This is our final full day in Japan.  Woke up to Mount Fuji, There was an early thought to return to Sankeien Garden in Yokohama, but we had our fill of Fall Colors in Nara.  Plus, you can  read what we saw exactly 4 years ago .  Here are two photos from our previous visit. So what are we going to do?  Almost nothing.  There is a huge shopping mall below our hotel, so we'll walk around a bit. As I'm in the Orient, I could provide a summary of news items from this region.  But nothing much seems to also be happening here. There is that matter between China and Taiwan, but there is no war today in this part of the world. No typhoons.  There was a Sunday 7.4 Philippines earthquake, killing one, but no noteworthy tsunami. In fact, the weather throughout this whole trip has been outstanding, with one or two cloudy days.  It did snow when we were on Hokkaido, but only a few snowflakes. North Korea?  Nothing.  If Kim Jong Un suddenly dies, will his 10-year old daughter,  Ju Ae,  inher

First, Happy Birthday Pat.  I still have not settled on my celebratory feast.   Today is Labor Day, and as is traditional for most holidays, I sometimes provide some background.  Here is one posting from  4 September 2017 , and at the bottom is mention of an early stage of Hurricane Irma.  She went on to become a Category 5 and caused $77 billion in damages in the Caribbean and Florida.  Incidentally, off the Carolinas right now is  Hurricane Larry  at 125 MPH.  Fortunately, he is aware of our Delta variant surge of cases and has decided not to visit the USA.  Borrowed from that article of four years ago is some wisdom from Garfield, which pretty much describes my weekend. Today I continue describing my life, but can send you to a series of 15 postings I had more than seven years ago, describing my life in chronological transitions: Part 1:  Overview and Early Youth . #2       Entering kindergarten :  traumatic. #3      Entering intermediate school :   diffficult. #4     Entering high