Zing! Love at first sight! How many of you experienced this rather breath-taking moment? People tell me their heart starts pounding! All of a sudden, their knees are wobbly. Do you believe in love at first sight? Please raise your hands if you do?

Contest Chair, Fellow Toastmasters, Honorable Judges, Distinguished Guests!

Wow! There are so many skeptics here today, but after you hear my story, I am sure you will all believe in the power of love at first sight.

YES! I’m a firm believer of love at first sight, but mind you, NOT SEX at first sight! I wouldn’t be standing here if my Japanese-American father, Fred Toshio Sado, had not fallen in love at first sight with my Japanese mother! Where did this miracle take place? In the elevator of the GHQ building during the US Occupation Forces in 1946 when my Dad was an interpreter under Gen. MacArthur! This is no fairy tale but a true love story!

My mother had only told her name, Chieko Akaishi, to my father and said her family ran a restaurant near Ginza! It took Dad 6 months to search every restaurant throughout Ginza and Tsukiji to find the woman of his dreams. After he located the restaurant, he immediately proposed to her mother. In those days you asked the parents first. Until the wedding day in 1947, everyday he visited her whole family; then, the big bang took place! I was conceived and born a year later in Jan. 1948. Dad said it was truly a miracle that Mom, who was so beautiful, married him despite his balding head.

Love at first sight is pure power, teaching us never to give up. Former Breakfast Club president, Irene Warner’s father experienced this when he saw through the whirling door of a hotel in Ginza, a tall, vivacious figure in a flowery dress. She zipped through. “Wow,” he said, “that is going to be a major challenge!” The tall Japanese woman left with an American lady. They reappeared and after she left, he asked the American. “Oh, That’s Dr. Makiyama from the clinic around the corner.

Dr. Warner told me that his heart would not stop beating. He had to sit down and think of a strategy how he could capture the heart of this woman. Finally, he asked the American lady to introduce Dr. Makiyama to him because he needed some medical information. Of course, this was just an excuse. They met and most importantly he got the address of the clinic. Dr. Warner wrote almost everyday to her until his return to Japan. After taking her out to see a Japanese chambara samurai film, instead of a romantic film, because he loved kendo, they had dinner. Over dessert, he popped the big question, “Would you marry me, although I only have one leg?”

“I remember her being stunned by this gaijin devouring 4 scoops of ice cream and proposing.” She accepted after a year of courting. Because of her warm, loving encouragement, he reached the rank of 7th dan in kendo in spite of his artificial limb. Even at 91 years old, he is still madly in love with her. All of you are thinking that love at first sight only takes place with the older generations or in Hollywood films. Actually it happened to someone here.

There was a boy, who fell in love at first sight with his classmate going to an international school in Tokyo. He was invited to the birthday party of this plump, angelic girl when he was 10 and 11, the only boy from class. He was thrilled. They were classmates for 5 years and played together, but at 12, he left for Iran with his family, never to see this girl again ~ until 33 years later.

His beloved first love’s name was called out at a meeting held on St. Patrick’s Day in 1992 at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Ann Sado, Ann Sado. He rushed up and introduced himself. It took him 6 months later to finally trace her and ask her out, because she had left the company on the business card they exchanged. They started dating and on Halloween night, Makoto Honjo proposed to her. He could not believe that he was reunited with his first love in grade school, his Becky Thatcher from Mark Twain’s novel, especially since he had lost his first wife to cancer. Love at first sight is truly a gift of miracle, as long as one never gives up.

Now can you all believe that love at first sight is an inspiration that takes place at any age!? The spirit of Love in action never gives up. Zing! Who’s next!?