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| Aomori JETs with U.S. diplomat, Richard Mei (fifth person from left) |
A couple weeks ago in early February, a small group of JET participants and I had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with U.S. diplomat, Richard Mei. He is currently working for the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo as the Cultural Affairs Officer there, and was in Aomori for a couple days sightseeing.
He had contacted our supervisor in advance to set up the dinner with us; he enjoys meeting JET participants and makes an effort to do so whenever possible. As such, he has met many JET’s all throughout Japan, but this particular trip was quite special for him--Aomori was the only prefecture that he had not yet visited until this trip (and keep in mind that there are 47 prefectures in Japan!).
Mr. Mei is a friendly, laid-back guy with lots of experience working in international relations. His job focuses on making and improving relations between Japan and the U.S. through various avenues. During our conversation with him, he described how he does this by promoting exchange programs for students and teachers, organizing art and other cultural programs, etc. It sounds like a fun job with new things happening all the time.
During the dinner he let us ask questions about lots of topics and it was really interesting. He talked about his past and how he ended up at his job. He described how it could be a good career path for some of us, as well as the advantages and disadvantages that come with working in the embassy. People with excellent knowledge of world politics and news is one of the most essential skills for this career, so it probably not something I would thrive doing. Yet I really enjoyed the dinner and loved hearing about his experiences. He has some funny stories too and isn't afraid to be himself. I hope I'll run into him again sometime in the future!
