Photo1: With Dr. Naylor, President of the University of Toronto
Departing from Washington DC, I arrived in Toronto on May 1st. 5 years have passed since my last visit. The main purpose this time is to visit Munk Center for International Studiesof University of Toronto
After checking in at Le Royal Meridien King Edward Hotel and taking a short rest, I took off for the destination.
First destination was a meeting with three people from MCIS, Janice Stein (Director), Judith Wolfson (Vice-President for University Relations) and LJ Edmonds to discuss on this year's "Japan-Canada amity 80 years anniversary" plan with my colleague at GRIPS, Dr. Sunami. Both parties suggested focusing on "Innovation" in a broader sense. By the way, the three persons from Canada were all female, PhD, Lawyer, Government official respectively, representing a variety of careers which is truly impressive.
In the 75th anniversary, MCIS and SCJ (Science Council of Japan) co-organized a conference under the theme of "Gender Issue" that produced an outcome of Japan-Canada academic exchange program for female researchers (this web-site is in Japanese only) .
Photo2: With Drs. Stein and Sunami at the Munk Center
"Asian Foodprints", a series of conferences under the auspices of Munk Center and Asia Institute happened to be open so we decided to have a quick look into them. The first conference was organized under the theme of "understanding cultures through food" and this year's theme was "China, Hong Kong." It appeared to be very interesting.
After this, I left the site for a meeting with the President of University of Toronto. In my last visit five years ago, I had a lunch at the President's office with current President Birgeneau of UC Berkeley, who was then just about to take on the new appointment. This time, it was Dr. David Naylor (the photo at the top) who succeeded Dr. Birgeneau just recently. Dr. Naylor is MD, and was the Dean of School of Medicine very much like myself. Still young, but has an impressive career and had lots of topics common with me so the meeting turned out to be a lively interesting conversation.
Then, a dinner of "understanding cultures through food" hosted by Munk Center and Asia Institute. A large number of guests were invited, including Dr. John Wong (Director), Professor Ito Peng , Drs. Stein, Wolfson and Edmonds. It was a wonderful event overall. Next year's theme will be Japan. At the dinner I had an opportunity to see Mr. Yamashita, Consul General of Japan in Toronto, President Suzuki of the Japan Foundation and his wife.
In July, His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress will visit Canada. I am delighted to report to you that this was also a hot topic at the event.
