I have always been grateful not only for the honor and for the pleasure of teaching. but also for the many perks that come in between. As you experienced this country, you also treated me to some of my country's best. You even made me appreciate my own culture better. You treated me to days' worth of dinners, lunches, breakfasts, to stays in hotel suites, and brought many souvenirs. More than all of that, it was your kindness, your politeness, that I cherished the most, the satisfaction of a genuine, meaningful connection that I made in my life.
As I profoundly admire your culture, the thought of bringing the food from you country and cooking it here was a remarkable gesture. More than a guest, tonight, you are my mother and my sister from another country.
The soft yellow lights of the suite glowed on our faces. In a zealous chorus, we slurped the cold soba. I sprinkled wasabi salt on ebi tempura, tried the umeboshi, with beer and later, first-harvest green tea. You flatter me in saying that I used hashi better than many. The table was alive with conversations. Ayala Avenue's rush hour traffic had its own cacophony below us, and while the Makati skyline is spectacular it will never be Tokyo. But your cooking, and the companionship that came with was a Dokodemo door. I just walked into someone's home, and felt for a while that I belong.
