President’s Note for March 2023

With a flurry of activities in late February – including the Emperor’s birthday reception at the Consul General’s residence, a flag-raising ceremony at SF City Hall, a VIP reception for former Ambassador Fujisaki and Consul General Noguchi, an excellent program on geopolitics in Asia, followed by a VIP dinner with our Leadership Circle, and, finally, a tasting event for the Japanese spirit Awamori – we entered March with a lot of momentum.

I particularly enjoyed the Awamori tasting event. I had never even heard of this traditional Japanese spirit from Okinawa, much less tasted it. But according to our celebrity drinkmaster (Christian “Suzu” Suzuki-Orellana from Netflix’s Drink Masters program), it’s a highly versatile spirit that mixes well in any number of cocktails. Not only that, but it has a queen (Awamori Queen Yuki Sakihara) who traveled all the way from Japan to help promote it! (A big thank you to the Japanese Consulate for supporting this program)

I hope that many of you were also able to attend our program introducing Rakugo (in English). For those who aren’t familiar with it, Rakugo is a form of traditional Japanese comedic storytelling – something along the lines of standup comedy here in the US, except that the performers are all sitting Japanese style and telling funny stories. If you happened to miss the program this month – don’t worry! We have another Rakugo program scheduled for April with a professional Rakugo performer, Tazaburo Yanagiya.

One other event to put on your calendar – we will hold our Annual General Members’ Meeting on April 18 in San Francisco from 5:30-6:30 pm. Individual and corporate members of JSNC are invited to attend. We are still finalizing our entertainment plans for the program, and we will give an update on the state of Japan Society in 2023.

Thank you for supporting our programs, and I look forward to seeing you soon!