Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte stand next to a stuffed Philippine eagle during the naming of eagle ceremony in Davao city in southern island of Mindnao on January 13, 2017.
Abe arrived in the Philippines on January 12, becoming the first foreign leader to visit since President Rodrigo Duterte took office last year and launched his deadly war on crime. AFP PHOTO
DAVAO CITY – Durian is oishi (delicious) but it stinks.
This was what students of the Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku (MKD) told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie, during the couple’s visit to the Japanese-language school here on Friday.
Abe was seen playfully covering his nose with his finger as he was shown a slide picture of durian, the city’s official fruit, during a 10-minute interaction with some 25 MKD junior and senior college students inside the school’s audiovisual room.
Prior to his visit to MKD, Abe sampled durian and other local fruits in the presence of Duterte and other officials after the naming of a Philippine Eagle at the Waterfront Hotel here as part of honoring him.
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READ: Abe thanks Duterte for naming PH eagle in his honor
The durian eating was recorded on video by Radio TV Malacañang.
The Prime Minister did not publicly show any dislike for the so-called King of Fruits, which he tasted after having some pink pomelos, but his brows were visibly raised as he was chewing on it.
A Japanese teacher later explained that Japanese people love to eat delicious food but would shy away from stinky or pungent ones.
The students were actually demonstrating their fluency in both reading and writing in Japanese, using the Kanji method.
One slide showed calamares or fried squid, a Japanese favorite, to which Abe nodded affirmatively.
But laughter filled the room – with Abe and his wife laughing along – when a student stood up as a slide of Japanese artist Kosaka Daimaou, who came to fame via the PPAP (pen-pineapple-apple-pen) song, was shown, and she started singing the song.
In his message to the students, Abe, who was welcomed by about 1,000 pupils and students with a Japanese welcome song as he and his party arrived around 11:50 a.m., said he was very impressed at their grasp of the Japanese language.
“Kanji is really difficult to learn but you learned it,” he said.
He said their knowledge in Japanese language and culture could further strengthen the ties between Japan and the Philippines.
“Become the bridge between our two countries,” he said.
Abe then broke protocol when he shook the hands of the students before leaving for the airport.
“It was really unexpected, we were told there would be no handshakes with him,” Dafny Jolo, a junior college student, whose grandmother was half-Japanese, said.
Pio Pimentel, another junior college student taking up Japanese language as a major, said he was thrilled by the fact that Abe went out of his way to personally interact with them.
“Of course, we were overjoyed,” Pimentel, born of Filipino parents, said.
Shobee Tejada, another junior college student, said she was inspired by what Abe told them and that she would strive harder so that she would finish college at MKD, a school for both descendants of Japanese citizens and Filipinos founded by a visiting Japanese social worker, the late Ayako Honda–Uchida, in 2001.
“He was very fatherly especially when he told us to make good in our studies so that one day, we will have Japan-related jobs,” she said.
Tejada said the experience with Abe was overwhelming that she could not describe how she felt, especially when he shook her hand.
Asked about one of the slides that showed durian, another student who did not give her name confirmed that Japanese people did not like the fruit.
“Kusai (too pungent),” she said.
It was perhaps the same reason why Abe was not served the fruit that the city’s is known for.
“Nope,” Presidential Management Staff chief Christopher Lawrence Go said when asked if Abe and his party had durian when President Duterte hosted breakfast for him and the Japanese delegation.
Go said Abe served Filipino favorites during breakfast at Duterte’s house on Doña Luisa Subd. here on Friday.
“Biko, suman, kutsinta and mongo soup,” he said when asked what the Prime Minister had.
READ: Japan’s Abe, Duterte have breakfast in President’s Davao home
Go said Duterte also showed Abe his bedroom and his mosquito net.
“Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe inside the simple home of Pres. Duterte. We also showed him how the President enjoys the comfort of his own bed, including his old and favorite mosquito net,” Go also said in a Facebook post.
The President had said he can’t sleep without his mosquito net even if he was staying in hotels.
Go said the Prime Minister and his party spent 45 minutes in Duterte’s house before the two leaders proceeded to Waterfront Hotel in Lanang, where they met with businessmen.
A Philippine Eagle was also named Sakura in honor of the visiting Prime Minister, the first head of state to visit Davao.
Abe was also the first head of state to visit the country after Duterte won the presidency.