For someone who is sixteen; seventeen years ago is the far distant dark ages before the beginnings of time.  For me, it's the other way around.  It doesn't seem like enough has happened over the past seventeen years for things to have changed very much .....

I posted here about my trip to Hiroshima last year and someone asked about pictures.  I replied that I was working on it and would let you know when I finished.  It's taken me a year(!), but I finally got up a page of photos and text about Hiroshima:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgc/Hiroshima01a.html

I just got through watching the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics (about three hours worth).  They were pretty interesting... with lots of fireworks and cultural scenes, music, etc.  And then the athletes were introduced at the stadium.  It was the usual deal with them parading out in different uniforms/costumes, and waving to the crowd.  I was watching absentmindedly when I noticed that one of the athletes was videotaping the stadium with their left hand while waving with their right!  And then there was another - and another! .....

Watching yet another Nintendo Wii advertisement on the train this morning (one of the two over-door displays runs soundless TV advertising - along with made-for-the-train ads), I contemplated scenes of people standing on a board, playing virtual soccer, walking a virtual tightrope, balancing virtual this or virtual that - and it occurred to me that people are basically giving their bodies & minds defective programming. .....

The Shinkansen train system in Japan - for a long time, known only as "the bullet train" - is finally beginning to be known by it's proper name "Shinkansen".  The name itself is better sounding than it's translation - "new main/trunk line". .....

My first job in Japan, back in 1984, was at a company that had a small office in Ebisu.  I have fairly vivid memories of walking down the street on my way to the company (strangely, not going back to the station - I suppose the fact that it was more difficult to find the company than the station produced increased concentration and thus stronger memories), .....

My most recent post to YouTube is a video composed of many clips taken one morning between about 5:30 a.m. and 7:50 a.m., starting with the Yamanote Line in Shibuya, and then going up to Ikebukuro, where I changed to the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line and rode out to Tokorozawa (by mistake - I fell asleep on the train), and then back to Hibarigaoka, then to Shakujikoen, and finally back to Hibarigaoka.

This video picks up exactly where "night before The Train" leaves off .....

There have been some reports in Japan concerning falling sales for the weekly manga magazines, with interviews with long-time readers who say they think the quality has dropped, causing them to lose interest in the publications.  What with the time lag in local trends crossing oceans .....

On Friday, after walking from Shinbashi Station up through Ginza and over to Yurakucho, I stopped by a "stand-bar" (cheap place to buy suds, where you stand - sometimes on the sidewalk - while you drink, thus "stand" bar) near Yurakucho Station, had a drink, and - looking at the old brickwork of the elevated railbed - pondered someone putting those bricks in place, one at a time.  Then, looking down the street .....

Japan's trains are generally known for three things - 1) They're crowded, 2) They're nearly always on-time, and 3) The super-express (Shinkansen) trains are fast.  Many of the trains are less crowded than before (thanks to more of them and to companies allowing flextime), but unfortunately, breaks with the schedule seem to be increasing. .....