August 2006 Archives

Festivals

Summertime. The in rural United States and especially in the Midwest, August and September are the time for county and state fairs. When we lived in Iowa I used to love going to the fairs. Here they have festivals. Parades and activities throughout the day and into the night.

There is a festival going on here now. Watched the parade with some others during the day. I don't think they enjoyed as much as I did. Maybe because they don't understand the cultural references. Maybe because they don't enjoy the traditions of life. We watched to the end and then the others wandered off to find other things to do. I chose to hang out and watch the rest of the event.

Throughout the day and into the evening families caught my eye, especially those with young children. Watching them brought back memories of my time here. Taking my children to these events. Listening to the children ask and then beg for candy, toys, the chance to play a game brought back the voices of my own children asking for the same things.

My children are older now. I some times wonder what it would have been like if we'd stayed here. How would my life be different?

Cherish the past, live in the now, anticipate the future.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

So, jet lag kept me from sleeping. At 0530 I decided to get up and get the day started. I had a 0750 airplane to check. I climbed in to the shower. Wow! Awesome shower. Water pressure that would be the envy of most fire departments. A nice shower head, it didn't do tricks, just delivered the water nicely. The tub was also deep enough that after a shower to get clean I filled the tub and soaked in nice hot water. It was wonderful. This hotel was better that any US hotel I've stay in and cheaper than the vast majority. I highly recommend Excel Hotel at Haneda Airport. Very convenient for anyone flying in or out of Haneda as the hotel is attached to the airport.

Caught my flight and landed without incident. I'm now in the local equivalent of Iowa. I'm looking forward to learning more about the area. Should be fun.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

'06 AT: Uchi Focus Lens
Day 1

Had a flight out of San Jose. Got there about three and a half hours early because of all the security warnings. Spent about two hours cooling my jets in the airport. Would have liked the extra hour of sleep but I did enjoy not having to rush or worry and stress about missing my flight.

I always forget how much I hate the flight to Japan. It is way too long to spend bottled up in a small tube 36,000 feet above the water. I sat next to a wonderful young lady named Stephanie. She was headed to Japan to begin her college education at Temple University's Tokyo campus. Her major is Asian Studies which was also my major. We talked quite a bit. I had two young children sitting behind me, one of whom talked loud and long. I got no sleep on the flight.

Arrived without incident. Got through immigration and customs in a record 30 minutes. Jumped the bus to the domestic airport. Checked into my hotel and then went back out to take what I thought would be a short sight seeing trip to the city where I used to live. It was a lot farther away than I thought. Wow! Got down there and had a short walk about. The apartment is still there, exactly the same as when I lived there. The bar that I spent way too much time in has changed hands. I didn't go in. Looks the same on the outside. Very different on the inside. Dealt with a flood of memories. I would have really liked to go around and see more of the area. Someday I'd like to come back and spend a few days there.

I had planned to spend about 4 hours. It ended up taking six. I got back to my hotel at midnight. I was really tired so I thought I would fall fast asleep. In fact, I was worried that I would sleep through the alarm and miss my flight. Unfounded fears. Jet lag kicked in. I didn't sleep a wink the whole night. This is usually the easy direction.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

This article by Frank Gaffney makes very clear the eventual outcome of efforts to cut & run in Iraq. As I've said many times in this blog, it does not matter what you think about how we got into the war we are currently fighting, we have to finish it. Nixon's exit from Vietnam was the right thing to do. Iraq is not Vietnam. In any way, shape or form. Everything that we thought was at stake in Vietnam - the proverbial domino theory - is, in fact, at stake now. Ho Chi Ming did not want to rule the world. He only wanted a Vietnam for the Vietnamese. Islamic Extremists want to rule the world.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

"The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq" (Kenneth M. Pollack)

In the Atlantic Monthly article, Pollack addresses primarily the WMD argument for going to war and the failure to turn up any WMD or even any credible weapons development program inside Iraq. I thought the WMD argument was ill conceived from the onset and I questioned the timing of the attack on Iraq. Pollack answers some of those questions. However, I think one of the most important points of the article is to remind us that while it is easy to see with 20/20 hindsight the mistakes that were made, it is much harder to look into a crystal ball and achieve the same remarkable vision.

All of this does not change the fact that Iraq needs the opportunity to rebuild its nation. The security that we provide there is important. I do not think we should simply abandon them to civil war. It is both morally wrong and a dangerous policy for a region on which the global economy is so dependent.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]