Evening hosted By a Fulbright Scholar

My first evening in Japan was hosted by a Fulbright scholar by the name of Shugemichi Suzuki. In Japan, the family name is given first, then the given name.  When addressing someone with respect, the family name is followed by san.  However the four teachers I was with proceeded to call him Suzuki-san, as I think our scholar's family name was presenting some problems with pronunciation.  So I will refer to him as Suzuki-san.  Suzuki-san volunteered to take us out for our first meal in Japan.  He greeted us in the hotel where we politely exchanged business cards - I again want to thank Nabuko-san for helping me to translate my card into Japanese.  While we waited for the formal opening speech, we were treated to traditional music, see photo below.  Then our gentleman scholar led five of us off down to the streets of Akasaka, into the Tokyo subway system and on to a Sushi restaurant.  Suzuki-san was a challenge to keep up with in the crowded streets, and I am thankful that I am agile and small myself so I could keep up and not get lost in the crowds. My colleagues who look as if they were all giants seemed to manage as well - we didn't loose anyone.  The restaurant was chosen for its sushi menu which is displayed in the window of each restaurant.  One of our group was quite experienced with Sushi and helped me decide what to order.  I recall eating salmon roe, herring roe, tuna, okra, and salmon - you can see from the picture what I ate - it was a wonderful adventure.  We toasted with hot sake and Kirin beer.  Suzuki-san told us the story of his Fulbright scholarship.  The Fulbright Scholar exchange was set up just after WWII to promote a better understanding between the peoples of Japan and the United States.  Suzuki-san travelled to North Carolina and to Stanford to work in computer programming as it applies to railroad systems.  This took place in the early 1960's!  Suzuki-san told us that he writes Haiku and showed us his notebook where he records his poetry and the magazine where he publishes it.  One of my colleagues took a picture of this so I hope to post this later.  On another note...if you have never experienced a heated toilet seat, you dont know what you are missing.