Braces Off

Oh what a happy girl! Akemi got her braces off today after about 14 months of treatment. I remember that feeling. She was totally psyched because she didn't expect them to come off so soon. She goes back to the orthodontist tomorrow for her retainer.

The Milgram Experiment

Not to dwell on that 'Law & Order' episode, but I looked up something on Wikipedia about the basis for that episode. Robin William's character based his actions on an actual famous experiment that was conducted by a Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram, in the 1960s which observed how far human subjects would go in harming another person when instructed to do so by an authority figure (who in this case, was the researcher conducting the experiment). He found that the majority of people tested would continue to torture (via electro-shock) another person, despite their better judgement, at the command of the researcher. The experiment was prompted by the Nazi war crime trials, in which Eichmann and his minions claimed that they were "just following orders" in carrying out the Holocaust. That's a pretty scary thought when you think about how any of us, when put in that position, may carry out reprehensible acts of evil at the command of another. I can totally see the possibility of that from my own 11 1/2 years of military experience - and I was only a dental officer!! Hey, anybody remember Abu Ghraib?

Here's more details, directly from Wiki, on how the experiment was conducted:


"The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what the subject believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate. The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks, but in reality there were no shocks. Being separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level."

It's funny that I am just now learning about this, because there was also mention of it in that "Enron" movie I watched the other day. You learn something new everyday! Incidentally, one of the opening scenes from "Ghostbusters" shows Bill Murray's character conducting a derivative of this experiment (in an attempt to impress a girl!).

Leaving Kanazawa

So here's pics from our last day in Kanazawa as we departed. That's a view of Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen (bullet train). I'll be really sad when I run out of photos to post from my last days in Japan. Maybe it will bring some closure to that chapter of my life as I try to accept the reality of living back in the U.S.

Law and Order

So I took a nap earlier this evening and awoke to that familiar theme song from 'Law & Order'. Now, I know that it's a popular show, but I have never watched an entire episode until tonight. I was still kind of groggy and a captive audience, so I watched it because it guest-starred Robin Williams. He was sort of a brilliant, conniving audio technician who manipulated people to do things that were either illegal or socially-deviant to prove a point that we are all conformist sheep controlled by the system. I don't know if this sort of plot is typical for this show, but it was really interesting, though a little derivative of some of his previous characters and plot twists, e.g. 'Good Will Hunting', 'One Hour Photo', and 'The Fisher King'. He mysteriously escaped arrest at the end of the episode via a bomb explosion, so maybe he'll return in later episodes as a recurrent arch-villian sort of character. Maybe he'll have a super-villian costume on next time. An odd episode, but captivating. That reminds me -- I recommend "Mystery Men" with Ben Stiller if you haven't already seen it. I love that movie; it's so ridiculous but entertaining. You can catch it almost every other day on one cable station or another.

...Can't you tell? I really gotta turn off the TV and get a life.

Karaoke Supernova

Sorry...I couldn't resist! This is "Karaoke Supernova" (aka Hiro's Song) by Ben Folds. Ben Folds kicks ass! He's a piano genius - like Elton John meets punk. This song is crazy - about a Japanese salaryman having an affair with his daughter's friend. Ben Folds is big in Japan, and I think all the touring he did there inspired this song. I also first heard this on Inter FM, which he also did a bunch of station ID promos for. This song is only the tip of the iceberg. You got to check out all of his back catalogue. Rock on with yo bad self!

The Underdog

Now that I know I can embed video in my blog, I'm probably going to annoy the hell out of everyone by posting a bunch of my favorite songs. I heard this song in Japan before I left on the incredible 76.1 Inter FM, bilingual pop/rock station. It's by a group called Spoon from Austin, Texas. It's so catchy, and so unlike anything on pop radio right now, especially here in the U.S. Inter FM introduced me to a lot of groups/songs that I probably would have never had any exposure to otherwise. I can't stop playing it over and over. They're supposedly an "alternative" band (whatever that means nowadays), but this song is so Neil Diamond/Jazz Singer, especially with the big brass section. Hope you like it!

Our Preciouses

A few more pics of our children....

