Wife Says Just Surprised Poppa Husband Got It

TOYAMA, JAPAN - OCT. 6: Wife of Japanese space scientist Takaaki Kajita, the winner of 2015 Nobel physics prize, Michiko Kajita, said she was just surprised to hear about his achievement, as to her the top space researcher is just a “poppa” in her family. Michiko, 56, said she thought “the turn of her husband has yet to come,” adding, though, she was very glad about the news as she felt the long time effort of Takaaki finally fulfilled. Michiko lives in Toyama, a central Japan city not too far from Super Kamiokande, the huge underground laboratory aimed at receiving neutrinos from the space, utilizing an extinct coal mine. That’s her husband’s workplace. The pair raised two children there. Michiko is an English tutor for children. When the couple met each other some time ago, Takkaki Kajita said he hoped to really get the prize. Michiko, however, told his it was too soon. Meanwhile, Takaaki Kajita’s parents were also surprised by the news in their home in Higashi Matsuyama, Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo. The mother Tomoko coincidentally turned 81 on the very same day her son clinched the glorious prize. According to Tomoko, Takaaki phoned her to report what happened, and she congratulated him. The father, Masao,78, said he thought it would take much more time for him to get the prize, adding he thinks encounters with a number of great mentors, including the late Yoji Totsuka, who himself was a Nobel candidate in the the topic but died of cancer in 2008.