A contingent of government and business leaders from Indiana and Clinton County just returned from a trip to Japan, where they met with current and potential industries for our area. They've done this before and always come back with a rah-rah sense of excitement about the economic possibilities from Japanese-based companies.

This time around, I was excited about what they were taking with them just as much as what they were bringing back.

At the beginning of this year, I worked with the Clinton County Economic Development Corporation on a brochure and trade show booth for the Quadra Initiative, a program to bring economic development, energy independence, environmental sustainability, and educational opportunity to the area. Last month, we had that brochure translated into Japanese, and this month, it went to Japan with them.

I don't know if my work has been translated into Japanese before, so I thought this was pretty neat.