This is my new son, Joe. He was born on January 20th. I will be getting back to the blog soon enough. In the meantime, visit any of my blogroll sites. They are hand picked for fascinating topics! XD

See you all again soon!

Technorati Tags: babies, baby, non-japan, parenting, personal

Yes, it will take a very long time. This is the reason I want to vote for it now. Think in the long view. If our parents had thought of this, like their Japanese counter parts had (the first 新幹線 (Shinkansen) in Japan was in the 60s!!!), we too would have something to boast about on the world scale. Japan currently sells bullet trains to Taiwan.

I personally see this less as a budget/population issue, and more an issue of dreams… and not short term dreams, but long term dreams. The US is so caught up in instant gratification, I’d be willing to bet this would fail even in good economic times.

The Golden Gate Bridge was another project that people thought would be too much money, or would hurt the local economy due to making unfair competition for the ferries. But, in the end, it became an enduring symbol of our state.

I think this is very much the same thing. Yes, I think it is cool. But, I also think that if we don’t do it now, it may never happen in our lifetime. We are all wired into a survival trip now. I’d be willing to bet many people, not my readers of course, but some people don’t think we’ll be around in 30 years, or our way of life will be vastly different. Hunting and gathering, perhaps. But, then again, Dr. Thompson wrote that line about the survival trip in 1971.

And here we are without flying cars, jet packs, underwater cities, or a stinking bullet train for christ’s sake.

Technorati Tags: ballot measures, bullet trains, california, election, non-japan, politics, prop 1a, shinkansen, state measures, transportation, trians, 新幹線

So yesterday when I was at Target, there I was, freaking out and yelling, “WTF?! Why is Domo-kun all over this Target?!”

Well, turns out that Domo-kun (Called simple “Domo” in the ads) is the image character for Target’s Halloween stuff. If you go to the Target website, they have a little Domo skit. Don’t miss the making of either! Goda-san has one frame where they are animating the Target dog and he has this look like, “Seriously?”

I dunno, I love seeing Japanese characters invade and take over, but it just leaves me pining for Japan even more. Oh Target, why do you mess with my heart so. I guess I just have to go buy all of their Domo-kun goods to fill that void…

Technorati Tags: advertising, america, animation, anime, cartoons, domo, domo-kun, Halloween, invasion, Japan in America, non-japan, Target, Tsuneo Goda

Here will lie random pieces of Japan that I need to share with the English speaking world.

If you are looking for the opposite, my musings in Japanese, please go visit my Ameblo.

In any case, stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: blogs, non-japan, obligatory