Notes on Japan

I have finally found a good summary of the Japanese attitude toward the North Korean nuclear issue. Monday, the International Crisis Group released a report, “Japan and North Korea: Bones of Contention”. With Japan having an important role as participant in, and even original proponent of, the six party talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament, I highly recommend the report to anybody curious about Japan or North Korea... [More]

We continued around the expo, but never did get to the Japanese pavilion. We did see the Prince, and I caught this picture of him moving between pavilions in Europe. He seemed very comfortable in his role. For our own taste of VIP treatment, a friend working a the expo set us up with passes to skip the lines at the German and French pavilions. The Germans built a mini ride inside their pavilion. The French had a completely incomprehensible pavilion... [More]

Passengers going to Aichi Expo aboard the Linimo, a new train built for the expo, suffered an additional delay this morning. A little after 10:15am, the Linimo suddenly stopped just before the expo station. It started moving again, and then overshot the station. The driver then took the controls off automatic, and manually backed the train into the station... [More]

Continuing our tour of Aichi Expo, we considered a stop at the Japanese pavilion. From the gourd shaped road looping the expo, you could look down on the Japanese pavilion. In fact, many people were doing just that. Maybe there were three or four hundred of them leaning up against the railing, watching the pavilion’s back entrance... [More]

Walking from the Australia pavilion to explore its neighbors at the Aichi expo, we spotted three men in tight pink suits with hair that looked like it was trying to phone home. They broke into song, a cappella, and approached one of the women in our group. Of all of the expo visitors in sight, she was the only non-Asian woman, and she probably stood out as most likely to survive their attentions... [More]

Once inside we headed directly to the Hitachi and Toyota Pavilions, rumored to be the most interesting at the expo. The more popular pavilions had a time reservation system where you could go there to pick up a reservation ticket, and then return at the time of your reservation and stand in a shorter line. Hitachi and Toyota were next to each other, and not far from the entrance... [More]

Aichi Expo is a world’s fair with an environmental theme. It is being held this summer, just outside Nagoya. I had been debating whether or not to go, which seems a crime being already in Japan. But it was reported crowded, and Nagoya’s hotels were booked solid... [More]

It was long in the coming, but the site has finally had a major cleaning, and I am posting new notes. Those looking for the old content can still find most of it tucked away on the exact same pages as before... [More]