is loved by me and others like me who feel we are true nationals of this country.

To my question as to why she keeps returning to Sri Lanka she said simply that she loves coming back to be with people she admires, meaning all she meets. She said she has traveled widely in Europe and toured Nepal and India but Sri Lanka is top on her list of countries to holiday in. She contrasted India with Sri Lanka sharply and mentioned the crowds and dirt in India. Not that we are short on these two but once you get out of Colombo and other cities you are in clean, healthy surroundings – the real Sri Lanka - whether it be in the hills of the Up Country or plains of the Dry Zone. She did not mention the beaches. Looks as if the Japanese leave the three Ss to the western/European traveler.

Her introduction to Sri Lanka was through persons she met as a university student. She mentioned Mr. Nanda Godage who was in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Japan at the time; Mr. Navaratnarajah, Ambassador in Japan at one time; a Mr. Amunugama whose first name escaped her mind when I chatted to her. They had sung praises of our country and her first visit had amply justified them.

Chiho hails from Shikzuoko midway between Nagayo and Tokyo, at the foothills of Fujiyama. She teaches piano music at the Shikzuoko University and Junior College, and is a classical pianist and concert performer. She showed me a handbill of her last concert on December 5, 2008. This concert, she said, is an annual event where she is accompanied by a few other instrumentalists and singers.

She is married but has no children. Her husband and she have perfect understanding of the need for independence in a happy marriage. Thus she is able to travel frequently abroad with his approval. She lives with her in-law parents as is the custom in Japan. A wife moves to her husband’s home and the husband very often has his parents living with him. On her first trip to Sri Lanka she was accompanied by her mother who also shared her love and admiration of the country. Her mother taught the tea ceremony and conducted it, which Chiho does too. It’s like yoga, she said, restful and relaxing since the surroundings and what is served are all carefully arranged and presented, often enlisting the sound of the wind in the trees and the lilt of running water.

I asked her whether she had had any bad experiences in Sri Lanka. She thought a while and said: "No bad ones, only selling." Gamage had to translate since she explained herself in Japanese. Her objections were to touts and those who sold her something and then begged for charity. She had the recent experience of photographing some elephants. The mahouts were paid. They requested she send them the photographs, which she did. Copying her address from the envelope two mahouts wrote to her begging for financial help and also a means for her to get them across to Japan. I could well believe these tales since I’ve seen such and even experienced the begging, though those who pleaded for assistance knew very well I was living here. Fortunately she never travels alone and not by public transport so the harassing that we are well aware of by Lotharios who cannot bear to see a foreign woman without the upping of their sexual antennae, has not been her experience.

During the few days Chiho was in Sri Lanka this time she visited Arankale, Pidurangala and Saseru – an ancient temple with a large stone Buddha statue close to Aukana, and of course the new Sigiriya Museum. Gamage added that he searches for new sites for her since she has visited most every one. She was very impressed by the Sigiriya Museum and commented on the fact that the entire large building is wheelchair friendly "the first time I have seen this feature in a place in Sri Lanka" she said. Opinions I’ve heard debating the wisdom or aesthetic correctness of duplicating the frescoes on a wall in the museum, though the wall is cleverly constructed to resemble the rock face that backgrounds the frescoes. I inquired about her opinion. Her reply, after some thought: "It is good; a good idea. Those who cannot climb the Rock can see what the frescoes look like." Spot on, for that is the very reason the planners of the museum included the paintings, new though they are. Also to enhance the concept or feeling one is supposed to get when one visits the museum, that one replicates the climb on the Rock.

I also applaud and agree with her idea on the poverty obviously on show here. She says she does not get unduly affected by this because it is a curse everywhere. She is against handouts and money being distributed. "They need to be trained for jobs or helped in agriculture."