and cherry blossoms and other flowers representing this long-awaited season in the state dining room. there will be crystals that represent rain it won't take long to think about to that if you were out at all this weekend, saturday night especially. but it's a welcoming, not just of our visitors, but our visitors to spring and how much japan has brought us and how much we look forward to spring and the cherry orchards -- cherry blossoms. with that -- [ inaudible ] >> just to brief on some of the objectives of the visit some of you may have seen the preview of this the other day. first of all this is the first such visit from a japanese prime minister here to the united states in nearly a decade,

including a state dinner. president obama was able to visit japan and be hosted on a state visit last year and meet with prime minister abe. we believe that the u.s.-japan alliance is the cornerstone of our engagement with the asia pacific region. the president has made it a focal point of his foreign policy. making sure the u.s.-japan alliance is a key focus. i think it's a testament to how far our two countries have come. our ability to reconcile and also develop an appreciation for our shared democratic values. all of that, i think will be on display over the next couple days. the leaders will be focused on a number of important issues. on our defense and security cooperations and appliance

right now there's a meeting taking place between our foreign and defense ministers that is focusing on how to update our defense guidelines. we are welcoming japan's increased role in the alliance. and really see this as a critical, if not historic moment in terms of moving forward with the modernization of our security partnership. economically the u.s. and japan are enormous trading partners, and we're currently negotiating the transpacific partnership agreement with ten otherinations to unlock even greater growth and job creation for the u.s. and japan and other countries in the asia pacific region. that will be a focus. but also, we'll be looking across the whole relationship, how we cooperate in the asia pacific region, whether the people between our countries and importantly the first lady was able to visit japan recently had a very good visit with mrs. abe, where they discussed, among

other things, our shared commitment to the education of women and girls. and the things that the u.s. and japan can do together, but also in support of international girls education, our peace corps is the united states is cooperating with their japanese counterpart and it's something the first lady will continue to work on with mrs. abe. so it's going to be an important and substantial visit from the prime minister, but there are many other important elements that we'll be hearing from now that i think will resonate with the japanese american public and is really a testimony to how much we value this friendship and partnership. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen, we are awaiting spring so the culinary side of our state dinner, we're actually celebrating spring. so for the first course, we are

doing a very classic american caesar salad, with a japanese fruit. this particular caesar salad has a japanese traditional way of wrapping gifts. so between the chef and his team the white house culinary team that would it would be a nuance and combination of both cuisines. if you want to take a look, it's a gorgeous plate. the one thing about this plate we actual went to the garden at 8:00 this morning, grabbing all of the radishes that were out there. so we're using about two bags of the radishes that were planted by schoolchildren from around the country a couple weeks ago with the first lady. for the main course, we are highlighting beef and accenting this as well with some local vegetables and some of our kind of not so local vegetables because we want to highlight things from california as well.

and then for some of our canapes, we're highlighting oysters and cheeses from vermont. so there's a lot of things that we want to celebrate, which is spring. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. i wanted to present to you today we have a silk and custard cake and it is on the new president and mrs. obama's dessert plate. it's a healthy version of a silken tofu cheesecake american style with seasonal berries and petite pillows that are here with the pet foreplatter here. hand crafted sugar blown tea pot and surrounded with the cherry

blossom pink blossom to celebrate cherry blossoms and the arrival of spring. the pettifores on the tray are a tea cup. we have strawberry tea squares and sweet tea cup and tea and lemon tea cake. so thank you very much. have a great day. >> doesn't seem fair to come up here after the chefs bear two beautiful gifts for you. our beverage service this evening is traditional american wines. but we have an unusual accent. when the president was in japan prime minister abe toasted him in conversations that followed, references were made that in the prime minister's prefecture there are excellent saki

breweries there. the president thought he would bring saki in from one of the finest saki breweries in that home area, and we serve that as the toast for this evening. that's a personalized touch. the saki name comes from the fact that in saki brewing you take the rice and you refine the whole of the rice down to the center to bring out the starches which are the fermentable parts. this is down to 23%, basically 67% of the right is hulled off to give you this pure essence. it's a gorgeous saki. we'll be serving that as the toast this evening. the wines that we have are very nice. the white wine is a winery out of sonoma. the one that follows is from a jpss lady from tokyo, as an exchange student, fell in love got married doing her masters at stanford.

