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Touting himself as America’s “first Pacific president,” President Obama called on his own connections with Asia on Saturday as he pledged a renewed engagement with Asia Pacific nations based on “an enduring and revitalized alliance between the United States and Japan…”

Earlier, Obama told a packed house at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall that all Americans should know that what happens in Asia “has a direct effect on our lives at home.”

“This is where we engage in much of our commerce and buy many of our goods,” he said. “And this is where we can export more of our own products and create jobs back home in the process.

“This is a place where the risk of a nuclear arms race threatens the security of the wider world, and where extremists who defile a great religion plan attacks on both our continents. And there can be no solution to our energy security and our climate challenge without the rising powers and developing nations of the Asia Pacific…”

“There must be no doubt: As America’s first Pacific president, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world,” he said.

He stressed that the United States was not interested in containing the emerging economic growth in China.

“The rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations,” he said. “And so, in Beijing and beyond, we will work to deepen our strategic and economic dialogue…”

“We see it as a relationship where we’re obviously going to have differences, where we are going to be competitors in certain respects,” he said. “But we want to maximize areas where we can work together, because the global challenges will simply not be met if we don’t…”

This only requires 36-hour days, 3 clones and 4 sets of rechargeable batteries. In addition to respect for – and a willingness to understand – cultures very different from the United States.