Visiting Waseda University Campus

S, Yukimi, Yukiko, and Miki

View from our lunch table at "Seihoku no Kaze" in the Okuma Tower
Shigenobu Okuma, the founder of Waseda
Globe Theater ?! -- No. The Tsubouchi Museum of Modern Theater

After the Presidential Speech

Reporters coming to interview the audience at the Karayan Square

Foreign Minister Okada leaving the hall

President Obama, on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

On the second day of his first visit to Asia, President Obama gave
a special speech on the US Asian policy at the Suntory Hall, Akasaka, Tokyo.
President leaving from the podium








President Obama coming to the stage

Waiting for the President to come. . . .

Now everything is ready to welcome the President.
Checking the podium. . . .
Some Mozart and Chopin music pieces before the Presidential speech--
very appropriate to pay respect to this wonderful hall of music

Celebrity seats: the present cabinet members on the front row,
singers and actors including Jero and Mokkun on the second row,
the past prime ministers (Mori and Kaifu) on the fourth row, and
Mr and Mrs Yokota on the fifth row.

Waiting to get into the Suntory Hall

We got to the Suntory Hall for Obama speech at 7:00 AM in the morning.

An artist visitor from France

Dominique stopped by on his way back to Paris from Shanghai, China
and had tempura lunch with us at Ten-ichi, Jiyugaoka.
Mom at the Starbucks
Chinoyo getting ready to take a Halloween flight in front of
Dominique's painting

"It is well known that nature exists only insofar as it blends
in the contrary rhythm of life and death, of genesis and
entropy. The infinite universe brings these throbs together
in a totality. Dominique Thinot's canvasses, large or small,
depict this infinite space, teeming with contradictions.
Here one's glance gets caught in the trap of representation:
one believes for a while in the truth of these fragments of
nature. There, in cntrast, as if swelling from the depth of
the sea, blue beaches straddle each other and simulate order
in the middle of storm."
(Jacques Leenhardt in D. Thinot, Nature & Fragments)

Visiting Seoul for the 44th ASAK Int'l Conference

After the closing ceremony
Fall colors from my room in the Hoam Faculty Guest House, Seoul
National University

Enjoying coffee during the break
Beautiful Seoul National University Campus in fall colors

The 44th ASAK International Conference "The Future of America" was
held at the Seoul National University, Korea, from October 23 to 24.
Americanists gathered from within and without Korea gave excellent
papers in the Conference. I read my paper "Rethinking Puritan Studies in
a Transatlantic Context" in the session "Rethinking American Literature"
and enjoyed exchanging views with other participants. I was struck by
high-quality papers at the conference.