- Current
Nikkei View
- About
- Roots
- Nikkei
Links
- IMDiversity Job Bank
- More
about Gil:
Gil's Home Page
Resume
Fave Web Sites
1957 TimeLine
"Toy Book" Excerpt
Writing Samples
SUPPORT THE NIKKEI VIEW!
Amazon.com now offers a way for you to sponsor the Nikkei View column! Just click below for more information!
Search Amazon.com using keywords such as "Japan," "Japanese
American," "Tokyo," and others for books or videos.
I'm now an Amazon.com
Affiliate. I urge everyone to support their local independent businesses
first, but if you search Amazon.com from here, I earn a percentage of
your purchases. It's one way you can help underwrite the Nikkei View.
Thanks!
JOIN THE DISCUSSION!
"Ties Talk" is an e-mail discussion group through which people of all ages and backgrounds from all over the U.S. and the world can comment on the Japanese American and Asian Pacific American experience. You can get a sample of the types of discussion that go on in the Ties-Talk Archives.
To
subscribe to "Ties Talk" and join our community, send an e-mail
to majordomo@lists.apanet.org
with the following line in your message:
subscribe ties-talk
Once
you send in your subscription request, an automated e-mail message should
be returned from "majordomo" to your e-mail address asking you
to confirm your membership to the list. Once you send in the confirmation,
you'll be added to the list. The "Ties Talk" e-mail discussion
list is operated by the Japanese American
Network, or JA*Net.
Hope to see you in e-mails!
Connect to the Denver area's Asian community with AsiaXpress!
Radio the way it should be: DavidsWebcast
ARCHIVES
LATEST
COLUMN
2001 COLUMNS *
2000 COLUMNS
1999 COLUMNS * 1998 COLUMNS
August 28, 2000
THE MIZUTANI MENU FOR DINNER DIPLOMACY
A menu is a great mediator.
Whether you are socializing or conducting business; meeting someone for the first time or connecting with old friends; enjoying the company of a group that shares your interests or trying to find the common ground among disparate souls, food makes the human interaction easier. Like a conversational lubricant, gathering at home or at a restaurant over breakfast, lunch or dinner can open people up to others, bridge both cultural and political differences, and serve to introduce people to each other.
| The chef came out of the kitchen and explained that the meat was Colorado-grown, and that he found it better than the famous Kobe beef. |
Mizutani-san, a reserved and strict-looking man, arrived in Colorado last year, when the Japanese government established the consulate in downtown Denver. Since his arrival, Mizutani has been diligent in attending dozens of public activities both involving the Japanese and Japanese American communities and the Denver community at large. He's become an honorary board member of the Japan America Society of Colorado (JASC) and was included along with Mayor Webb and Governor Owens in the program for this year's Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival). He's attended more receptions and eaten more rubber chicken in hotel ballrooms than I can imagine, all in the interest of learning more about his new home and meeting new people.
But those are public forums.
He has also traveled through the region extensively and gone on vacation with his family (The Mizutanis have a high school-aged daughter who lives at home and two grown daughters in Japan), driving through the great landscape of the American West to such landmarks as Yellowstone National Park. And, he has taken the time to regularly invite people in groups for dinner at his residence.
When I received an invite to one such dinner, I didn't hesitate to rsvp. My partner Erin Yoshimura and I were thrilled to return the Mizutanis' home -- we had been there for a New Year's reception and looked forward to getting to know the Consul General better. It urns out privately, Mizutani is less formal and more relaxed than his business facade appeared.
What does a Consul General do? Well, that was one of the first things we learned upon our arrival.
As the chief representative of the Japanese government for a four-state region (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), he is responsible for maintaining close ties between his government and the area. That includes encouraging business relationships, helping with cultural exchanges, welcoming any Japanese dignitaries traveling to the region, and like an embassy, aiding Japanese travelers in the region with any diplomatic needs such as lost passports.
In recent months, he has also been negotiating a remarkable traveling exhibit of American Western art -- paintings and sculptures that capture the history and spirit of the Old West -- to museums in five Japanese cities in the next couple of years. An appreciator of fine art and an accomplished watercolorist himself (after dinner he modestly showed us some of his landscape paintings, which he creates as a way of enriching himself outside of his career), he was shocked to find that the rich tradition of Western art has never been shown to Japanese audiences.
We also learned the difference between the Consul General and the Consulate General -- one is the person and the other is the office or building in which the Consul General works.
The evening's guests included a doctor, educator, non-profit administrator and all their partners, with a range that ran from Japanese-born Japanese speaking mostly Japanese to people like myself, who speak primarily English. Mizutani is very comfortable and fluent in both, although he again is modest about his English skills. The seating arrangement was such that I sat across from the English-speaking Scott Shirai, the new executive director of the Japan America Society of Colorado, and next to his wife Michelle Jerin Shirai. Erin sat next to Scott and across from Michelle. The couple just moved to Colorado this year from Hawaii, and we quickly clicked. (Scott has done many things in his life, but the most interesting is that he wrote a book about Karaoke, and taught Karaoke as a college-level course.)
Dinner was prepared by the Mizutanis' fulltime Japanese chef, and it was all heavenly. The six-course menu, written out in French and Japanese, featured an appetizer of "fruits of the sea" (a variety of seafood) suspended in a gelatin cup; a cold pea soup; a melt-in-your mouth beef filet flavored with a Japanese-style soy ginger sauce and a Greek salad, kiwi mousse and coffee or tea for dessert. The beef was so soft it sparked a conversation about the highest-quality Kobe beef; the chef came out of the kitchen and explained that the meat was Colorado-grown, and that he found it better than the famous Kobe beef he had served many times in the past.
The repast was worthy of meals you might enjoy at the finest restaurants anywhere, but it was hard to imagine eating like this at home. I asked Mizutani if the chef cooked up this cuisine all the time, and he quickly laughed and replied that the family doesn't dine this well normally. Somehow, though, I couldn't imagine the family chowing down on instant ramen, cold pizza or hot dogs in the microwave for a dinner.
I won't soon forget this evening of dinner diplomacy. Here's to world peace and a second helping of food!
You can visit the Web site of the Consul General of Japan in Colorado.