1.　張　漢卿 (Ed Chanq) 君　　　2001.06.15

　Mizuta kun wrote to me about his planned June 8 visit to Toronto early this year.  He made a side trip from Detroit on his way to an international conference in Washington DC.  It was very nice of him to make this visit.

　I have not seen any of December Club members since 1994 when the late Tanaka Jinei kun came here with his group of Kaigai Ryoko Dokokai.  In 1977, Jinei kun chose Canada as the destination for the first group tour he organized for Dokokai.  Seventeen years later, he chose Canada again as destination for its 15th group tour, which unfortunately became his last trip to travel with Dokokai.

　Altogether, Jinei kun visited me in Canada on 7 separate occasions.  He and I developed close friendship while he was a Nissho representative in Taiwan for a few years just before I left that island for Canada in 1964.

　This latest trip by Mizuta kun was his 3rd one to Canada, making him the second most frequent visitor after Jinei kun.  To pay respect for his repeated concern about my well being, I tried my best to make his short stay as enjoyable as I could see.

　I drove to the Airport Hilton to meet him, and drove him downtown to see the many tall buildings that were not there 20 years ago.  We made a brief stopover at "the Beach", a nice old-fashioned Canadian shopping and residential area, full of large trees in the middle of Toronto, along the beach of Lake Ontario.

　We walked on the wooden Broadwalk that stretches 3 km from one end to the other in the park. The digital photo I e-mailed you last time was taken here, showing Mizuta kun happily shaking a can of ice tea.

　We then drove up north again to see a modern Chinatown, where many Hongkong styled boutiques were competing for business under one roof. Over a dinner at a Shanghai styled restaurant, we enjoyed talking about the schoolmates and about the recent political changes in Japan.      ED