The gala was held in Tokyo—and that Tokyo is a subtropical island out in the Kuroshio current. Hachijojima is administratively part of Tokyo without qualification, yet it lies about 290 kilometers south of the mainland, roughly 55 minutes by air from Haneda or an overnight crossing by passenger ship. For a delegate, the word Tokyo comes apart and goes back together differently.
The passenger lounge at Kaminato (Sokodo) Port is a modern room at the island's front door. Beyond its wide windows lie clear water and the low ridgeline of Hachijo-Fuji (Nishiyama), the island's landmark. By day it is a working port where boats and people come and go; at night the lights come down and it turns into a reception room with the smell of salt and the sound of the surf behind it. The set is the island itself, and no city ballroom can order that in.
The point is that the difficulty of getting here is the value. Not everyone can be brought this far, so the delegates who are know they were chosen. Add the seafood of the Kuroshio, the island's shochu and its shima-uta songs, and the evening becomes the night away from everything that an incentive program wants at its peak. Set against a standard city gala, nothing draws a sharper line.