# 50 Matthew

I met Cedric (left) nearly ten years ago when he was on business in Tokyo. He has such a charming and generous spirit that we have remained in contact all these years.

On this trip, I was finally able to meet his partner, Matthew who is a playwright from South Africa. This pix was taken on near their home on Hamilton Close in Westminster, London

# 48 London Bus driver

After the wedding, I switch to the Riverbank Park Plaza in Vauxhall. It is on the far side of the Thames River from the Parliment. I recommend it highly. Anyway, in order to see the city I took a ride on Bus # 360 and met this dirver. He is from Nigeria; but no longer likes London and is ready to move back home.

# 49 Yann Inchaud, on the other hand loves London. Yann, who I met in the Kenzo London shop, is from Cameroon; but grew up in Paris. He says he prefers London much better.

The Happy Couple

# 45 - 47 Second cousins, twice removed...

I only got a chance to meet these three cousins as they were leaving.

# 44 Queen of the day

Richard's Mum

I know I'm not supposed to use the word "queen" lightly with Brits. But, I can't imagine anyone more poised, more regal, more royal than Richard's mother.

She produced, directed and stage-managed the entire wedding--including picture-perfect weather--and smiled all the way through.

Brava.

Richard's father's side of the family

# 41 Richard's aunt (his father's sister) Jean


# 42 Her son, Brian


# 43 His girlfriend, Angie


Got that?

# 38 Richard's Uncle

This is Uncle Bobsey, his mother's brother. He reminded me of my cousin Morris. We had a nice chat about religion. Of course, he did most of the chatting. It's the same with my cousin Morris.

Also in the third picture his friend (foreground) and another relative (# 39 and # 40)

# 35, 36 and # 37 The Aunties

Of course, women are the backbone of any family. Here are two of Richard's aunts.

#35 Aunt Doreen

#36 Aunt Valerie

# 37 Aunt Hyacinth (who lives in Florida, and thus represented the U.S-based wing of the family

# 34 Shannon

Shannon was also at my table. She sat next to me and was the life of the party. Shannon is Richard's brother's ex-girlfriend's daughter.

Got that?

# 29-33 At my table at the reception

The reception was held at Joydene (that's the name of the family's very British house).

Here is a better picture of Jason (#20) this time with his lovely wife from Thailand, Yui. The next photo is Jason's sister Rebecca followed by their father, Michael. The couple sitting next to him has know Richard's mother since they were children.

# 28 Daniel's girlfriend

Daniel's girlfriend, Kate, was visiting from New York. I tried to arrange to have her catch the bouquet, but...

The Bride and Groom

Richard and Yuko with Makiko, the brides sister (and bride's maid), and Yasmin (age 8) and Dion (age 5)--new faces #23, #24 and #25.

Not pictured, Drs. Hata (Yuko's parents #26 and #27)

# 21 and # 22 The Bishop and the rector

Rich and Yuka's Wedding
The wedding was held on July 14 at the 600+ year old All-Saints (Anglican) church in lovely Binfield, England. Population 7475. So this is the English country side.

Rich's Bachelor Party in London (July 13)

Hanging out with the London Brothas
Rich Rudduck's bachelor party. His brothers have this "thing" they do with their eye brows.( Did you remember the Rock in the movie "Be Cool"?)

#16 Rich's older brother Adrian a.k.a. Fabio a.k.a. "Fab."
# 17 Rich's cousin Carl and #18 Rich's dad (light blue shirt)
# 19 Rich's younger brother Daniel
# 20 A friend of the family, Jason
BTW, that's Rich in the middle of the group pix.

#15 IMBA Student

This month we are hosting 37 International MBA students. In this program, students start in either India or France. Next, they go to the U.S. Now, they are in Tokyo for four weeks. More pix to follow of the other 36 new faces in his class.

#14 Professor Leeds

Dr Mike Leeds has just joined us at Temple in Japan from the Fox School of business at our main campus in Philadelphia. He is an Economist and will be in Tokyo for about two years. Of course, that is what I said, too, when I came more than 10 years ago. Here's a quick interview with Mike.

Jobs I have had in my lifetime...

• I've been a landscaper, sewer worker, candy maker, burger flipper, teacher's aide in a school for autistic children, and professor of economics.

Movie I can watch over and over...

• The Princess Bride, Seven Beauties, Modern Times, Eight Men Out, The Lord of the Rings - I've watched all of these at least 4X and would do so today.

Places I have lived...

• Oakhurst, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Prague, Czech Republic; Ann Arbor, MI

Favorite sports teams...

• New York Yankees; New York Giants; Czech national hockey and soccer teams; Michigan football; Princeton basketball

# 13 Drinks in Roppongi Hill

After Masa's party, I had drinks with friends at Salvatore's in Roppongi Hills. Sorry the lighting on this pix is not very good. I was late that they were already drunk.

Only one new face: Kenji Abe. He manages artists for Sony Music.

At Masa's 40th B-day party

On July 8, my friend Masa had a birthday party. Half the guest, like Masa, are classical piano players. Throughout the evening they randomly--and excellently--played concertos and sonatas.

The other guests were the most diverse collection of diplomats, refugees (like me) and world travellers that I have seen in a long time.

The new faces included people from Spain, Sri Lanka, Columbia, France , Brazil, Portugal (well, I already knew Pedro), the U.S. and of course Japan. Since I only got three pictures, we count this as New Faces # 10, 11 and 12.

# 8 and # 9 Filmmakers Brandon and Ahmmad

Brandon (whose name I can remember right now) and Ahmmad Brown came by my office to interview me for a film they are making on black professionals who live in Japan. I made them promise not to do a Michael Moore on me. We'll see what happens.

Good luck guys.

# 6 and # 7

A high school student from Taipei and his mom.

At lunch with Akiko Ide (#2)

If anyone is in a position to give grades on the status of women in Japan's workforce, it is Akiko Ide of NTT DoCoMo, Inc., one of the Wall Street Journal's "50 Women to Watch" (November 2006) and the first female board member of an NTT Group company. For those who don't know NTT, think ATT before the break up.

Speaking to the American Chamber in Tokyo today, Ide sited the increased number of women in the JPN workforce. Two income households now outnumber single income HH. However, while JPN women are helping pay the bills, JPN husbands are not chipping in at home. Aparently only 12.5% of Japanese men share in household chores. This compares--unfavorably--with 37% in the US and 43.4% in Canada.

At lunch I sat next to Yukiko Morimoto (# 3) and Toshiya Takata (#4). On the way out waiting for a taxi I met Bianca Wong (#5) who just moved to Tokyo a few months ago from Hong Kong.

# 1 Keniichi-kun, Hibiya Park, Tokyo

Keniichi was sitting behind me (with his parents) at an out door concert in Hibiya Park on Sunday afternoon. He shared his Oreo cookies with me.

Only 999 more new faces to meet.

Stay tuned.