Wikked Smot, did ya graduate from You-Ahh-Eye? Not for nuthin but why dont you treat yourself to a nice suppa on "The Hill"
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My Fair Lady was my favorite album for about 4 years sometime in the 60's. I still know every word to every song. But I digress. Here is where you will find me for the next few days. Yesterday's move took 13 hours. I want pity.
We are trading the clear view of Tokyo Bay for a more obstructed one but still pleasant. Tomorrow I am moving on base to a much bigger house with a yard for Lucky. We asked for the house on the hill. I feel we will have the bonus of a good leg workout every time we come home and we are far away from everyone else.
Mop Heads East had a going away brunch for Tressa this morning. This is our entire staff ( I know she looks young but good shampoo girls are hard to come by). I think we are a great group and work well together. They may say something else but not to my face.
There are a few things that bring Lucky's masculinity into question; he worked in a hair salon, he is very attached to his mother and he and Tony Bennett were found in some, shall we say, odd circumstances. Not to mention that operation he had in 2001. So you can imagine my delight at his reaction yesterday when I introduced him to Mikki chan a very cute little Hawaiian girl. He did play hard to get but then when that shifty eyed dachshund showed up Lucky chased him right out of their play house.
Mike would be proud.
FDR felt the American people needed reassurance that the billion dollars appropriated for the "Manhattan Project" was a good investment so he decided America would drop the Atomic bomb on somebody. Germany was eliminated as a target because he felt Germans could figure out the technology and use it against us so....Japan. Four cities were nominated as targets, Hiroshima was not in the initial four, Kyoto and Yokohama were.
Hiroshima was a major military instillation. The city was preparing for air strikes and mobilized junior high school students to dismantle the homes around the munitions area, they were afraid of fires blowing up the ammunition. So on August 6, 1945 there were thousands of 10-14 year olds at ground zero. The stories are gut wrenching and I will not force you to read them. However most of these burned, radiated children found their way home to die the next day. Everything at the memorial speaks of the unquenchable thirst the victims experienced and there is a fountain flowing "for the thirst of the victims".
While Katie and I toured around there was a funk band playing on the grounds of the memorial at ground zero. The song we heard was "Sesame Street". At first I was annoyed and felt that they disturbed the solemnity of the park. Then I realized that IS Hiroshima today. Hiroshima is a bright, vibrant alive city that speaks continuously of peace. They are very proud of their major league baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp. The specialty food there is Okonomyake. One chef I encountered in Hiroshima seemed to tolerate me because he had to.
Yesterday we went to Chinatown in Yokohama. Chinese chefs coming to work in Yokohama's Chinatown have to go through a "retraining" program because Japanese people only like Japanese style Chinese food. My Japanese friends add mustard and vinegar to all Chinese dishes.
Shards of blue and white pottery wash up on the beaches in Zushi and Kamakura. This has been attributed to people in China throwing their dishes into the ocean, ancient ships using pottery for ballast and..... fill in the blank with your own ideas. I am enchanted by this magical blue and white treasure that occurs only on these beaches. Lucky and I comb the beach at least once a week and today Katie proved to be a skilled hunter. She also touched the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
Tokyo seems to have survived the onslaught of the Hylton/McCarten women. Trisha celebrated her quarter century with a six course dinner in a private dining room at a Tokyo hotel. Lauren got a two hour haircut from an attentive Harajuku boy and Kathleen got to know three remarkable and special women. We saw a performance by a 16 year old Maiko (Geisha in training), trawled the Tsukiji fish market, were reprimanded for sushi eating practices by a stern chef, learned the Tokyo Metro by heart and got photographed with sumo wrestlers. Despite all this I am sure that what Mel will remember most is "we almost missed the bus to the airport"
