We didn't have a guest presenter this week but we did have our very own Dawn Barr share her experiences and impressions from her recent 2 week trip to Japan with her family. Readers Digest version? She LOVED it! Dawn shared a picture of the Tokyo skyline and asked us to guess the population of Tokyo…if you know the population of Canada, you also know the population of Tokyo! Unbelievable to have that many people in such a small space.
Dawn found a Rotary plaque in her hotel and decided to look up Tokyo's Rotary clubs on our app….just on Wednesday, over 30 clubs meet and different clubs meet every day. Dawn talked about how she feels safe in Rotary because, even in a country halfway around the world, there are Rotarians like us whom would help someone in need no questions asked.
Couple of interesting observations about the country….Japanese egg salad sandwiches that you buy in 7-11 of all places, are the absolute best! And they are available in Canada now.
There is no eating or drinking allowed on the street in Tokyo…makes sense given litter, spillage and such when crowds are large.
Lastly, Dawn had the opportunity to ride the bullet train in Japan. Later she was on Facebook and saw a post from Dave Panabaker - his wife and him were riding the bullet train in Spain at the same time that Dawn was on the train in Japan! Being in Rotary really does tie us together!
Dawn concluded by talking about the “dash"….the hyphen that separates the start and end times of an event, an era, our lives. The dash that represents the time we spend with the people we love, doing things that we enjoy, working, serving, building and living. The dates aren't important….that little dash contains all of the things that mark our time and the value we brought to our community. Dawn encouraged us to communicate more, make more and stronger connections and make our dash count!
Thank you so much for sharing your story Dawn!