Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Did you go to the boat show today? How are the allergies down there? They are killing me up here!

Did you see the Meteor ? Watch out!..you can't afford any more blows to the head..look what happened the last time..

Hey Wally;
No boat show today. The Lake area is jam packed with the Dogwood Days parade and "Little Miss Dogwood" event. It would be nearly impossible to get around town, so I am doing some ribs on the grill along with my own stuffed mushrooms as a warmup.
We have a 26 foot three log pontoon w/ 225 Honda OB motor that will keep up with all but the fastest boats on the lake. I've had it up to 55. Any faster and I think the canvas sun top will come unglued.
Jeannie's cousin owns a 32 foot Fountain with twin 502 V-8s (500 horsepower each.) If I feel the need to really go fast, the Fountain will do it.

Dave;
The great all time wrestler from Japan has to be Rikidozan. There are some old films of him going toe to toe with several American wrestlers. He was "one of a kind."

When I was in Okinawa, 1978-80, I became a fan of Sumo Wrestling because of Takamiyama, who was as popular as a rock star in Japan. My boss was Japanese-American from Hawaii, and I went to his house to watch the championships, it was very exciting as Takamiyama was still wrestling then, and we were rooting for him, but he couldn�ft quite pull it off. He had to become a Japanese citizen to become a coach under Japanese law. I was proud that Takamiyama was an American and disappointed when he gave up his American citizenship, but I can understand why he did it--he has had a fantastic life as one of the greatest Sumo wrestlers and later as a coach.

Hello, all.

Pix of Tokyo in 1945 was published on the Mainichi newspaper's internet. These were taken by the U.S. military's soldier in 1945. His name is Clifford McCarthy . He was a photograph reconnaissance member of the air force. After the war, he was a professor of the art at the Ohio university. And, passed away in 2003 at 82 years old.

The appearance of Japan at that time might be understood though these are pictures of Tokyo. GHQ, Douglas MacArthur's car, and small submarines exhibited in Pearl Harbor can be seen.

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/graph/tokyo1945/

Kaoru

The first picture is Tokyo station.
A present Tokyo station is large congestion. The building of the station is using now.

Arigatou.

Yokohama modernized. There are many lost things thereby... Please enjoy a song. I think that positive this is a favorite of Peter-san.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piYOos-g5FQ

Thank you, Kaoru, for the link to these rare pictures taken by Clifford McCarthy. Here is a link to more information about Clifford McCarthy:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071213a4.html

Kaoru-san
Thanks for the song. It is a favorite and I watch it every so often on you-tube.
I wish I knew what all of the words ment in Japanese.
I hope you are healthy.
The cherry blossoms are in bloom in New Hampshire...along with some snow tonight.
There must be a haiku poem in there somewhere..I'll think about it..

My pleasure.

It seems to attack the cold wave. Yokohama on Friday was cold and temperature at the midwinter. It snowed in Tokyo of a few, seems to be the cold after an interval of 41 years. As a result, the traffic jam in the metropolitan area happened. Cherry blossoms of Yokohama were full-bloomed last week.
Yes, I became healthy. And, after the birthday of October last year, cigarette is not smoked. The white wine is sometimes drunk a little. Are you drinking whisky coke?

Worlds apart

But seem closer

with Cherry Blossoms in the Snow..

I thought the following was interesting:

WASHINGTON – School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.

That's not a reference to the mystery meat served up in the cafeteria line either. The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy.

A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.

The officers' group, Mission: Readiness, was appearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack......

This isn't the first time the military has gotten involved in the debate over school lunches. During World War II, military leaders had the opposite problem, reporting that many recruits were rejected because of stunted growth and inadequate nutrition. After the war, military leaders pushed Congress to establish the national school lunch program so children would grow up healthier.

The program was established in 1946, "as a measure of national security," according to the original bill language.

The current problem is obesity. American kids are consuming too much sugar.

Peter, congratulations, you're a poet! In just a few choice words, you seem to have captured exactly the seasonal thoughts you had in mind. Thank you for sharing your gift with us!

Hello Everyone. Not having known the military's involvement with school lunches, I find Steffi's article fascinating, So, early on the military decides to fatten up our kids and now wants to slim them down so they can join the military and potentially take their bodies to some foreign land from which they may or may not come home again whole in body and spirit. Hmmmm! Something to think about . . .

Maybe Peter can come up with a haiku poem for this significant topic.

So Congress can solve all our problems? They'll legislate a healthier school lunch program to replace the current federal program that is making some of our kids too fat? Seems to me that if the current federal program is the cause of the problem the solution is to get the federal government out of the school lunch program. Parents should be responsible for seeing that their children are eating healthy food. Local government, not the bureaucrats in DC, should be responsible for running schools and everything that goes with them including what's served in school cafeterias.
These old generals that are lobbying for more federal laws have already had their chance to lead and influence policy. They need to get out of the way now and let the people who are coming behind them set policy for solving the problems they didn't solve on their watch. Here's the web site for this misguided group. http://www.missionreadiness.org/
I question why we needed to address a problem in 1946 that didn't prevent us from successfully waging WWII in 1941-45 and I question why we need a federal program to slim down 27% of our kids when the other 63% are doing fine.

My youngest daughter, Katie, ran in and completed the Boston Marathon last Monday. I am really proud of her.

Dave;

Totally agree with your suggestion on who ought to be in charge of kid's food. Parents are the utimate authority but, since LBJ, government at various levels has assumed the obligation and the result has not been good for society.

Corn fructose, combined with lack of exercise has been identified as the number one cause of childhood obesity. This stuff is in nearly every food product. Again, if parents took their obligations seriously, kids' food wouldn't come from a can or cardboard box.

Todays Haiku

The Samuri looked at the sumo
and wondered..
is he too fat to fight..
is it
the rice bowl..or the sword..