Friday November 14th

This has been another amazing week! I will try to recap everything since Tuesday. We met with officials from the Shimidzu Chamber of Commerce first, and then onto the Miho shipyard. We started with the President of the company, followed by the DVD presentation. We don't have any shipbuilding in Kansas so it was a new experience, complete with a ceremony by a Shinto Priest blessing a new ship. Lunch and a presentation at the Shimidzu Rotary Club. The main event on the day was a visit to an elementary school to see 3 different classrooms (in one we sat down to write "friendship" in Kanji) Then a assembly with all three classes (Nick Allen and Peter Cooper two of my GSE team members were with me.) We showed the PSU DVD and answered many many questions. Then all three classes stood up and sang their school song, We could hear the pride in their voices! During a museum visit I met my host for this week, Soichiro Miyazaki. We ate a delicious dinner with conversations until 10:00 p.m. Up early on Wednesday then went for a walk along the river near the host family's home. My host family has owned the land where their home and son lives for about 150 years. It has the largest yard and Japanese garden that we have seen. They built a beautiful home on the property two years ago. Most of the day was spent at Shizuoka University and the prefectural museum which features twenty six Rodin statues including a copy of "The Thinker". We met briefly with the University President and enjoyed lunch at their cafeteria where each team member sat at a separate table surrounded by five or more university students who each had many questions they wanted answered. We were accompanied today by Assistant Governor Maknamura, Tabnamura, and Setsuko Kitagawa a member of the Shimidzu Rotary Club. As we left the campus we all enjoyed a double rainbow. A very beautiful day! Dinner with special guest at the Shizuoka. Shizuoka City is the capital of this prefecture with a population of 700,000 people. Thursday morning we traveled by train to Suruga where we visited the Nippon light metal factory-which gave me a headache. Next a tour of villa of Mr. Koken Tanaka, a national treasure from the Taisyo Period, Suruga Rotary club which meets right next door to a temple where Nick Allen stayed this week. After lunch an art museum and a Sake Distellery. Free samples and snacks at the end out the tour. I arrived home late where Ryuichiro Tomono and his wife where guests for dinner. An outstanding dinner with conservation until 11:00 p.m. Always a gorilla,
Ken