Notes:

It is getting close to cherry blossom time in Japan. Understandably, the tourist industry is off a bit. It is beautiful. The reporter found one other couple who were just being tourists. Normally this time of year the place is packed. Those little shops that have trinkets have lost 98% of their business. They are switching to Japanese stuff.

I wonder who runs this country. Do presidents get in to office to find that they are just a patsy? Is it one family who pulls the strings of the world? Who is the puppet master toying with our lives?

We have this time clock thing at work that is basically designed to tell us when people will come back off vacation and things like this. One issue I have is most people put the end time as the end of their time off from work. I think of it as the moment I will be back at work. Someone else would put 17:00 the last day of their vacation. I would put 07:30 the day I'm coming back. I don't think there is a rule about it. It just shows a different way of thinking.