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One book opened up wide world Tom Bickel didn�t read much as a student at Crater Lake High School. Instead of poring over pages, he spent many hours of his youth staring at television. "I never read a complete book until the last term of high school," says the 1985 grad. "I managed to get good at bluffing. I had never given higher education a lot of thought." But that book, "Zen and the Martial Arts," caught his attention. He clicked off the boob tube. Its pages opened up a whole new world to Bickel, now 33 and proud possessor of more than 1,000 books. It also got him off the couch to begin studying shotokan, a form of karate. It may sound like hyperbole but the discovery of books literally � literaturally? � changed his life. Now fluent in Japanese, he is currently the general manager of the Kakegawa Education Center of Oregon, Inc. The center, located near Junction City in the Willamette Valley, is a 180-acre farm owned by Kakegawa � Eugene�s sister city in Japan. Like many high school students, the son of Richard and Lina Bickel of Central Point had the intellect but lacked the interest. Until he read his first book, that is. The fall after high school found him enrolled at Rogue Community College. "There was a visiting professor from UCLA that term," he says. "He wanted to know what I had read. When I told him, he said I needed to go to a mountain cabin with 100 books he recommended." Bickel didn�t become a hermit with a cabin full of books, but he took the professor�s advice about reading. "In the fall term of 1985, I became an avid reader," he says. He transferred to what is now Southern Oregon University, where he focused on Russian literature. He also focused on a young woman named Sumiyo, a Japanese student majoring in international studies. She is now his wife. For nearly two years, he also studied at Japanese universities, living with a host family. "Full immersion is the best way to learn a language," he says. He and his wife both graduated from the University of Oregon in 1992. She earned a master�s degree in Russian literature; he a bachelor�s degree in Japanese literature. That meant reading books. Lots of books. "You can�t get a literature degree without reading a lot, an awful lot," he says. The young couple moved to Japan where he worked for a travel magazine headquartered in Tokyo. From there he traveled widely, from Egypt to Romania. "I remember being in the squalid parts of Old Cairo and watching a guy picking through garbage for his sick wife who was just laying there," he said, adding, "I found out the United States is truly blessed." Weary of big-city life in Tokyo, he and his wife moved back to Oregon, where he became general manager of the Kakegawa center in 1996. The 100-year-old farm is the only land owned by a local Japanese government outside of Japan. Never mind Bickel didn�t have a farming background. "The only crop we had was four grape vines in the back yard," he recalls of his Central Point home. "But I learned hands-on farming." In addition to being a show place for farming, the focus of the center is to help bridge the cultural gap between East and West. The center has about 300 Japanese guests a year, beginning in late February. "They love Oregon," he says. "They love the open space we have." He and his wife now have a daughter, Lina, 5, and a son, Roman, 2. They plan to teach their children at home as they work to bridge the two cultures. And, no, they don�t have a television. "The average American watches TV four or five hours a day, " he estimates. "Just think if you spent that time reading or playing with your children." There is also farm work to do, fascinating people to meet and all those books to read. "Life is too short to blow it in front of a television set," he says. "There are an awful lot of interesting things out there to do and go see." For some, it all begins with sitting down with a good book. You can reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.