Nov. 22 - Preparing for President Obama's two-night stay in Yokohama for the APEC Leaders Meeting gave Ann and me a wonderful chance to become reacquainted with this international city. I accompanied an advance team from the United States to visit the Yokohama venues, look over various hotels, and meet with our hosts in early October.

My favorite memory of that stay was an early morning jog from my hotel to Yamashita Park. Aside from a few elderly couples resting on the benches and one or two people walking their dogs, I had the park to myself. Running along various paths, I enjoyed a wonderful view of busy Yokohama Harbor with its many ships. I returned to my hotel invigorated and ready for the day.

In the second week of November, Ann and I returned to Yokohama to support the U.S. delegation to the APEC meetings. We arrived just a few days before the President, but we managed to keep one evening free. We decided to visit Chinatown, where we ate dinner at one of our favorite Sichuan restaurants. Ann ordered two of her favorite dishes - tea smoked duck and Sichuan green beans. I ordered Gong Bao chicken and Mapo tofu.

Usually I like the dishes Ann picks better than my own selections, but that night all of the dishes were delicious. This restaurant combined hot (red peppers), sour (fermented vinegar) and numbing (Sichuan peppercorns) flavors into a distinctly Sichuan style. Before we returned to our hotel, Ann purchased some Sichuan peppercorns for a Chinese-American friend who loves to cook.

Ann and I both thought that the Japanese Government made a wonderful choice of venue for the APEC meetings. Yokohama is such an international city that we are sure the APEC leaders felt comfortable there. For different reasons, Yokohama also has a special meaning for Ann and me. When her father emigrated to the United States, he, like many other Japanese-Americans, boarded a passenger ship that departed from Yokohama for Seattle. Yokohama is also the sister city of my hometown of San Diego. Indeed, one of San Diego's tourist attractions is its "Friendship Bell," which was a gift to my city from the people of Yokohama.

Until next time,

Jim