Day 87 - G-20 Summit in Osaka

On Friday June 27th was held the opening reception for the G-20 Summit in Osaka. It was my great honour to be invited to act as MC for this reception.

I had a very special Rakugo performance and dinner on the 25th in New York, generously hosted by Ambassador and Mrs. Yamanouchi, Consul General of Japan in New York, at their official residence. So this was a tight travel situation.

(I will write about the lovely evening at the Ambassador's residence in a subsequent article - sorry for the wrong order...!)

But the schedule dictated that I headed straight from the Ambassador's residence after a lovely dinner together, to JFK Airport, and boarded a Korean Air at 1am for Seoul, with a transfer straight to Osaka. Then from Osaka International Airport to the Regal Royal Hotel for rehearsal all day and then finally the reception - long couple of days!

Osaka was in a state of lockdown. But I have to hand it to Japan - everyone was apologizing for the inconvenience due to G-20, but you wouldn't really feel the inconvenience if nobody apologized - it was just that organized.