Tadaima!

Apr 20, 2009 03:34

Greetings from Japan. I'm now sitting at Narita airport in Tokyo, in desperate need of a cup of coffee, but resisting the urge because although the sun says -- 'Hi! It's 4:00 pm, have a late afternoon coffee' my body says, it's 3:00 am, what the hell are you doing awake ( Read more... )

traveler, tokyo, guam

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Comments 8

atdilts April 20 2009, 15:12:57 UTC
"resort hotel", eh?

it is raining for the second straight day in chicago, and is forcast to rain for the next two.

I now officially hate you.

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atdilts April 20 2009, 19:38:16 UTC
yeah, but on the other hand, 40 bazillion hours of travel. ick.
i love hearing your stories on the road! and safe travels to guam. i hope everybody is fascinating and that they have yummy indulgent fruity cocktails.
-sk

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devaretha April 20 2009, 23:40:51 UTC
I hope everybody is fascinating too, SK. That is why one travels, isn't it. To meet the people. I love meeting the people. And you would have gotten a huge kick out of Tokyo -- I never saw so much indie styling as I did in that airport. Ernestly cynical, beautiful kids with crazy haircuts -- all pouty mouthed and subtly rockin' out on their teeny tiny headphones.

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devaretha April 20 2009, 23:37:30 UTC
Well, it seems pretty much all hotels in Guam are resort hotels because they're all on the beach -- and why not? It's a tiny freaking Island. From where I'm staying you can literally see the ocean on two sides. Now that I'm awake and the travel is behind me for a few days, I too could hate me if I were in the Chi while it's doing it's dreary Spring time thing.

Gonna soak up this tropical weather while I can!

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fried_pearl April 20 2009, 22:51:38 UTC
Enjoy your stay in Japan, D. Get that whole 'full emmersion' experience, then have a safe flight to Guam.

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devaretha April 20 2009, 23:41:41 UTC
I'll be immersed on the way back! Going to a noodle shop and gonna eat some genuine (vegitarian) sushi.

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anonymous April 21 2009, 00:15:03 UTC
it sounds like you sort of enjoy a good, super-long flight. toblerone chocolates? movies? music and reading? a purposive nature to all this relaxing (you're going somewhere!)? sure... what're you up to in guam, anyway?

(just thought i'd share this marginally relevant story - i began my ""academic" "career"" in third grade with a "state" report on.... guam. i missed the day when the class got to pick which of the 50 states they'd be writing a report on, and all the good states were gone. so i picked guam. it wasn't a state, but the teacher thought it would be OK. i've been making a contrarian ass out of myself at every opportunity since. but at least one important thing stuck with me from that report - guam's anthem is: Stand Ye Guamanians. i thought that was pretty much the greatest thing i'd ever heard in third grade.)

RY

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devaretha April 21 2009, 00:51:36 UTC
I love how so many people have fun facts about Guam! Awesome.

I'm here doing some training for the Guam Humanities Coucil. They'd like to have a series of conversations over the next year, increasingly integrated between villagers and military personnel, discussing the impact of the upcoming doubling of the presence of American troops on the island (the troops stationed in Okinawa are going to be relocated in the next three years). As you can imagine, this has enormous implications on everything from culture to politics to infrastructure. Islanders don't feel like their being heard and the military is slow to realize there needs to be a conversation with the civilian residents of the island at all -- given their whole command culture. But they're coming around. Mostly because of the infrastructural headaches. There's only so much land here and some of it is controlled by the native Chammoro population who are not rolling over for the needs of the US Military, this time through.

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