Memories of Old Yugoslavia, New Slovenia's Capital Ljubljana

Memories of a Medical Conference in Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia.  In September this year, I was invited as keynote speaker to a medical conference in the Republic of Slovenia. This country was previously called Yugoslavia, a place where six countries gathered together to form one country; at that time it felt like a small Soviet Union.

At that time, the official name was called Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and a person named Josip Broz Tito was the president. After the death of Tito, a fierce war of independence took place one after another, and now, there became six independent countries, of which Serbia is one.

Yugoslavia and President Tito

I visited this country many times in the past, while Yugoslavia was a communist country. Because of its special geographical position, Yugoslavia was described as "seven borders, six republics, five races, four languages, three religions, two letters, but one nation."

From a geographical point of view, first, her border was in contact with seven countries: Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania. And one of the countries included Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia.

There are five main ethnic groups, but there are many other ethnic groups, so altogether it has been described as eight ethnic groups.

When I was in Yugoslavia republic, I had a great respect its leader Tito. The six countries were treated equally, and they were well organized without conflicts. President Tito, who was respected by people in each of Yugoslavia's regions. These were people who worried about what would happen if he died.

I was also sad and cried on the occasion of attending the funeral held in New York. When I was crying, the ambassador asked me why I was crying about Yugo's president even though I am Japanese. So I gave my personal opinion, "I think that it was really wonderful that the six countries with such differences were reigned in peace and the each culture was also very active and respected."

I knew firsthand how unified the nation had been as in my years as a cultural empresario, I had often invited companies of ethnic dancers from Yugoslavia or an orchestra from Zagreb City to the United States. I experienced how much the culture was developing and respected by each province - all of it excellent.

History and Country of Trade

The place I went to this time was the new Slovenian capital Ljubljana. Slovenia is considered to be the economically richest of the six countries. It is a very small country, but because as it is a transportation hub in Europe, it has a history of constant wars between various countries to win this place.

I have visited in the past important cities in Yugoslavia, such as Belgrade, Zagreb, Banja Luka and Sarajevo , but I have never visited Ljubljana. When I went there this time I discovered a very beautiful country. Located on the south side, it was an easy access to various places such as Greece and Italy. There was a copper mines and because of this, it has been a wealthy place since long time ago.

The place I went to this time was the new Slovenian capital Ljubljana.

Beautiful Lakes and Legends

It was my first visit, so I took a day's sightseeing after the conference with my friend Shimizu (vet's doctor) from Tokyo. There is a beautiful lake there, and only the families that owned owned land in the vicinity of the lake can live there,  and land can no longer be sold.

My impression of this beautiful area was like being in Japan. It was a country with beautiful mountains and deep forest and pure water like Japan. The youngsters handling canoes here were also young people with pride born into such families.

There are many mysterious legends in many such lakes, and in the lake where we went, to see a small island in the middle, they say a prince and a princess committed suicide by sinking into the water. We heard a lot of similar romantic stories.

There is a world famous Domitza cave near there, said to be the world's best cave. It is 8 km long on the Slovak side alone, spanning Hungary and Slovakia. We were disappointed not to be able to visit.

Resident who Speak Four Languages

What surprised me was that the residents were completely fluently with at least four languages. Not only can they can speak, but their English is also a perfect. In addition, German, French, Russian and Italian were among the languages I heard mainly during my stay.

As I heard from their stories, life was rich and the people calm. It was so beautiful and comfortable I felt like I wanted to live there forever.

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