ASIA LETTER: President Bush and the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, will get together in a typical Tokyo tavern or izakaya for an informal bonding session in the next few days.
The two leaders will dine on home-cooked local dishes such as grilled rice balls and pork boiled with potatoes. The fare will be a far cry from the barbecue steak the badly travelled Texan-born President is normally used to.
The informal meeting will offer Mr Bush a unique chance to experience the boisterous, smoke-filled atmosphere of the inexpensive eateries which ordinary Japanese frequent on a daily basis. They are a far cry from the expensive sushi restaurants that abound in the economically depressed Japanese capital.
Bringing Mr Bush to his local will be Mr Koizumi's way of repaying the hospitality shown to him in Camp David in June last year during their first meeting. After that successful get together Mr Bush expressed high hopes for a good relationship saying: "He is the only world leader I've played catch with, with a baseball." But it won't be all food-tasting and baseball talk for Mr Bush during his six-day trip to Asia which kicked off yesterday.
It is exactly 10 years since the President's father and former US president, Mr George Bush, collapsed during a state dinner hosted by the then Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Kiichi Miyazawa, in Tokyo in January 1992. That episode was not only embarrassing, but symbolic.
Then, the US economy was battling under twin trade and fiscal deficits. Capitol Hill was fuming over Tokyo's trade barriers and Japans captains of industry still thought they had something to teach US firms about global competitiveness.
But when President Bush arrived in Tokyo yesterday, a decade after his father, it was to a reversed situation: stagnation and policy muddle for Japan, and growth and productivity for the US despite September 11th.
So, as both men tuck in at the local, Mr Bush can be forgiven for offering some stern advice to Mr Koizumi based on the US experience. He will certainly stress the need for Japan to implement significant reforms to its economy, now experiencing its third recession in a decade. Many people now doubt whether Mr Koizumi has what it takes to turn the economy around, and the optimism which accompanied his appointment in 2001 has faded.
There is huge concern in the US administration at Japan's sorry economic state and at the fact that Mr Koizumi hasn't produced much in the way of reform. This is considered not only disappointing, but also dangerous by US officials.
Mr Bush will also visit South Korea and China during his Asian tour, giving him his first chance to hear directly from nations in the region alarmed by his now infamous "axis of evil" reference to Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
He will use his visit to make the case for an expanded war against terrorism. His week will be crowded with meetings, and he plans to visit US troops in the demilitarised zone between South Korea and North Korea.
In Seoul, President Bush will reassure President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea that the US is committed to a peaceful future for the Korean peninsula in the face of South Korean concerns about the tone of his axis of evil speech.
But by no means will Mr Bush be backing off his tough rhetoric.
His national security adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, was critical of North Korea in a briefing with reporters over the weekend, accusing it of being a world supplier of ballistic missiles.
"The United States has made clear that we are going to keep our options open. Everyone at this point should be pressuring the North Koreans to stop doing what they're doing. What they're doing is very dangerous," she said.
In Beijing, Mr Bush will meet President Jiang Zemin of China, and take the measure of his possible successor, Mr Hu Jintao. No private meeting is scheduled with Mr Hu, but the White House said they may cross paths. Mr Bush will make a nationally televised speech at Beijing's Qinghua University.
Mr Bush and Mr Jiang are likely to confront prickly issues such as arms proliferation, Taiwan and the US missile defence programme. Human rights and religious freedom will also be on the agenda.Both leaders are expected to exchange reassurances that their intentions are not hostile, and will use the symbolism provided by the 30th anniversary of the ground-breaking visit to China by Richard Nixon to try to chart a long-term path to good relations.
Like Mr Nixon, Mr Bush will take the well-worn tourist trail to the Great Wall. But Mr Bush is not a man renowned for his way with words, and is unlikely to come up with a quote to rival Mr Nixon on his arrival at one of the seven wonders of the world in 1972: "Yes, it is indeed a Great Wall."