"He took off his tie and said it was a new look, so I sent him two aloha shirts as a farewell gift. If you see him in one on TV you know it will be a Hawaiian label," Inouye chuckled.
That kind of gentle joking and camaraderie is typical of those two septuagenarian warriors. Their lives have unfolded in strangely parallel fashion, Dan Inouye in the Territory of Hawaii and Bob Dole in Russell, Kan., both infantrymen fighting in Italy in World War II.
"He was wounded on April 14 and I had my last battle on April 21," Inouye recounted last week.
Dole and Inouye, both lieutenants, were moved to Percy Jones Rehabilitation Hospital in Battle Creek, Mich.
"When I first met him he was very thin and in a wheelchair, but like most macho men, and I consider Bob Dole to be macho, he is embarrassed to show pain. Even if it hurts like hell he wouldn't go around like a crybaby.
"If he took off his shirt you would see that his right shoulder was smashed and he was shot in the back. His back and abdomen are all just scar tissue."
Inouye, who lost his right arm and was also shot in the stomach and leg, called his wounds "minor" compare to Dole's.
While Inouye would leave within a year, Dole spent four years in rehabilitation. While together, they played cards together and talked about what they wanted.
Inouye said both he and Dole had wanted to be doctors before their wounds. Independently both decided to become lawyers and get involved in politics.
Inouye eventually become a deputy prosecutor, Dole a county attorney. Inouye served in the territorial legislature, while Dole did the same in the Kansas legislature. By 1959 Inouye was in Congress. Dole followed a year later. In 1962 Inouye moved to the Senate, with Dole coming over in 1968.
There they have served on the opposite sides of the aisle, Inouye the liberal Democrat, Dole the conservative Republican.
Through the years, Inouye said, they also shared the same "strange, hunted look that infantrymen have."
"At least until my eyes soften," Inouye said.
They still share the Washington love of the deal, getting an agreement and moving legislation.
As Robert W. Merry, executive editor of Congressional Quarterly, said, "Dole is motivated first and foremost by the thrill of the legislative game, the challenge of turning bills into laws."
INOUYE has the same appreciation for the art of politics.
"Any day I can get 60 percent, I'll take it. I know I can come back for another 10 percent the next year and by the fourth year I may get it all."
That understanding of politics made Inouye and Dole masters of the game.
"I think he would be a reasonable president," Inouye said.
As he describes Dole, Inouye almost draws a self portrait, talking of his colleague as "realistic, pragmatic and flexible."
With Dole gone, the Senate, the ultimate insider club, will be a bit less reasonable, a bit more brash and a place where it is bit more difficult to practice the art of politics.