delegation from houston!

Last week, a delegation from our sister city in the US, Houston, came to Chiba City! 2012 was the 40th anniversary of our sister-city relationship, but since we count them in fiscal years, having them come in March still totally counted (or that's what I keep telling myself, haha). Getting ready for them took a lot of time and effort (and much, much more on my coworkers' parts), but I think it was a great success! I had a lot of fun with the delegation and hopefully they did, too. :)

They arrived on Sunday, and for their (unofficial) welcome dinner, we went to Sakae Zushi, which is a sushi restaurant run by sushi chef Masayoshi Kazato, who holds all sorts of important positions in the sushi world and actually went to Houston last year to teach about proper sushi hygiene and was made an honorary citizen of the city. So this trip was his chance to return the favor to Houston on his home turf, and I'm glad I got to be there - interpreting for him with sushi terminology was not easy, but the meal was more than worth it! I also learned some new things about making sushi, like how vinegar is important as a disinfectant and not just a seasoning and how it usually takes three years of training before a beginning sushi chef is allowed to actually make it (though Chef Kazato did it after just two).

The next day was full of official/formal events: courtesy visits to the mayor and the chairman of the City Assembly and a welcome luncheon/dinner reception hosted by each, including traditional Japanese koto and American Country Western dance performances. It was a big day of interpreting for me, and while I definitely had some less-than-stellar moments, all in all I felt like things went by better and more easily than the past, which is encouraging (to say the least). The highlight of the day for me, though, was successfully carrying out our flash mob in the city hall lobby, which my coworker and I, along with several of our fellow city hall workers, had been practicing for weeks! It started out with the country dancer from Houston dancing by himself, followed by teachers from the Asian Western Country Dance Association (who came from all over Japan) joining in, and then us! The delegation members (and probably any random passersby) were pretty surprised, so it was a definite success. :) We also went strawberry-picking at a nearby farm (because Chiba City actually has quite a fair amount of farmland and agriculture, too), which was delicious.

With the bulk of the official stuff done, Tuesday was much more relaxed! Though different people had different activities to attend, the group I accompanied went to the Chiba City Folk Museum to try on traditional clothing and armor from the Heian period (which actually anybody can do once a month or so if you sign up in advance - a pretty cool experience, I think).  Then we were off to QVC Marine Field to watch part of a pre-season baseball game from one of the VIP rooms! The head of the delegation read a letter from the mayor of Houston aloud and took part of the first pitch ceremony, and the rest of us got to go down on the field with him, too. I also got to see a slideshow I helped make projected on the big screen, which was pretty awesome.

After that, we visited Mihama-en, a traditional Japanese garden in Makuhari, to experience the tea ceremony while admiring the view. Fun fact: Houston also has a Japanese garden in a place called Hermann Park, which is home to a stone lantern sent by Chiba City! I'll definitely stop by there whenever I end up visiting Houston (having decided I should make it a goal to visit all of our sister cities at some point in my life). The last thing scheduled for their visit was a reception hosted by Houston, at a restaurant near Chiba Port called Ocean Table, where food, drinks, and line dancing meant a good time was had by all. :)

On Wednesday we got up bright and early to send the delegation off to Tokyo, but since they had an open spot on the day tour they had reserved and were gracious enough to offer it to me, I ended up spending the day with them as well (since it was also a holiday)! I got to visit some famous parts of Tokyo I hadn't gotten around to seeing yet like Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace garden, and Odaiba and take a (very) mini cruise around the bay. They also invited me to have dinner with them and then wouldn't let me pay for it, which was super nice of them.

A couple getting married at Meiji Jingu, on the first day of spring!

So that was the visit from the delegation from Houston! It involved a lot of last-minute translation and on-the-fly interpretation, but also new experiences and connections - it's things like this that really make me appreciate how cool my job can be. :)