Weekend Festivities

Wassup rockers! Overall, it was a nice, relaxing weekend. Yesterday included a Bikram class, shopping at St. John's Town Center, a visit with Mom, and dinner/drinks with yoga friends last night. We went out to a posh little place at Atlantic Beach called Mezzaluna, and were lucky enough to get a table outside on the patio without reservations (a rarity on a weekend!). It's funny because we had a sizable bill, but nobody actually had an entree. We just drank a lot and ate a bunch of appetizers including mozzarella/basil/tomato, crab legs, fried calamari, and some deep-fried risotto-cheese balls (why are "deep-fried" and "cheese" magical words when combined together?). Afterward, we hit another beach bar standard, Campeche Bay. The gathering was supposed to be a going-away party for one of Akemi's fellow instructors, who actually didn't show up for her own farewell. What's up with that!






Today, slightly hungover but still ambulatory, I dragged myself out to Akemi's 10am class and sweated out all of the toxins. The weather was so incredible so we decided not to waste it and hit the beach for about an hour of surfing. It was a big soupy, choppy mess, but fun nonetheless.




I also caught a couple Netflix movies. The first was "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room", a documentary about the whole Enron energy firm scandal. Very captivating and informative. I was in residency when all of that was going down, so I never caught the whole story. The greed and manipulation of the Enron stock traders was of a titanic scale. I learned that those rolling power outages in California a few years ago were not due to power shortage or technical problems. Enron traders actually told California power companies to shut down for hours at a time (for which they received kickbacks, of course). They did that in order to sell more power to the state, but at sky-high rates, sending California into debt at the tune of about $31 billion. Wild!

The other movie was "Breakfast On Pluto". Don't waste your time with this stinker! It was crap-tastic! Boring and a waste of over two and a half hours of my life. Basically, it's about cross-dressing Patrick/Patricia, an Irish lad orphaned by his mom as a baby who comes of age in the 1970s and travels to London to locate her, while in the same instance getting mixed up with the Irish Republican Army. I found out afterward that it was directed by the same guy that did "The Crying Game", a respectable but overrated flick. He should have known that lightning probably wouldn't strike twice for him with another movie about a transvestite and done something else. I like actor Cillian Murphy ("28 Days Later"), but this movie sucked.

Vampire Weekend

Hey hipsters - you may have heard me raving about this band, Vampire Weekend. Well you gotta check out the video for their song "Punk A" on YouTube. Very minimalist, but very creative, kind of like the OK Go video that came out 2 years ago (Remember? The one with the treadmills?). This is a great video and a great band. Hope I can catch them when they play at Cafe Eleven in St. Augustine in June (although it's not looking good right now - the venue's website says "sold out").

Last Trip, Japan - Third Day In Kanazawa

Here's pics from a trip to the local Kanazawa seafood market on the morning of our third and final day in Kanazawa. We finished there with lunch at a well-known local kaitten- zushi restaurant (sushi-go-round). Apparently, a lot of TV celebrities have gone through there because there were a lot of autographs on the wall. What could be fresher sushi than sushi at a restaurant in the heart of a fishmarket!

Last Trip, Japan - Second Day In Kanazawa Pt. 4

Hey all! Sorry for not posting for the past few days. It's not like I've been extraordinarily busy this week or anything! Sometimes I amaze myself with my own laziness and sloth. Tonight is Friday night, so what did I do after returning home - I fell asleep on the floor watching TV. That's an exciting way to kick off the weekend! This week I did manage to run a couple times, get in a Bikram yoga class, and mow the lawn. Work has been extremely slow. I guess we're in a recession or something, because people are just not coming in for root canals. Imagine that! I've been at that shithole of an office now for over four months - I don't know how much longer I can take it. Going back on active duty is looking better and better. The grass is always greener............

Here's a few pics of our second and last night in Kanazawa. Yet another izakaya with the inlaws. I should have written down the names of these places when I could. My whole time in Japan I was never big on the sake. Maybe because I had a bad experience with some cheapie, rot-gut sake early on in my first tour over there. Anyway, I tried some really nice sake a few times in Kanazawa. And just like most alcoholic beverages, the higher-grade, more expensive you get, the smoother it is. The varieties I tried were more like a nice, dry white wine. I think I could really get into them. And when it's cold outside, it's really nice to get some attakai-sake (warm sake).

