A kindly older Japanese woman then showed Obama around the twelfth-century Buddha, an austere stone monument that put midterm elections in perspective. When we got back to the helicopter, he looked out the window for a few minutes. Then he looked at me and said, “That was good to do.” “It will be the biggest story here in Japan,” I said. “I know. I know why you make me do all of this stuff on trips,” he said. “It matters to a lot of people.” We rode on in silence.
