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Showing posts from September 2, 2012

Honshu and Okinawa

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I am back. I spent 10 days in Japan, 5 days for work on the main island of Honshu and 5 days of solo adventure in Okinawa. Travel is so invigorating dispite the uncomfortableness. Jetlag, anxiety, crowds, and other discomforts aside, it is mind-expanding and rewarding. Work went well. I flew a new airline (Skymark) from Tokyo to Naha. I am always wary of strange discount airlines and all the traps they set. However, I had a great expereince with "Sky". I was actually shocked. Super easy checkin at the airport, no extra fees even with extra luggage. The primary mission in Okinawa was to visit the Peace Park and the suicide cliffs of Okinawa. From what I understand, at the end of WW2 the inhabitants were encouraged to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans and get tortured and eaten. Besides other types of suicide, they jumped off the cliffs at the Southern end of the main island. If you have seen the original color footage taken at the time, I am sure you ...
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Work commences on the house. "Ready, begin." The "Fall landscaping haircut" is revealing a lot of nice plants as we knew it would. The neighbors are all nice. I have an interior designer coming over this weekend. I had the basement garage door replaced and I am nibbling at organizing stuff and what-not. I obtained some Peavey PV 115 commercial speakers to be driven by my vintage Mcintosh MC 2105 PA and C26 Preamp. I am going to drive the "fill in" speakers with the Dynaco ST 80 amp. With this setup you hardly need a sub-woofer since the main speakers are good down to 46 Hz. But, I am looking for a suitable single-channel DC-coupled vintage amp to run the sub-woofer. I may have to resort to vinyl records to get the low frequency input. Good thing the house is brick. It doesn't shake much. You may ask where I am taking pictures of Korean stores. I am in Duluth (of course). These stores are within walking distance of my house. Great food. I had an awesome...
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I flew up to NY and drove back down to Duluth with a rented truck filled with stuff. In the last two days I have been in Georgia, Michigan (flight layover), NY, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina It takes about 14 hours to drive the route. Today is unloading day.