Those Bastards! They Broke My Cuspidor!

Nothing new and exciting to post today. Worked, went for a run, ate dinner (Akemi made fantastic Ceviche out of some grouper that our neighbor caught and gave to us). Now just grooving to some Belle & Sebastian - that's quality entertainment on which everyone can agree on.

Just thought I'd post this pic of my beloved cuspidor which is no longer with us. For those of you old enough to remember going to the dentist 30 or so years ago, a cuspidor is the "spit bowl" that you would expectorate into after the dentist rinsed your mouth out. Nobody (except maybe for some real old-timers) use these anymore. This particular one was a gift from my brother-in-law Jim, who removed it from an old dental office downtown that was being gutted out and remodeled about 13 years ago. Rumor has it President Harry Truman "spat" into it during an emergency dental visit he had to make while passing through Jacksonville years ago. That story is too good to be made-up!

Anyway, when I left for Japan in 1997, it went into storage for 4 years, then came out of storage when we lived in Rockville, Maryland from 2001 to 2003. It then followed us to Virginia Beach from 2003 to 2005, going back into storage in 2005 when we left for Japan. My wife hated this monstrosity, and even attempted to paint it to make it look more presentable. I liked it and thought it had a certain amount of kitsch to it. I even made a little barrier that fit inside the porcelain bowl so I could throw my keys, wallet, and spare change into it when I came home from work. Now, after zigzagging across the globe a couple times, our last team of dim-witted movers managed to break the bowl. I suppose I could have done some research on eBay or dental supply companies and found a replacement bowl, but I just went ahead and threw it out. I'm surprised the garbageman took it because it weighed about 100 pounds! I know Akemi hated it, but I think she actually felt a little melancholy to see it eventually go. We'll miss you cuspidor!

Lost Weekend

I truly "lost" my weekend this week. This is my first weekend to drill with the Navy Reserves, and although it was only orientation and not actually working, I am completely physically and mentally drained. Although I've only been away from the military environment for 4 months now, I had forgotten about all of the bureacracy and mass confusion involved in accomplishing even the most basic task. Well, I was completely reminded of all that to the tenth degree this weekend, as not only am I dealing with Navy pencil pushers, but weekend warriors to boot that don't want to be there on a Saturday and Sunday anyway. I have so many things I need/want to do tonight, but I'm just going to crash and get a good night's sleep. I may consider taking the Friday or Monday off on future drill weekends to breakup the monotony. Oh the humanity.

This Charming Man

Just had to add this great Moz pic I found. I can only hope to look this suave when I'm 49 years of age (not saying that I do now!).

Last Trip, Japan - Second Day In Kanazawa Pt. 3

Hey, hey, hey! Not much new here on a Friday night other than a Bikram yoga class followed by a couple pints of Guinness at Culhane's Irish Pub. Here's a continuation of our trip to Kanazawa. Following the museum, Akemi and I spent about an hour strolling through the famous Kenrokuen Garden. Rather than have me fumble through an explanation of the garden, here's some info directly from the Kanazawa tourist board website:

"Kenrokuen Garden is one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan, along with Kairakuen Garden in Mito City and Korakuen Garden in Okayama City. It is designed for the stroller's pleasure and the name KENROKUEN literally means "garden combining six," referring to its six focal themes of beauty: extensiveness, quiet seclusion, artificial construction, antique elgance, abundant water and wide prospect. It covers an area of twenty-five acres with hills, man-made winding streams, tranquil ponds, and waterfalls.
Kenrokuen garden was originally the garden of the outer residence of Kanazawa Castle built by the fifth Maeda lord, Tsunanori, in the Enpo Period(1673-81). The residence burnt down in the Great Fire in 1881 and only its garden remained. The garden was enlarged in 1774 and finally completed in 1822 by the 12th Maeda lord, Narinaga. Kenrokuen Garden was opened to the public in 1875 after the Meiji Restoration.
It gives the visitors an unforgettable impression all year round with its colorful charms particular to each season."

Did you enjoy that? Well, here's a few pics from our visit.