Yone Noguchi was born in Nagoya, Japan. He studied Haiku and Zen Buddhism, English philosophy and poetry at a university in Tokyo. He later moved to California. He was the first literary figure in two cultures to arrive in California. The short story “Some Stories of My Western Life” is an creative nonfiction of Yone Noguchi’s life as he left his homeland to go to California. Yone Noguchi tells the story of his journey to California. In the beginning of the story Noguchi says that his friends wished him godspeed and how he became sad his eldest brother came to say goodbye to him from Yokohama. In the story, Noguchi shares his excitement when he sees “a vastness of water”. This one particular experience, the reader finds itself returning to a younger time of Noguchi’s life. He speaks of his first fishing party on the river Kiso, many years ago and how he got sick by the motion of the water. Here is when the reader finds out of Noguchi’s dislike of the sea. This is interesting to...