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One of our newest members, Tim Johnstone, performed the invocation and pledge. Roger Allington did the intros. We had no visiting Rotarians, but LOTS of guests — lots of spouses and family members — in honor of our GSE visitors.
Friday Program Friday’s special program was Group Study Exchange, a.k.a “GSE.” We had our inbound team visiting us from Rotary District 2770 in Saitama, Japan. GSE started in 1965, and today it’s one of the premier Rotary International programs. This year, between 500 and 600 teams will participate from 167 countries. The purpose is to match a Rotarian team lead with a small group of business and professional people to spread good will and promote peace and understanding internationally. Inbound Team:
Their district is approximately 50 miles north of Tokyo. There are over 2900 members in the district. Nao-Chan talked about his passion for golf and some of the cultural history of the district. Next was team member “Sushi” Atsushi Oba. He played a lot of tennis in school and likes activities in the great outdoors. At home, he has two dogs awaiting his return. Like several others on the team, this is not Sushi’s first trip abroad — he has been to the US before, as well as to Canada. He was recently married in Paris, and he works at for the Nissan trucks division. “Emmy” Emiko Ozawa works in city hall at Yahsio, Japan, a city of over 78,000 people. Her passion is art. Her father, Jiro (“not Ichiro”) is a huge baseball fan, and he follows Ichiro and the Mariners from Japan. You need to be careful with Emmy — she’s a black belt in martial arts, so you want to make sure you stay on good terms.
Yuko Hasunuma works for a securities firm. She likes traveling, and she has been all over the world. During her many travels, she practices her other love, which is trying different types of food. During the team’s visit to Washington, they have attended receptions, been hosted by the Japanese General Counsel, and gone on many trips and tours, including Boeing and the Pike Place Market. It seems their most frequent activity is visiting Rotary meeting like ours — during the week they are hitting about one a day on average. Outbound GSE:
Overall, the morning was an uplifting experience, sharing the strong spirit of both the inbound and the outbound teams. President Jim reinforce that thought by reflecting how GSE is a true demonstration of Rotary International’s goal of promoting peace, service and understanding throughout the world.
BAH DUM BUMP Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. However, all the Swiss league records were unfortunately destroyed in a fire, and we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled. A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient." A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on." A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census." An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling.The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."
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The inbound team is from the Saitama District, where Jukio Iino is the governor. Their visiting team is led by Himoto Nao-chan, who introduced the rest of the team. The team then took their turns introducing their backgrounds as well as the history and geography of their homeland. 
“Hiro” Masahiro Yoshida is an accountant whose main hobby is snowboarding. 
Our team is going to Japan on the Wednesday, April 25, led by our own Sayoko. The team visited the BBRC on Friday for a test run on their outstanding oral and audio visual presentation. They’ll be gone for four weeks. The team is being co-sponsored by the BBRC and four other District 5030 clubs. We got to meet all but one of the outbound team members: Michele Fugiel from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Kelly Guy from Casey Family Programs (large non-profit headquartered in Seattle); and Lindsey Lemm, a broker with Edward Jones. Missing Friday was Alice Ikeda, a television producer who was absent with a sore back. 
04/08