Sakata with a population of almost 100,000 is in Yamagata Prefecture. However, it was 127,000 in 1960.   Many immigrants to Hawaii came from this area.   From the 17th to 19th century, Sakata was very prosperous because it was a shipping route for the Sea of Japan into the country, November is the wettest month, but it was sunny yesterday.   This city escaped damage in World War II, with only one air raid.   The Sakata Festival from May 19-21 is their major historical event.   You can catch the bullet train from Tokyo to Niigata, then transfer north to Sakata. City most known for the 2013 film,  Oshin  (click on it to watch the entire movie), which followed the 297 15-minute episodes of  Oshin , the serialized morning television drama, which aired in 1983 and 1984.   Here is a typical episode . I had never before heard of Sakata, but if you decide to visit, here is Trip Advisor link on  Things to do in Sakata . We decided to skip any tour today and essentially did nothing.  We woke up

As my Worldometer table has weekly been showing, COVID-19 and the Delta variant are now in worldwide decline.   From the  New York Times  this morning, the USA reflects this drop: There is a ten-day to two week lag from new cases to new deaths, as shown here: The next worry will be the Fall and Winter, when people go indoors.  However, schools have returned, and yet we are experiencing those above declines.  Part of the reason must have to do with vaccinations.   76% of Americans have now received at least one  shot. United States vaccinations At least one dose Fully vaccinated All ages* 65% 56% 12 and up 76% 65% 18 and up 77% 67% 65 and up 94% 83% The latest guess is that  90%  of the population needs to be fully vaccinated for herd immunity to be reached. Said former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb and author of  Uncontrolled Spread :    Covid has not only been one of the worst pandemics in modern times. It has been an unnecessarily terrible pandemic. Of the   more than 700,000 Ameri

Super Bowl Sunday is a wonderful day for me.  No politics, ignore the pandemic and be somewhat pious.  So I will start with  comedy .  Sure, that was an atheist, but it was funny. So let me balance this near blasphemy with the most popular religious song in history.  According to this source , it is Amazing Grace , by John Newton.  Absolutely beautiful.  Watch it. But the voice sounded female?  I searched and found this John Newton film, one hour and twenty minutes long, called, The True Story of Amazing Grace  ( the whole movie ).  I checked Rotten Tomatoes, and there was only one film called Amazing Grace , and reviewers only gave it a 26 rating.  Benedict Cumberbatch and Albert Finney star, and TTSOAG did not have them.  Plus, AG was almost two hour long. So went to Wikipedia , and found out that John Newton was born nearly 300 years ago in London, first worked on slave ships, and himself became a slave, of Princess Peye of the Sherbro People ( now Sierra Leone in Africa ).  Newto