準備

Sorry, but I used the word 'preparations' in the title of maybe 4 posts before I left the states, so I used the Japanese word here, instead. I have to give a presentation about American emergency management tomorrow in front of members of the Public Safety Division and the Fire Bureau. I have it completely prepared and I think it is a fairly decent presentation, but I have yet to memorize all of the vocabulary and practice my rhthym. I don't really have anything on the schedule for today, so they told me to go ahead and practice while I'm here at work.

Yesterday, as I said in an earlier post, I went to the largest recycling facility in Japan. It's not actually a plant where they melt down old plastic and cans, but simply a giant sorting facility. Residents here in Yokosuka, like pretty much everywhere else in Japan, are required by law to separate their trash into several different categories. 'Aicle' (which combines the Japanese word for love - ai - with the English 'recycle') sorts the plastic packaging, plastic bottles, aluminum and steel cans, paper, and carboard waste that are thrown out in this city everyday. It is a five storey building that can hold up to two days waste (of the specified sorts) at one time. After seeing the storage space, I was amazed at how much trash one city can accumulate in one day. And this is only a mid-sized (about 400,000) city. Wow.

Tokyo was great this weekend. I finally got around to rotating the vertical pictures so they are right-side up and labeling them. Sorry I don't have time to put more detail with the pictures, but this blog/photo gallery stuff is more time-consuming than I imagined. Well, I'll keep at it, though, whenever I have a bit of free time.

The Tokyo pictures have some interesting shots in them. I think Maiko got some better shots of the street scenes, but I got some good pics of goofy costumed kids in Harajuku on Sunday (the best day to go there). I also got a few pictures of Kiddy Land, and 6 storey toy store that has something for almost everybody.

I'm going to take it easy this weekend. Maiko's coming down from Tokyo, so I'm really excited about that. EJ and her roommate in the states are also coming down for one day, so it will be really cool to have some people from Springfield visit me here in Yokosuka!

When I get a day without rain, I promise I'll get some pictures of downtown Yokosuka.