Photo1
For the first time, I came toTahiti, a southern island far away from Japan. It was an 11 hours’ non-stop flight by Air Tahiti Nui from Narita. The Narita ? Tahiti Island(Papeete) flight flies twice every week.
I am visiting here to attend the Inter-Congress of Pacific Science Association. At the venue, they even had a large tent set up at the beach(Photo1), which was very nice in atmosphere. You could see Moorea Island, an island often used for movie location because of its very Tahitian view, was right before your eyes. The Congress was held last time at Okinawa two years ago as I have written before.
Photo2: Moorea Island
Since Tahiti is a part of French Polynesia the French government also strongly supported the conference and the number of attendee reached up to 800 people. Many of the speeches given on the opening day sounded very patriotic, maybe a bit too much, at least from my point of view.
Photo3: Opening Session
There were so many topics connected to Pacific Ocean such as climate change, coral reefs, wild life diversities, human society v.s. nature preservation, etc. and I think it was what characterized this Pacific Science Association Inter-Congress.
Dr. Ichida, who is an expert on bird watching from the BirdLife International and Professor Isao Nakajima, Director of eHealth, ITU, also came and they each delivered wonderful speech on relations between avian influenza and migratory birds, and the feasibility of observation of the birds.
Photo4: With Dr. Ichida
Photo5: Dr. Nakajima at lecture
At night, receptions were held by different hosts every day. The first night was co-hosted by the Chairman of this meeting, President of French Polynesia, and High Commissioner. The second night was hosted by PSA and President of French Polynesia, and the last night was a farewell party hosted by PSA with performance of charming Tahitian and Polynesian dances.