The First Joint Rotary Luncheon

When Toastmaster Athena Lien, District Governor 2003-2004, invited me to attend the first joint meeting of Taipei Rotary club (English) & Tokai Rotary club (Japanese) at Hotel Royal Taipei, I felt flattered to participate in the significant event. I didn't know that there were two Japanese Rotary clubs in Taiwan, one in Taipei and the other in Kaohsiung, till this afternoon. It was indeed a delight to be a part of the versatile community in Taipei.

The Keynote Speaker Kumiko Hirano (平野久美子), a Japanese Journalist, talked about the Japanese engineer, Shinpei Torii (信平鳥居) who constructed the first ecological dam in Taiwan. Hirano-san published her book "水の奇跡を呼んだ男" in June, 2009. I was impressed by her intensive research on the underground dam in Ping-tong.

Born in the south of Taiwan, I knew many Japanese engineers devoted their lives to the development of the Chia-nan Plain. Hirano-san inspired me to study more about the basic infrastructure lay by Japanese during 50 years colonization period from 1895 till 1945.

After the joint Rotary meeting, I was lucky to buy the last copy of Hirono's book with her autograph. Buying the book gave me the motive to explore more history about the wartime in Taiwan. I should make it one of my goals in 2010 to finish reading the book and hopefully to see the dam with my own eyes.

The long-time-no-see Toastmaster Scott Weaver was at the joint meeting. How nice it was to have two dear old toastmaters friends at the same meeting. With Athena's consent first, followed by Scott's to join the singing performance at the Nursing Home Friday afternoon, November 27th. Thank you, Athena! Thank you, Scott!