Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Japanese girl group AKB48 breezes through D.C. in whirlwind of cuteness

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/japanese-girl-group-akb4...

Dave-san

Your explanation makes perfect sense. I need to study maritime law better. There is so much I don't understand. Like salvage laws. And Japanese pop girl groups. Boy they are cute. Hey Dave, how was the show by the way ? I should stick to the stuff I know...what was that anyway...I forgot.

In the book "Shadow Divers", where they discovered the wreck of German U-boat 869 off the NJ coast in 1991, it states that the Germans still owned the boat, even though it was found in US waters, and the Germans had also lost the war. In this case it was also regarded as a burial site, an underwater tomb.

The book is by Robert Kurson, and it is fabulous. It explains deep sea diving, and is mostly about John Chatterton and Richie Kohler - really interesting. I read that there were also various films and tv shows about this particular ship and U-Boats in general.

By the way, Chatterton was diving in the Hudson really close to the World Trade Center during 9/11, but made it to safety. He wasn't exploring wrecks then, but doing his usual job of fixing stuff under water along the NYC waterfront.

Two things: there is a lovely sweet new movie called "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" - about the life and sushi-making art of a well-known Japanese chef, Jiro Ono. Really wonderful documentary, gentle, funny, interesting.

Jiro was on his own since age 7, when he was basically abandoned. At 9 he started working in a sushi restaurant kitchen, and has been making sushi ever since. He is now 85, renowned, honored. He still has his restaurant, and runs it with the help of his eldest son.

You learn all about the fish business - for example, Jiro explains that sushi used to be for special occasions. But now it's everywhere, meaning the seas are being emptied. He says some of the fish they used are no longer avaible. Young tuna are being caught instead of being left alone until they mature.

You also learn how restaurants in Japan operate, how families work, with assigned roles according to birth order and place in the family, etc.

See it if you can.

Second - Columbia U had a concert of Japanese music last night - it is called Gagaku - really beautiful dreamy stuff.From hundreds of years ago, performed in Kyoto when the court was there. Very formal, elegant, long. Flutes of various kinds, drums, some dancing. Don't think I've seen this before.

I don't think we've heard the last of this. It will be interesting to see if the owners want compensation or if they are billed for the expense of sinking a hazard to shipping and whether the Canadian salvage firm will make a claim.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-coast-guard-unleashes-cannon...

Minasama, konnchiwa

Probably, this is most beautiful Sankeien Garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTYycm1sXyc

I am saddened to hear of this sinking. Perhaps we will hear more about it but I doubt it. I understand their reasoning. After seeing the recient photos,I admitt this boat was in tough shape. However, the lack of creativity in using this vessel in some other way is disapointing. Hell, if they towed it in, I think they could easily find a bunch of guys to work on her and get it fixed up and re-commissioned. At the very least they could have studied her and
learn how this boat stayed afloat for over a year. Shortsighted and missed oppertunities. I wonder what the "owner" has to say about this. A wonderful human intrest story, wasted.
I love Daves conjecture...

BILL :
3-five inch shells @ $100 ea = $ 300
Coast Guard boat..1 Hr = $ 1000
Helecopter 2 Hrs @ $1500 = $ 3000
misc = $ 100
----------
T $ 4400

....in Walllys words..so sue me....

I read somewhere that scrap steel is selling for $250/ton. I'm guessing the scrap value of the 160 foot shrimper may not have been worth bringing in to an American harbor.
There are no docks on the West Coast that I'm aware of that are set up to this sort of work, not to mention the disposal of hazardous materials which would probably make this project a loser.
The diesel fuel on board would likely evaporate within a few days so maybe the Coast Guard's decision to sink the vessel is the right one. Having many years of dealing with the USCG in the Great Lakes bunker biz, I can testify they are extremely fussy about the environment and safe navigation.

Welcome Kelly. Your Japan adventure began just after we left. Were you at Kinnick in its final year?

Sankeien Gardens was a 20 minute walk from our house in the Sannotani neighborhood. I don't remember the buildings being open to the public except on special holidays. It's still a special place in my mind. Thanks, Kaoru san.

An article from the Peninsula Daily News (a newspaper from Port Angeles, WA which is located in the north central coast of the Olympia Peninsula in NW Washington state). I thought a perspective from the area may interest some of you.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120408/NEWS/304089986/japa...

Thanks, Lori. Of interest is also the sidebar associated with the article you linked to:

"Nuclear danger held unlikely

"COULD ANY OF the debris from the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in Japan carry radiation from the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear complex?

"The Japanese government, echoed by U.S. and Canadian officials, said the risk of radiation in the Pacific is low because most of the wreckage was pulled into the ocean 24 hours before the troubles at the nuclear plant.

"As for any subsequent radiation particles washed into the sea, it would have been very little in relation to the huge amounts of water in the ocean, Japan's Cabinet Secretariat for Ocean Policy said."

