Japanese

May 25, 1998: Exchange with the Haubens, the advocaters of NETIZENSHIP
	Three years ago, Mr. Michael Hauben was invited to Beppu Bay Conference as an advocator of a new concept "NETIZEN" and made an impressive speech that fascinated many participants. Until then, I have been keeping contact with him. Upon my connection through an E-mail, Jay and Ronda Hauben, Michael's parent, kindly visited my hotel at ten in the morning to say hello. Michael himself is busy today because of his move and will come later. We are guided to Columbia University in NY from which Mr. Michael Hauben graduated.
	Mr. Jay and Mrs. Ronda are involved in computer related works in the university. I tried to connect COARA's home page using a computer open to students. Unfortunately I couldn't read the content because the computer doesn't support Japanese characters. I guessed to call COARA's "Seeing is believing" page to show my home page to the Haubens. A female student kindly took a look at my home page together and took our picture.
Then we visited Michael's new apartment in East Village. I am very glad to see him for the first time in three years. We took commemorative pictures. Left picture; from the left, Ken wearing a NETIZEN hat which was prepared in commemoration of Michael's visit to Oita three years ago, Michael Hauben, the inventor of word NETIZEN, Mieko. Right picture, from the left, Jay, Michael, and Ronda Hauben.
His original concept of "Netizenship" seems to spread widely under the help of his parent throughout the Internet. Michael kindly put an autograph on the spread cover page of his book(Japanese version) written jointly with his mother Ronda titled "Netizen." His apartment is just like one appeared in "West side story" movie. It was a fun for me to learn that the back stair is equipped outside of the window. He complained the apartment is too small, but I was impressed to see the apartment is provided perfect with a bed room, a living room, a working room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.
	The Haubens took us to see around East Village which seemed somewhat uneasy for me alone. I took a look here and there. We took Afghan style lunch on the street seat, looking passengers. It was an unusual experience for me. After the lunch we enjoyed window shopping in SOHO district. In the evening, we discussed eagerly about the Internet, our governments' involvement in it, and NTT in Japan over a Vietnamese dishes. We promised to continue our discussion on 28th evening.