We got up at 4:30 AM so that we could visit the famous Tokyo fish market
and auction. The first picture shows the blue finned Tuna lined up on
pallets, with numbers on each fish to identify them for the auction.
There were other tourists like us standing around the perimeter and
promptly at 5:30AM the auction started in various parts of a very large
warehouse. The bidders got in to small bleacher like areas like you
see in the picture with the auctioneer standing in front facing them.
After viewing this and exploring the area around the fish market we
returned for breakfast and a nap. We decided that this would be the
day for me to visit a Rotary Club in Tokyo. We were interested in visiting
the shopping area around Asakusa therefore when I found out that the
Asakusa Rotary Club met on Mondays and at noon we thought this would
be the club to visit.
When we arrived at the Asakusa View Hotel Cindy decided to get a head
start on shopping and therefore was going to meet me after the meeting
downstairs in the hotel. I went up to the meeting and was quickly introduced
to one of the members who could speak English. My new friend and translator
was Tetsuro Fukashiro. Two of the questions he first asked me was “where
is your wife?” and “do you have any women in your club?”
I told him and he informed me that they did not have any women in their
club. I told him that they were “missing the boat” and we
continued to talk of other topics. He introduced me to the President
of the club, to a few of the others who spoke English, and to the member
of their club who had been a District Governor several years ago.
I was introduced to the club and I gave a little talk saying how I
had been in Japan as a young Navy Officer. 34 Years ago I had gone to
the Kanko Hotel in Ibusuki on the island of Kyushu. It was great to
be returning as a Rotarian and to find out that the Kanko Hotel in Ibuski
is the same place that Fukashiro-san had his honeymoon 34 years ago.
As I was giving my talk Fukashiro-san was translating and then the President
and I exchanged banners. Fukashiro-san remained at the podium and talked
a little more and the audience laughed and applauded.
He returned to our table and I wondered what he said so I asked him.
He said that he told them that I was very Japanese and had asked my
wife to stay downstairs while I would attend the meeting. That wasn’t
exactly what happened but I felt that I could not easily change their
perception so I left it alone.
Next they had 2 of their members get up so they could celebrate their
birthday. After the birthday song, the younger celebrant walked up to
the podium and I could see that he was talking to me. I asked my translator
what was being said. The young Rotarian was telling me that “tonight
when he goes home he will tell his wife that an American visited their
club today who was more Japanese than he was.” He was telling
me that “he could never have told his wife to stay downstairs
and wait for him. His wife is too strong for him to do that but he can
hardly wait to go home and tell her what happened today”. I was
happy to learn that his wife was so strong but I was so sorry and felt
bad that I, due to miscommunications, was setting back the advancement
of women in this club.
When I told Cindy what happened, she said “that’s it you’re
not going to any more meetings alone while we are in Japan”.
They had Hirofumi Aizawa, Senior Executive Vice President of NTT as
the program. He gave a very interesting talk about the relationship
between Japan and South America. Since I came from South America originally
I found it to be very interesting and very revealing about the interests
of Japan. I got to talk to him personally after the meeting and he went
downstairs to meet Cindy. Fukashiro-san also came down with me to meet
Cindy.
We left the Asakusa View Hotel and went into the shopping District.
After a few hours we returned to our room to rest.
Yesterday we got a phone call in our room from Masako Harada. She is
the sister of my counterpart in the Fukuoka Rotary District, DGE Tomoshige
Tachibana of Rotary District 2700. District 5170 and District 2700 are
going to have a Centennial Group Study Exchange. Cindy and I had met
her and her husband, Yoshie, in Osaka at the International Convention.
Masako and Yoshie Harada invited us to join them for dinner.
Masako picked us up at the Hotel and took us to their main office.
She and her husband own a confectionary business that entails 32 stores
and 3 factories. 
She
had tea and coffee prepared for the 3 of us while we sat in the conference
room and she informed us that Yoshie would join us later due to another
meeting.
She shared some of her family’s history. She was one of the first
Rotary Youth Exchange students to go from Japan to Australia. She explained
how her husband’s mother kept the confectionary business going
since she had become a widow at age 40 and had 7 children to feed. Yoshie
was 16 when his father died. Yoshie attended the University and worked
1 year with another confectionary business after which he returned to
join his mother in the business. Yoshie fulfilled his father’s
lifelong dream to open a store in Tokyo.
As we got into the next topic of conversation I could only thank Chieko-San,
the excellent tour guide on the Gold Bus of Howard Tours, for the education
she gave us. She had given us explanations about Japanese culture, structure,
and history. She told us about the Edo period, the Shogun, the Emperor,
and the Feudal Lords. We listened and absorbed but it just seemed like
a distant story. Suddenly, as we sat with Harada-san, she revealed stories
of her family which made it come to life for us.
She started by telling us that Tomoshige Tachibana’s father was
a charter member of the Yanagawa Rotary Club in 1960 and that he was
the 1st President of that Club. He became a District Governor in 1972
after being the Chief of Staff for the 1971 District Governor. This
was considered quite a bridge building relationship since their ancestors
16 generations back were rival feudal lords. The District Governor and
Chief of Staff went together to all of the clubs and were so enjoyed
that the natural progression was for the Chief of Staff to become the
next District Governor.
Tomoshige thought his father was so old when he became a District Governor
and now he realizes that he has become a DG at the same age that his
father became one. When I met Tachibana-san in Anaheim with his wife
and daughter, I just thought what a nice family (and they are a nice
family). Very little bridge building can happen when you do not have
knowledge of the language or the history.
Now his sister was telling us the Tachibana story. Tomoshige is the
2nd son of the 17th generation of a Feudal Lord. His ancestor 17 generations
ago was, Muneshige Tachibana, the Feudal Lord of Kyushu in the Edo period
under Tokugawa, the first Shogun. The Property that they own is in Yanagawa
and the pictures are reminiscent of a Venice in Japan. The history is
fascinating and the area is gorgeous, there are 470 kilometers of canals
in Yanagawa.
If you are interested I can share more when we get back. The foundation
has been laid for a wonderful Group Study Exchange and it will be marvelous
for whoever will be so fortunate to make this trip. I only wish I could
go but that adventure will be left for someone else to do since I will
be involved in the history of our District.
Masako then asked us to accompany her for a quick trip to their house
and then we went to the Grand Hyatt to meet Yoshie to have dinner. 
Yoshie
is a sword collector and shared many interesting stories. It was a marvelous
dinner and I had so much fun writing notes that I hated to interrupt
my note taking with dinner.
Somewhere in the middle of dinner I mentioned that Yoshie’s Mother
sounded like a great business woman and she would have been a great
Rotarian. Masako quickly told us how she is the current President of
the Tokyo-Ginza Soroptimist Club. After my Rotary Club of Asakusa experience
I decided that I needed to leave a positive thought in Tokyo about the
issue of women in Rotary.
They took us back to our hotel after a most wonderful 4 hour dinner.
Saying goodbye from the Sofitel in Tokyo, Japan.
See you tomorrow on the web site.
Ron and Cindy Sekkel
