Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming in spite of all the snow. Either you will miss Mr. Otaka, or you love me much, or you just want to drink and eat,” said Japanese Ambassador Sasae on the occasion of the Farewell to Minister Otaka with his well known self-deprecating sense of humor. “Either way, we welcome all of you. I will miss Mr. Otaka. I don’t know what to say. Especially, I will miss his great talent. He is multi-talented. I am not talented. This is quite a good combination; multi-talented Minister, no talent Ambassador. He was great all these three years.”
Ambassador and Mrs. Sasae with Minister Otaka
“Three years, three months – three, three. I will tell you why he is so talented,” he added. “One, he is a great event organizer. He went out to New York. He went out to Tokyo and solicited all these artists with talent coming and visiting the town and he was accommodating all these artists in his apartment house. He was cooking and even showing his own talent of singing before all these artists. Number two, he is a great musician. I never heard him singing before tonight. His singing talent was more than I expected. Number three – he is a great athlete. I used to play golf with him; his golf was great. Of course, I’m not good. But he was so kind, whenever I hit the ball he said, ‘Wow, nice shot.’ I knew that it was not a good shot, but he was kind enough to encourage me to come play with him. Number four is that he is a great communicator. As the spokesman at the Embassy, he reached out to many reporters – not only Japanese, but American reporters. He introduced new public diplomacy into the Internet age. He produced tweets and Facebook and other instruments to make the embassy and the Japanese government tradition known widely to the public. For that, for those talents, I really will miss you. Also, I will miss your friendship and dedication. After three years and three months he’s going back to Tokyo. He is assuming a new important post, which relates to public diplomacy once again. I think in one way or another, if you are connected with him here in Washington, I think he could now connect you further.”
Minister Otaka was feted by The Cherry Blossom folks who presented him with a collage of their interaction; he received accolades from Blues Alley owner Harry Schnipper and many others, both speakers and guests.
So, to steal a line from Ambassador Sasae – YES, we showed up in spite of the snow because we will miss Minister Otaka and YES, we showed up because we love you much and YES, we showed up because we wanted to drink and eat!
Minister Otaka on the Guitar:
Minister Otaka’s Farewell Speech:
