Sunday, November 16th

On Sunday our team went to the Rotary District 2260 Conference at the Century Hotel in Shizuoka City. It was very impressive and formal. They probably had three times the number of Rotarians at their conference that we would have. Many clubs traveled to the conference on the bus and might have 50% of their members in attendance. I had a list of about twenty Rotarians that I really connected and at least 17 of them were there, and I could call them by name and that is not always easy. There we met two Rotarians that I was really pleased to meet. The first was a trustee of the Rotary Foundation (his English was very good so we had a nice conversation). The second Rotarian was talking about a Rotarian he knew in our district -- a "Mr. Kresser". Finally I realized he was talking about John Kreissler. John, I have his card for you. They trade business cards here like they were twenty dollar bills. They just cannot get enough of them. In the last two weeks I have probably collected 100 cards. In the morning we were introduced and asked to stand, bow, and then sit down. We had a private lunch with Tom Ikedo, their District GSE chairman, and a few Rotarians from the Yamanashi Pref. who will be hosting us next week. In the afternoon we had a very brief presentation which included giving the gift to their Governor. I can speak a few brief phrases/sentences in Japanese and they appreciated us using some Japanese. I never felt so uneasy in my life speaking English. I had sat there all day listening to Japanese and understanding very little. They have 3,550 Rotarians in their District, and 800 to 900 were probably in attendance at their district conference. During dinner Rotarians stood around with food in the middle of the table, filling their plates with food and there was plenty to drink. It is always polite to pour each others drinks. Many of our meals are eaten with chopsticks. In seventeen days a have conquered the chopsticks! I have lost some weight because of smaller size portions, a healther diet, and plenty of green tea. We left the conference and traveled three hours to Kofu. There was lots of drinking on the bus, but I managed to stay were sober on green tea. I sat beside my home host for the next week -- a Mr. Tetsuo Furuya who seems like a very nice gentleman. He owns two businesses, one is wholesale jewelry. This morning we traveled to the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project, which was started by a gentleman from Louisville, KY whose motto was "Do your best and make it first class". Lunch at a Sobe restaurant featuring sobe noodles, low tables, and chopsticks. Japanese always "slurp" when eating their noodles with chopsticks...I need to ease up on the grandkids! We toured the Suntory Whisky Hakusyu Distillery and then back to Kofu to meet our home host. A nice and easy day. The tour of Japan is more than half over and I still enjoy each day. I am pleased to report that my energy level has remained high. Love and family and friends
Always a gorilla,
Ken