Ok, Seoul is out since Tom's business trip got canceled. Instead, I'm planning a short trip for the three days (plus weekend so total 5 days) I have off at the end of June. Bonus- my brother will be here visiting. I've got it narrowed down to Okinawa and Taiwan. Here is the summary of my logic:
Taiwan
a) I haven't been out of the country besides home in over a year and am getting antsy.
b) I've never been there.
c) It's nearby, which means i) cheap and ii) fewer hours on plane (critical in consideration of brother)
d) It's China (don't tell them that) but I don't need a visa
e) exposes brother to different Asian country

Okinawa
a) nearby (wins over Singapore for flight time)
b) beach (I would like to get SCUBA certified before doing Australia for winter vacation)
c) I speak the language (for the most part)
d) its different than the rest of Japan (think Hawaii-Okinawa used to be a separate country from Japan)
e) exposes brother to more of Japan and less of international customs clearance

Other considerations:
I can get cheap "birthday" tickets to fly within Japan during July. There is a 3 day weekend here in July, so I could go to Okinawa with Tom then and do the SCUBA thing. Or, if I go to Okinawa in June I could go to Nagasaki or Hokkaido with the birthday ticket, but then I would miss out on getting out of the country. I'm leaning towards Taipei and Tom is leaning towards Okinawa (but he travels out of the country all the dang time!).

So... your vote is.... (here it actually really really counts!)

Random, I know... but this is a "goya" (at least that's what they call it here. From the outside it looks like a cucumber with a serious acne problem. In the inside it has soft white stuff the consistency of squash and seeds like those in a pumpkin. The taste is nothing like a cuke- very, very bitter... it just tastes GREEN. Why do I share? Well, partly because it was the feature veggie in the best veggie omelet (aforementioned goya, cherry tomatoes, onion, egg, and a slice of cheese on top) I've created (just this evening), and partly because I have nothing else that I'm dying to share. ;) Anyone seen this thing in America? 

Oh brother. I just finished reading the latest edition of Mother Jones magazine ("In the current climate, and facing the present danger, we do not find our political orientation to be inconsistent with our devotion to fact. We're better positioned to honor objective fact because we aren't insulted by the charge that we're 'liberal media'"). The May/June issue has a special feature on global warming and it has gotten me *so* worked up! I am positively peeved after reading Some Like It Hot, which looks at the different non-profits (over 40) funded by ExxonMobile to convince people that global warming is a big lie and has nothing to do with human fault. What the hell? I've been so ticked all weekend that I've done additional online research. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's conclusions that the "burning of fossil fuels is causing significant shifts in the earth's climate" are supported by a slew of scientific organizations: the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. Back in the magazine, D. James Baker, a former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (not an organization created by liberal media) says, "There is better scientific consensus on this than on any other issue I know- except maybe Newton's second law of dynamics."

And yet, in the background ExxonMobile and the American Petroleum Institute continue to sponsor crap scientists & journalists to write that there's nothing to the whole global warming hoax. Obviously, corporations need to protect their bottom line, but there are other ways to do that than supporting the destruction of the, eh... OUR Environment?! Other oil companies: Shell, Texaco, British Petroleum and car companies like Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler all bailed out of a coalition that was promoting skepticism and spreading doubt.

Ah, it just makes me really mad. And yes, I sent a letter to my government representatives, care of the organization Environmental Defense. I also signed their petition to support the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act. You can read a summary of the act written by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

Finally, I am dissappointed because Michael Crichton, one of my favorite creators of books which function as perfect inflight entertainment, is a leader in the movement to confuse and politicize the science regarding global warming. His latest book, State of Fear, is about ecoterrorists who go around try to win lawsuits based on faulty science supporting global warming and rising sea levels. I will certainly not be reading the new book, nor supporting him in the future. The Pew Center did a very clear summary of the science and issues in his novel. Scarily enough though, according to Mother Jones, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, recommended the novel (fiction, mind you!) as "required reading" to a group assembled at a congressional briefing. I find it pretty disturbing that regardless of political perspective, a fictional pop thriller is the document to rally around regarding the critical state of global warming.

I still haven't finished sorting my pictures, but I promise when I get them in an appropriate order and labeled to make sense, I will share them! I've been super busy lately and it will probably be the same next week. Don't worry though- I haven't done anything too exciting. Seriously, job/play (same thing), study Econ, go to the gym (that's been fun...), run/hash, repeat repeat repeat.

The only thing I did out of the ordinary this week was take another trip out to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau. It brought back horrible flashbacks of my trip to the Shiojiri Driving Center (check the archives from November2003 if you have managed to forget)... and I was just as unsuccessful at completing my mission on the first attempt. I need a new visa, as the visa I got through the JET program (to teach English out in Nagano) will expire at the end of July. My new school has offered to sponsor me for the new visa and very kindly put together the necessary paperwork (letter from my old school attesting to the time period I worked there, tax documents, a pamphlet on my new school, financial documentation on the new school, on and on). Well, of course, when I got there (after a half hour train ride and 15 minute bus ride), I didn't have everything. And several of the documents I did have must be translated from English into Japanese (my work contract, my graduation certificate, my resume...eek!). The bad news is that I'm back to the assembly line on the paperwork. The good news is that I still have 2.5 months.

I have to say though, I did bring one of this week's flashbacks on myself. My boss had asked me to bring in my passport to copy for the application. Since I had planned to go to the Immigration Bureau today (Friday), yesterday he asked me if I had it with me. Oops. The last thing I heard as I headed out of school to bike back home at lunchtime was him explaining to a student that I was leaving because "She forgot her passport!".

I will NEVER escape the curse!!

This is a picture of Tom and I this morning, still happily vacationing on the Pacific coastline of Aomori Prefecture. Though I'm still wearing the same clothes... I'm on my way to bed after a fantastic Golden Week vacation to the tippy-top of Honshu. Our week featured lakes, mountains, onsen-bathing, low-temp camping, the Pacific ocean coastline, and lots more cherry blossoms. Perhaps best of all (and most unlikely of all), we had absolutly perfect weather. I have tons of photos to share this weekend.
 

We saw so many cherry blossoms this week they that Tom started calling them "demon blossoms". Actually, that may have had more to do with me being cranky from being out in the sun without food, water or appropriate amounts of sleep and the fact that I instead chose to blame the flowers for my bad mood. Ooopps... still, here are some Hirosaki Cherry Blossoms for you all to share.  

This is a shot of a shrine on the coast of Lake Tazawa, the circumfrence of which Tom and I biked around. The lake was the most unreal shade of blue- my photos all look fake!