Roberto Coban, the organizer of the 256-member Milica Jovanovic Gathering in Belgrade, Serbia last year, which surpassed our own 178-member Hirokazu Tanakas’ Guinness World Record, uploaded a photo of cherry blossoms with Kyoto’s location information on Facebook. I contacted him, and the next day we finally met for the first time in real life at a sushi bar in Ginza.
We met for the first time in real life at a sushi bar in Ginza the next day.
I had talked with him twice in video chat last year, but he was much bigger than I had imagined, cheerful, and a nice guy of the same age.
He was part of a 13-member group on a JT International media tour, arriving at Kansai Airport via Istanbul the day before yesterday, sightseeing in Kyoto yesterday, and returning to Japan from Haneda Airport tomorrow night, a hard schedule for a four-day stay.
What time does the Imperial Palace open? When can I see the tuna auction at Tsukiji? (No, it’s moved to Toyosu now.) Where can I buy a kimono, a fan, an uchiwa, a kitchen knife?
I heard that tomorrow they will go to the Shibuya scramble crossing to meet Ambassador Kovache of Serbia, whom I also met.
A member of the tour from Montenegro, as well as Serbia, was also a director and reporter for a TV station, and he asked me to record an interview on short notice.
He asked me, “Why are all Japanese people so calm and no one is angry?”
I explained this difficult question in English, citing not monotheism but polytheism, animism, the spirit of mutual aid, the Peace Constitution, etc., but I am not sure if I got the point across. I can’t imagine what kind of on-air impression it would make.
I heard that JTI Serbia has the largest share of the heated cigarette market in Serbia, ahead of Philip Morris and BAT.
Montenegro was under Russian rule during the Russo-Japanese War, and I also learned for the first time that Japan and Montenegro had long been at war.
It was a night that I enjoyed international exchange triggered by the same name, and I thought that one day I must visit Serbia and Montenegro “where the fans are”.
