Clint Eastwood came in late 2008 to accept a similar award from the Japanese Department. They screened his film 'Letters From Iwo Jima' at the Pacific Film Archive. Berkeley is essentially the center of East Asian studies on the West Coast, it's not like Miyazaki is stopping by a random place in the bay area, he's accepting an award from a distinguished group of scholars and attending a screening of his new film. I lucked out because I'm a student at the school and I'm living here over the summer, so tickets were a cinch to get!