Narita City

Narita-shi was awesome. Enjoyed a fine lunch of raman and gyoza, wandered the quaint streets of the little Japanese villiage, and did a little photo-taking at a Shinto Temple. And I have yet another stampy thingy for my passport to boot.

Japan is Texas-hot, or at least humid and hot. We managed to get through customs & immigration pretty fast, so I should have enough time to enjoy a quick shower in the business lounge before heading to catch my 10-hour flight home.

"More like Africa than America..."

The coverage of the disaster in New Orleans overseas was interesting to see. The newspapers were sympathetic, but subtlety criticized Bush policies on global warming and perhaps the connection to the intense storm season. The BBC World News used the quote above to describe the scenes of American poor black refugees wandering the city without support toting armfuls of babies.

Heartbreaking, for sure, but will Americans do any real self-analysis over this event? Given that dozens of reports on 9/11 have been published and basically no one was ever held accountable and in fact were given medals and promotions, I don't have much hope for this one either...

One note: my traveling companion pointed out that the U.S. has substantial National Guard assets: personnel, helicopters, vehicles, etc. Of course, many of them are on the other side of the world in Iraq. How do you think a National Guardsman from Louisiana is feeling right now as he is stuck in a country that never wanted us there in the first place?

Home again

Well, living my jet-setting lifestyle I had breakfast in Seoul, lunch in Narita, dinner over the Pacific, and breakfast at Alki in Seattle. I woke up at 7am and by 10am 20 hours had elapsed, so I'm working on a 34-hour day.

Koshka was pissed at the lack of services, but overwise happy to see me and get some petting. I've got a pile of laundry, a few bills, some light house-cleaning, a week's worth of recorded Daily Show, and a nap in my immediate future.