http://blogd.com/wp Living in Japan and Commenting on Culture, Politics, News, Personal Experiences, and Hamsters. Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:27:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Sachi and I decided to take a walk today, one of those walks where you don't know exactly where you're going to go, and the point is to see what's along the way rather than what's at the end of the road. So we kind of chose a direction and ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3992 This is a huge flip-flop, and no amount of backpedaling by those on the right can make it not so. McCain, who has always said that Obama is near-traitorous for wanting to withdraw troops, now approves of Obama's timeline, but tries to waffle in ways to make it seem he's ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3986 All irrelevant nonsense about the poetic “citizen of the world” reference aside, it's hard to see Obama's Berlin speech as anything but momentous. In large part it is because of the message, both the plain message and the underlying one: while fiercely patriotic to America, the speech was also welcoming ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3984 McCain's flub about the Surge being responsible for the Anbar Awakening was bad enough, but wait until you hear his exquisitely contorted backpedaling on why he didn't misspeak--it's gotta be a prize-winner, for sure.First of all, a surge is really a counterinsurgency strategy, and it's made up of a number ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3982 In Japan, a lot of signs are in English, especially for travel. You have almost all traffic signs with English translations at the bottom, and what street signs there are usually have English as well. And virtually every train station sign has English translations, from the signs hanging from the ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3978 There is a kind of restaurant in Japan where, instead of ordering to a waiter, or ordering your food at the counter, you buy a tickets for the items of food you want, turn them in at the counter, and pick up your food. Makes sense in a way, but ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3972 We seem to be getting lots of big quakes in northern Japan. About a half hour ago, Sachi and I felt a rather strong one, which made the furniture shift a little for a few seconds, and doors creaked for a few minutes. Seemed pretty strong even here, and yet ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3966 Obama is coming across as very presidential and right on all the important issues in Iraq; Bush is now courting Obama's timeline while pretending not to, as Iraq's leadership clearly shows preference for Obama's withdrawal plans--and McCain is left to pretend to a gullible media that he knows better than ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3964 It seems to work just fine; the last three posts were made using the iPhone. You can easily sign in to your blog, get the last x-number of posts (default is 30), edit posts, and make new ones. When you make a new one, you enter the title, decide a ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3962 Mr. Iwai is with us right now, giving his lecture on his experiences in the Tokko-tai, the suicide squadrons in WWII. Mr. Iwai was an officer in this squadron who trained others to use manned torpedoes and diving suits to attck Allied vessels. Mr. Iwai is 88 years of age, ... http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3950