The only full day of the conference started with a debate on the scarcity of world resources, with two sides taking an obviously opposite position. It was followed by a plenary session on the same topic. Over the course of the proceedings, I felt there was a need to amplify and share a developing country perspective, so I stood up and shared how developing countries have a different outlook and challenge when it comes to resources (mostly their natural and labor resources are exploited by the developed countries). There needed to be both conscientious management of values in the West and an overall realization that as long as they need these resources, developing nations, because of economics, corruption and governance issues will always be ready to sacrifice their own material wealth to just satisfy that need.
The plenary group was divided afterwards into pre-registered breakout sessions on varying topics. I was a resource person in the Governance, Transparency and Corruption module along with 3 other lawyers (one American, one Indian, one Bangladeshi). Our session organizer was a state senator from Minnesota with Lao roots. Our task as resource persons was basically to facilitate exchange and conversation among the participants. It turned out to be very interactive and interesting.
Lunch was particularly interesting. They served miso soup and a traditional Japanese bento combination that included pickles, rice, salmon, sausage, tofu and some fruits. They lumped a tuna/potato ball with the dessert set, which was kind of odd for a non-Japanese. You couldn't be any more authentic than this. Oddly, it reinforced my lingering impression about "Japanese" food back in the Philippines which has become too "Filipinized."
First, the flavors in my meal were very subtle, no one overpowering the rest. Harmony was the objective. They didn't even serve soy sauce, and I couldn't see any vials of it anywhere in the lunch room. Second, the grease and oil were really kept to a minimum. So unlike the "Japanese" fare they serve back home to Pinoys, who like their flavors strong and distinctive, and their grease in large, very unhealthy doses.
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There were more plenary sessions in the afternoon. Some of them were frankly quite directionless. The discussions taxed everyone's focus and patience.
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The highlights of the day were definitely the evening activities. We finished the plenary with generous time to spare before the 6:45pm bus ride from Four Seasons to the Mori Tower in downtown Tokyo. I planned to take a nap, but me being me, I wasn't able to.
I discovered another flaw in the Mac. It refused to recognize the contents of the 2gig Memory Stick from the camera which I was supposed to transfer to the hard disk. I kept on rebooting, with no luck. It really made me doubt the real-world advantages of OS X over the much-maligned Windows Vista. All my problems with the Macintosh revolved around its weaknesses in blog-related tasks. If I can't do my tasks any easier in this machine, and in fact I've repeatedly encountered task-related issues with it, then it's not far superior as claimed and repeated advertised to the PC.
On the way to Roppongi, I sat in the bus with Lida, the Afghan delegate. We had a very interesting discussion about Afghan history and politics. I told her some things about the Philippines, but the entire conversation focused mainly on exchanges about what she did, what her advocacies were, and how the Afghan situation affected the entire world. It was just a privilege to listen and soak in information from people you wouldn't normally have the opportunity to talk to. It was priceless.
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The view from the observation deck of Mori Tower was simply breakthtaking. It was one of the top landmarks in the entire city, being the centerpiece of the Roppongi business and entertainment district.
The orange glow of Tokyo Tower (taller than Eiffel) dominated the view, but the rest of the Tokyo cityscape at night was stunning. The entire place was full of people, made more so because our group of more than a hundred delegates gathered there to have cocktails and dinner.
It was a unique and humbling honor to meet the owner of the building, who was introduced by no less than Ms. Vishakha Desai, the Asia Society President. I thanked Mori-san profusely for her generous hospitality, which left absolutely nothing to be desired. The Japanese were tops in the entertaining game, and we had barely begun the evening. More was to come later.
We left Mori Tower at around 9:30 pm, and not without partaking of all the delicious food, free-flowing drinks and very good company.
It would have been nice to walk around Roponggi a bit, but as usual our schedule tight even when we were supposed to be unwinding.
The night was really just beginning. The delegates were bused to the L-Place, a cozy haunt with had a large open space (relatively large for a crowded city like Tokyo) for mingling and a small building which housed a bar and a deck on the second floor. More drinks flowed, more conversation ensued. I got detached from the main Filipino group in Mori Tower, and continued talking to the other delegates at L-Place. I got reunited with the Pinoys much later in the evening. I mostly hung out with Azmyl from Malaysia and Stefan from the US. Stefan complimented me about the plenary comment earlier. He was a US delegate by way of China. I told him it was interesting to notice that most of the American delegates had obvious Asian backgrounds. He himself was Chinese-American (from a German father and a Chinese mother), and many of the other delegates were "hyphenated" citizens (Indian-American, Afghan- American, etc.)
All the partying had to end. In typical Japanese fashion, the time had been pre-set and we followed it to the letter. We left L-Place at 11:30 and boarded the bus again back to Four Seasons. It was another tiring day. The pace and momentum kept sputtering in the afternoon, but the evening partying infused renewed energy to everyone.
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