take a trip down memory lane

岩手県を訪問されている天皇皇后両陛下は２９日、１９年前にも宿泊した大槌町のホテルでハマギクを鑑賞なされました。

Imperial couple make nostalgic return to Iwate’s ‘Hotel Daisy’

OTSUCHI, Iwate Prefecture--Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko took a trip down memory lane as they viewed Nippon daisies at a seashore here they first visited 19 years ago.

The last time the imperial couple stayed at the nearby Sanriku Hana Hotel Hamagiku (hotel daisy), it went by a different name: Namiita Kanko Hotel. That was before the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami ravaged this Tohoku region town, causing the hotel to shutter its doors. It finally reopened under its new moniker in August 2013.

“I've been waiting for you,” said 66-year-old hotelier Shigeru Chiyokawa, welcoming back the emperor and empress on Sept. 28.

Nineteen years ago, the hotel was run by Chiyokawa's older brother, Ryutaro Yamazaki, then 64, who remains missing after 2011 natural disaster. Chiyokawa's younger sister, Midori, then 53, also perished in the disaster.

“You must have had a hard time,” the empress told Chiyokawa's relatives, who held photographs of Yamazaki and Midori, on the couple's return visit.

When they visited in October 1997, the imperial couple were joined by Yamazaki as they strolled along the seashore to view the Nippon daisies, which in “hanakotoba” (the language of flowers) means “face up to adversity.”

Yamazaki later sent Nippon daisy seeds to the emperor and empress as a memento of their visit.

以下省略

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201609290075.html

今回注目した表現は、“took a trip down memory lane”です。「思い出の地を旅する」といった意味ではないかと考えましたが、『ウィズダム英和辞典』（第３版、三省堂）を引いたところ、“(take) a walk [trip, stroll] down memory lane”で「追憶(にひたる)」とありました。

Macmillan Dictionaryでは、“a trip/walk down memory lane”で“an occasion when people remember or talk about things that happened in the past”と定義されていました。

今回両陛下がご宿泊なされたホテルが東日本大震災で被災したホテルということで、過去にご宿泊なさったこと、震災のことなど様々なことを思い出されたのではないかと思います。(Blue Sky)