Lori-san - Thanks for the interesting news story. It will be interesting to see what does wash ashore.
Wata Geiru - Thanks for pointing out what I missed, that the US, Canadian, and Japanese governments all agree that there is little chance of nuclear radiation contamination in any of the wreckage. Even so, it won't surprise me if, before this is all over, Homeland Security will get involved and the EPA will want to monitor this and require a hazmat suit for anyone going anywhere near the Pacific Ocean. ; )
Kaoru-san - Arigato for the beautiful video of Sankeien Garden.
Peter-san - Glad you enjoyed the AKB48 story.
Steffi-san - Thanks for the information on Shadow Divers. I had had heard of U-869 and that it was considered a burial site and has become a popular diving site. I'm planning to see "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" as soon as I can thanks to your recommendation. There are a lot of trailers on the net. It looks good.
Eric-san - Good observations on the ghost fishing boat. I'm surprised it took the Coast Guard as long as it did to sink it. It looks like they are out of practice. I'm glad that wasn't a boat load of terrorists. ; )
Kelly-san - Welcome. Please tell us about your time in Yokohama.

http://www.tokyotimes.co.jp/2012/search-for-escaped-tokyo-penguin-stop...

Staff at Tokyo Sea Life Park announced they stopped searching for a penguin that escaped last month, as they failed to obtain any credible clues on the bird�fs whereabouts.
�gAlthough we believe the penguin is doing OK somewhere in a river near Tokyo Bay, we don�ft know what else to do after nearly a month of searching,�h said a representative of the park.
The penguin may have moved to an area away from the park, which makes it more difficult for the search operation, as Tokyo Bay is rather big, the park official said.
�gWe hope to get fresh sightings in August, when the bird molts and its adult black-and-white feathers emerge because it will be easier for ordinary people to recognize it as a penguin,�h he added.
The one-year-old penguin escaped from an enclosure where it lived with 134 other penguins of the same kind, Humboldt. It apparently escalated a sheer rock twice its size.

Three cheers for the penguin!!

Now, go to you tube and search

Shopping Penguin, if you want to follow up on this .

There is a great plot here.
Penguin Escapes into Tokyo Bay and eats some
Japanese super food and comes back as..

Penjuin-zilla.

A 150 foot high monster penguin, who proceeds to trash Yokohama looking for sushi.

Send in the Air Force.

No, we don't want anyone trashing Yokohama but I'm OK with DC where there is plenty of sushi.

Sorry Dave
I was suggesting a 50's like Cartoon-type
plot. No one wants to "Trash Yokohama"especially me. I was vamping on a Godzilla type theme, remember those ?

Peter-san - I like movies with happy endings.
How about a plot where our escaped penguin, we'll call him Super Bird, flies back to the Tokyo Sea Life Park and leads the other Penguins to freedom through a secret underground tunnel that comes out in what was once the grease pit at the Navy Exchange gas station in Yokohama but is now a room in the Mycal basement. From there they escape through secret caves in Area 2 until they come out into Tokyo Bay just beyond Sankeien Garden.
Once they are free no one can catch them and they live a happy life in the bay and even learn to shop for fish in Yokohama. Soon several of them form a Penguin rock and roll band called "law fish" that becomes very popular at the Penguin Club that is opened in the former Peanut Club space on Isezakicho.

And I thought I had an active imagination !

Perhaps you should get to the patent office today.

And all..really, go see Shopping Penguin on you tube. A happy ending.

It was reported in the weekend WSJ that the very first penguin census by satellite has given the world its first accurate count of the number of emperor penguins in Antarctica.

After decades of inaccurate estimates conducted during the brief Antartic summer when the penguins are dispersed, the Quickbird and WorldView-2 satellites counted 595,000 of the black and white birds. Previously, 270,000-350,000 were thought to exist.

Here are a few fun facts about penguins:

They can dive deeper than any other birds; 1,800 feet.

Penguins breed and hatch their young during the winter period, when temps can reach 58 below zero F.

And, now that there numbers are known, the National Science Foundation, the agency that funded the survey, suggests there ought to be an open season (shotgun only) on penguins.

A daily bag limit of three would be enforced by Antartic Wildlife Rangers on snow mobiles, paid for by the UN.

OK, OK, I made that last one up...

And, the baby penguins are cared for by the Papa penguins while the Mama's go off to feed. They lose 1/2 their weight as they wait for Mama to return and take over the care of Junior.

Now - what mean person would possibly want to shoot these cute guys? Awful idea!

Today we saw - the Space Shuttle! We were sitting in out kitchen, staring out the window - and there it was! Of all the NYC sites, this is a first - see below:

http://news.yahoo.com/space-shuttle-enterprise-zooms-over-nyc-jet-1438...