An elderly gentleman came in and said to me "I need some information but I don't know how to use a computer, can you help me?"

I told him that's my specialty. He said that he served in the Korean War and while he was there he was stationed in Japan. During the time he was in Japan (in 1952) they visited Kyushu Island where he saw a statue of a Buddha. He had a photograph of the statue to show me.

This is what he was looking for, he wanted to know more about the history of the statue and especially how big it is. In his picture, he is actually sitting on the thumbs of the buddha.

I told him that I could help him out and I was able to find out that this was the 2nd largest buddha statue ever built in Japan, but no dimensions. I also found out that it is very old and due to its poor condition it was closed to the public in 1965 and eventually dismantled in 1985.  On its site there now sits a Buddhist Temple and graveyard.

I also found the man a website hosted by war veterans where they talked about visiting this temple. He was so thrilled to get all of this information.

He said to me, "I was talking to a couple of my buddies about this buddha and we wanted to know more. We couldn't find information anywhere. Then one of them said, go to the library, they'll know what to do." Then he paused for a minute and said "guess he was right."

It was so sweet. I told him I was glad I could help. He then pulled out this stack of pictures and showed them to me, pictures of his regiment parachuting out of a plane, a picture of him at 17 in his uniform and a couple other scenic photos of Japan. His photographs were amazing, all from the early 1950s. He was such a nice man and before he left, he told me I made his day.

Well, he made mine too. I love handling questions like this, so different from the usual run-of-the-mill type stuff I often get. This is what is so fun about my job!

9 days.