MY EXPERIENCE IN JAPAN AND TAYLOR SWIFT

All my ancestors are from Japan. Read about my father's father, Kenjiro, who I was named after: I did not learn much about him until I started my roots search after I retired.

That colored symbol says a lot, and is explained in a 2019 posting about my visit to Utashinai, located north of Sapporo on Hokkaido, from where he left in around 1890 to the USA. On his way back to Japan, he got married on Kauai, had a son and daughter. This is why I grew up in Hawaii.

About Utashinai, JR does not today have a station there anymore because this once coal town has dwindled into a skiing and wine spot. Once up to 46,000, it is now down to 3000. It was Japan's smallest city when I visited four years ago when the population was 3500.

It is possible that I've landed in Japan more times than any non-airline employee in Hawaii. At least a hundred times, and maybe 150, or more. One reason why is that I've gone around the world so many times because I hate that overnight flight back to Honolulu, something I will be doing in a few hours.

Why have I spent so much time in Japan?

My job as a renewable energy academic was a primary one.
I was one of the key leaders involved in the establishment of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. The first two articles at THIS site provides details.

I spent two sabbaticals in Tokyo, which served as the base for my travels.
The first stop to other points in the Orient is almost always Tokyo. South Korea is the only exception.

After I retired almost a quarter century ago, I tried to get to Japan each year for both the Cherry Blossoms and Fall Colors. Something I am doing on this trip, and my next, which will be a major one, for Tokyo will be the first stop of an around the world odyssey, which will involve cruises on Regent Seven Seas, Tauck Tulip River Tour and Queen Mary II from Southampton to New York.

While the overnight flight tonight will be a royal pain, this one could be more tolerable than the others. We don't check out of the Sheraton Yokohama Bay until 4PM. We then catch a taxi to Haneda Airport. Then Hawaiian Airlines to Honolulu at 8PM. We will be traveling business class, so I think will be able to use the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge. These in Tokyo tend to be heavenly.

My final hotel and food photos. Note that the buffet features items from Kanagawa. Yokohama is the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture. Those towers do detract, but the weather has been fine during our final two days in Yokohama, and Mount Fuji is visible from our room.

Breakfast costs $30/person, but is free for us because of my Platinum status with Marriott.

Has a fresh orange juice machine.

Shoyu dispenser.

One of their robotics staff.

First serving of two different types of noodles.

Rest of breakfast. Pork tonkatsu, Japanese poke, Minestrone soup, sukiyaki and egg over rice, etc.

We were walking around the underground mall and saw a nice plate of otoro, so decided to have it in our room with ramen.

Dinner in our Club Lounge was Shanghai Soup Dumplings.

Can't quite read the number, but I think it was 3190 steps.

Breakfast this morning.

Some toilets also have the sound of running water.

I'll end with Taylor Swift. It was more for humor than anything else that I have commented so much about her this year. However, clearly I'm prescient, for she was just named TIME Person of the Year. Trump, Hitler, Stalin, Khomeini, Nixon, Khrushchev and JFK have been so honored. But this is the first time Time has selected an entertainer. The very first was Charles Lindbergh in 1927. The Computer was it in 1982 and Planet Earth in 1988. Here is the full list.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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