Do you know about Jose Rizal? He is the Philippines’ national hero and is the father of the Philippine revolution against Spain, which occupied the country for 333 years.  Rizal fought for Philippine independence and national self-determination. He was highly intelligent; a renaissance man who was both a polyglot and a politician. He was highly skilled in the sciences as well as the arts. He is also somewhat popular in Japan. Recently, he has even been featured as the main character in a Japanese manga. Rizal’s life involved quite a bit of international travel, stemming from his pursuits of further formal education and innate desire to observe and interact with the world’s cultures and people.  He was known to have had several love interests throughout his life, one of which was the daughter of a noble samurai family.  Her name was Seiko Usui, or “O-Sei-san”, as Jose affectionately referred to …