Hashi.org in Osaka, Japan

In mid-September, I was asked to represent hashi.org at an international music conference in Osaka, Japan, speaking on a panel, and we had a booth at the trade show there to promote hashi.org.

Walking into the Conference this morning, they made me feel quite welcome, and as I walked through the meet-and-greet room, could here whispers, in Japanese accents, “ that’s Ma-i-kel J Da-u-ney” as if I was some celebrity or something. If they only knew. But I find it extremely easy to reach out my hand and meet many new friends this morning.

Atusko arrives, and we set up the hashi.org booth, and immediately start spreading the word about hashi.org - explaining how we seek to further cultural exchange by giving scholarships and guiding people towards these opportunities on our website.

The conference itself was organized extremely well, and I met people from all over the world – Austrailia, New Zealand, England, Cleveland!...and from all over the United States and Japan.

The panel I spoke on started around 3pm, and went over an hour. With about 150 people in attendance, I talk about the personal reasons I come here to play and the ability we all have as musicians to use what we can do in an effort to ‘bridge’ between cultures - that this universal language has the ability to reach out around the world and make friends – between people and between countries.

It was a great opportunity to promote hashi.org not only to the Japanese, but to people from all over the world.