a once-traditional farming community, slow paced, inward looking, the opposite end of the universe, culturally, from new york and tokyo, even from kanazawa. >> ishi: [ speaking japanese ] >> anthony: it used to be a five-hour trip from tokyo, now reduced to two by the shinkansen bullet train. why don't we have these in america, by the way? ask your congressmen. this rather drab, featureless place is where masa was born and raised and could well have stayed. but then, everything would have been different. masa's dad, yoshio, recently passed. but his mom, ishi, is still going strong, the center of the family. >> masa: [ speaking japanese ] >> ishi: yeah. >> catherine: nice to meet you! >> ishi: [ speaking japanese ] >> masa: thank you! tony, tony. >> anthony: pleased to meet you.