From: Jim Brooke
To: Yale Club Members
Date: Oct. 19, 2004
Subject: Yale Club of Japan: Nov. 12 dinner with Japan's expert on North Korea nuclear disarmament! TWO "Yale Bar Review" Happy Hours in Roppongi!

Fall Lineup for Your Calendar:
-Friday Nov. 12 dinner with Japan's expert on WMD disarmament!
-TWO Thursday evening "Yale Bar Review" Happy Hours in Roppongi --Oct. 28 and Dec. 2!

Yale Club of Japan Members,

Greetings!

The Club kicked off its new season 10 days ago with a well-attended (45) dinner at the Tokyo American Club. Ian Shapiro, director of Yale's International Studies program, gave a good brief on differing outlooks for the foreign policies of Kerry I or Bush II. A lively question, answer and discussion session ensued. Before dinner, we had an ample 90-minutes for chatting, meishi-swapping and general post-summer catching up.

Thanks to the Events Committee, led by the indefatigable Robert Howe, we are inaugurating what is to become a tradition: a monthly meeting of "The Yale Bar Review." No RSVP necessary for these informal social gatherings:

Thursday Oct. 28 -- Hobgoblin Pub, Roppongi;
7pm-9pm. Happy Hour prices on all drinks. Snacks and dinner available. Come for 5 minutes within your busy schedule, or stay with us for the duration. Table will be in back right of the Pub. (Hobgoblin is across from Roi Building and toward Tokyo Tower; Aoba Roppongi Building 1F, 3-16-33 Roppongi Minato-ku [Please click here for a map]).

Thursday, December 2, 2004 -- Legends Sports Bar, next to Hobgoblin; 7pm-9:30pm for video of the Yale-Harvard football class of Ivy Titans. If Bush-Kerry isn't exciting enough of a dead heat, come see their spiritual descendants debate quarterback and wide receiver homeland security on the gridiron. Snacks and dinner available. (across from Roi Building and toward Tokyo Tower; Aoba Roppongi Building 1F, 3-16-33 Roppongi [Please click here for a map]).

On the intellectual front, only 10 days after one Yalie will have won the White House for another four years, Kuniko Inoguchi will talk at a dinner Friday Nov. 12 about the new outlook for containing the nuclear weapons programs of North Korea, Iran and elsewhere.

Prof. Inoguchi, a Yale graduate, served for two years until last spring as Japan's Permanent Representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Now a professor at Sophia University. Prof. Inoguchi can give a frank, insider's assessment of the outlook for keeping the nuclear bomb genie inside the bottle. For more background on this rising star of Japanese diplomacy, Inoguchi-sensei's bio is available on her personal web page here.

This timely evening of dinner, talk and questions will take place at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, 20th floor Yurakucho Denki building [Please click here for a map]. Strategically located downtown for intercepting the maximum number of members coming off work, the FCCJ is giving us a generous hour for cash bar cocktails, starting at 6:30 p.m.

The price will be about Yen 3,500. Because the FCCJ needs an accurate headcount to prepare the buffet dinner, please RSVP by email directly to Peter Hasegawa, our energetic visiting student member, who will be counting noses: peter.hasegawa@yale.edu

Last month, we had a handful of no shows at the Tokyo American Club. But I am happy to report that most have paid up, so we broke even.

At that event, Engin Yenidunya, a former Yale Club of Hong Kong board member, gallantly stepped forward to serve as the new Secretary of the Yale Club of Japan. Engin has cracked the password for the Yale Club of Japan website, which now will be regularly updated, starting with this missive.

Dan Thomas, our Treasurer, has also modernized our email list. Now, to get ON the list, simply send a message from your own email address. You will be automatically subscribed. To get an address OFF the list, send an email. Your address will be dropped.

[Note: Please e-mail Engin Yenidunya with your Yale affiliation to learn the "on" and "off" e-mail addresses for the mailing list.]

Last month, it was great to see new faces and meet new people. Because there is turnover in the Yale population in Japan, please relay this email to at least one fellow alum. I have run into more than one "glum alum" who only heard about the Tokyo American Club dinner after the fact!

Hope to see you at our Yale events in coming weeks!

Cheerio

Jim Brooke
President of the Yale Club of Japan