visited wineries when they went overseas, came back and wanted to purchase land in sonoma. and so they did. akito was fascinated with the process. and over the years, taught herself to be a wine maker. and we'll be serving her wine, cool breeze, signifying the sonoma coast. pinot noir, which we worked with in conjunction of the guest chef's restaurant, the wagu beef, pinot noir out of napa valley. a succulent rich, pinot noir. and following with a dessert court, a sparkling wine which will help with the intensity of the desert and then the entertainment this evening so

thank you. >> white house curator. >> good morning, everyone. you're seeing here what will be unveiled for dinner tomorrow night, first official use of the obama state china service. it consists of 11 pieces of the design elements were designed to draw a modern aesthetic to a new china. while continuing to draw on historic and traditional elements. so we have the service plate at the center then the coat of arms of the president of the united states. that appears on the first plate that you'll see. that's how the table is set when the guests arrive. and it will be on the last course which is this third plate. so the start and the end of a presidential dinner starts with the presidential symbol. in between, there's a new color

that was created for this particular service. it's been dubbed blue in honor of the waters off the president os home in hawaii. it's a modern and fresh color not previously seen on state chinas. but the main goal was to create a modern service that is completely compatible and interchangeable and useable with all the historic china services. so that appears on most of the pieces. the one exception is the dinner plate at the far right. this is an attempt to get the modern with the historic. so this decoration is in fact based on this pattern, which is an 1806 french-made china service that was purchased by james and dolly madison before becoming president of the united states. and so it's a remarkably modern pattern for 200-something years ago, but it turned into this

relief element which is seen on the individual terrine which is a form that's never before been in a white house china's service, with specially designed, to compensate between the first ladyes staff and the resident's staff for what makes for good food service and interesting entertaining. can be used for soups and desserts and any other dish that the chefs get creative and decide they would like to serve with some panache in an individual serving size. so thanks very much. >> bit of a preview of tonight's white house state dinner for japanese prime minister shinzo abe and his wife. and we apologize to those of you who may be a bit hungry at this hour. the guests are arriving now at the white house. it's the book sellers area at the white house. you'll see guests arriving, some

members of congress and other celebrities as well. the president and fled will welcome the abes to the north port co-of the white house that's scheduled for 7:00 eastern. you'll see it live here on c-span3, although it may be running a little bit late. [ inaudible ] >> hi, how are you? >> hey. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good, good. i will once it's over. right now, it's just all the work but i will feel nostalgic

probably around 11:00 tonight. thank you. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

[ inaudible ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [ indiscernible ] >> well i'm pleased to say i'm a friend of president obama's. been a long-time friend and supporter. and pleased to work with him on a number of important issues. >> is this your first state dinner? >> it is. it is.

>> what's your impression so far? >> well, first of all, i'm honored to be here in the white house. grateful to have been invited by the president here a number of times. i'm really looking forward to it. thank you. [ introduction inaudible ] ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> mr. nokamura. ♪ ♪

[ [ inaudible ] ♪ ♪ ♪ mr. jahito. ♪

♪ mr. and mrs. ochito. mr. hideshi tokuchi. mr. dadarhik ochlto nishikori. mr. ksao sakomoto.

dr. gayle and dr. stephen king. ♪ >> . >> ♪ the honorable walter mondale. ♪

>> what number dinner is this? it's not a problem. >> mr. shane smith, mrs. tamika smith. ♪ >> the honorable conrad kennedy and edwin schlossberg.

mr. nicholas and mr. michael propetus. [ inaudible ] ♪ >> mr. keith and mrs. hutimoto. mr. john trapp mrs. amy trapp.

[ inaudible ] ♪ [ inaudible ] ♪

mr. hirosh ichlti nisu. [ inaudible ] ♪

[ inaudible ]. miss elizabeth holmes and mr. christopher holmes the v.

♪ it's an honor and a privilege to be here. i'm not in a position to do that but i think we're in an incredible position in this country to be able to continue leveraging what we do so amazingly well which is technology and inknownovation and applying it to solve policy issues which is something we're working really hard on on our end. [ inaudible ].

>> how many? i think i've lost count. this is an important one. ♪ the honorable hiron ochlto. [ inaudible ]. mr. rob porter.

ellen and matt baum. ♪ mr. pendlerob and mrs. mrs. mrs. mrs. pendlerob. mr. bob cheever, mrs. patricia kiefer.