また火星で会おう

俺はいつも感動するのは千九百二年にあの人力自由飛行は可能だと証明されたライト兄弟の制作されたグライダーからちょうど百年経ち、二千三年に火星探査機が宇宙へ打ち上げられたことなのだ。現在でもその二台とも火星の表面に活動しているが、もう見たかしら？俺たちの失敗しばかりのNASAではなく、昨日か一昨日かにジャッパンタイムズに載せた記事によると、クレーターのなかにでっかい氷が見つけられたのじゃ。これはすごい。その写真はこちらへクリックして。

Life Sciences & Biotech

"Video also showed the fuel tank's nose cone hitting a bird about 2.5 seconds after liftoff, apparently without damage, he said."
without damage to whom, exactly?


Aaron's ambitions revealed...

President Mary Sue Coleman (picture right) of the University of Michigan visits the United States Pavilion, coinciding her visit with Presidents Simon (not pictured) and Reed (picture left) of, respectively, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. President Mary Sue Coleman and her collegues attended a reception at the Prince Hotel in Hikone along with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (picture center) to recognize the Japan Center for Michigan Universities and sister-state relationship with the Shiga Prefectural government. President Coleman will attend a series of seminars in Osaka with life sciences and biotech firms, attempting to promote the school's new facilities.

A knowin' smile...

[万博] Michigan Governor

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, right, greets volunteer students from the state of Michigan who work as U.S. pavilion staff during her visit to the pivilion in the 2005 World Expo in Nagakute city, central Japan, Monday, July 25, 2005. Granholm leading a Michigan investment mission was on her week-long tour in Japan, aimed at drawing investment to her state. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

The General Cometh

[万博] Number 1?

Nagoya TV says:

『女性必見!イケメンのいるパビリオンはここだ！』
「アメリカ館。なんと言っても、案内してくれるお兄さんがかっこいい。待ち時間ゼロ分にも関わらず楽しめるものだった。シアターを見つつの意外な展開が実感出来て良かった。」
（訳）
MUST SEE FOR WOMEN! These are the Pavilions with IKEMEN!
The U.S. Pavilion. It goes without saying that the ONIISAN (male) guides are really cool. Even if the waiting time isn't zero, it's still an enjoyable experience. By looking at the theater you are able to realize the surprising development of [America].

(sorry, that is a rough and tumble translation)
as informed by our guide manager:
"
The US Pavilion is now rated as Number One in a recent survey done by TV Nagoya on Channel 11! This is the station affiliated with the Asahi newspaper.
The official announcement will be made on Monday between 6 and 8am. Most likely the announcement will be made around 7:30am. In the on-camera interview conducted with Doug West on July 12th, the reporter said that the respondents had particularly singled out the guides for their “youki” attitude.
"
i'm guessing 勇気 was meant and not 妖気 - but neither really fits the bill. actually, i am learning to take what is said with a grain of salt. something Mr. Flynn always told me. "Well, little Orvilles and Matildas, better take that with a grain of salt." Orville and Matilda were the perpetual personification of the 'somebodies' in the world. of course it is entirely possible that they were completely distinct people that lived on in his mind long after class had let out for the day...

anyway, Ch. 11 had some cameras in this morning - they took some footage of me in Pre-show giving a Segway demonstration. don't know when/if/how it'll see the light of day. certainly not back in the States, that is for sure.

納豆の日: THE DAY OF NATTO

JULY 10th

Haruko and I celebrated nattou no hi with natto fried rice. see for yourselves:

百万人

That's a lot of people. Each day we do around 10k - 12k (however this is only around 10% of the visitors to bampaku). we move them pretty decently through... depending upon the time of day, weather, etc. we'll have upwards of 270 in each the main show, pre-show, and post show, and another 150 pre-queued into "wheat field" at any given time.
anyway, this whole deal was laughably gimmicky. actually, we were going to hold the celebration yesterday - but we wanted to "make sure" that we hit the number when we went to the press - you know, just in case those Expo regulators are watchin' our numbers with keen eyes.
so, the plan was to hold the press conference at around 15:00 and then show our guests up to a pleasant reception in the Franklin Suite. as you may or may not know it is monsoon season in Japan now (it came late this year); so of course characteristically it is raining pretty hard. at 13:30 we begin scanning the rainy queue (which at this point in the day is wrapped all the way around the Global Common 2 stage) for our "1 millionth visitor." since we'll be doing the whole press/photo-op piece, we are looking for a camera-friendly family (mom, dad, couple of kids with fresh faces). ha haa ha, yeah, that's right. anyway - THAT wasn't my job...
we picked them at the end of the queue, so that when the made it to the front of the Pavilion it was 1500 and Yomiuri, Expo Paper, et al were all ready to go.

We bring 'em up to the Franklin suite to enjoy refreshments (ice cream, cola, juice, coffee, muffin, jelly beans, and pretzels!), and meet AICHI USA CEO Doug West, Pavilion Director Bernard Teresco, and one of the guide teams (C). we hand them certificates, multiple expo passes, grant them honorary VIP status, and a host of praise. Doug is being all ceremonial about the whole thing - and the rest of the staff is expecting to really overwhelm our 1 Millionth visitor. Meanwhile, the kids are crazy - the boy is flopping around all over the furniture, spinning the glass globe - i'm just waiting for it to break. the girl is in a pissy mood - maybe because of the rain or maybe for different reasons altogether.
"We'd like to have you enjoy some ice cream. How does that sound? You can have as much as you'd like!"

"... We already ate. And besides, ice-cream is too cold."
CEO doesn't speak Japanese though, so he hears "no thanks, but coffee would be nice." turns out they drove 4hours to come to bampaku today - and lucky them, now they are obligated to come back next month for some other sort of party/reception we'll be holding for them. America-kan isn't done with you yet!

Manga Me

Couple pages from a favorite Doraemon manga of mine. I'm thinking of airbrushing in English bubbles, but I don't know if the payoff will be worth it.
Doraemon1.jpg
Doraemon2.jpg
the basic story is that Nobita (the boy) and Doraemon (a cat-like robot from the future whose ears were stolen by mice) were watching television one day. there was a lady interviewing a famous baseball star - who explained that he was discovered by chance when he took a wrong turn on his way to someplace or another... anyway, Nobita is inspired by this story - that your whole life can change depending on which road you choose to walk down. He asks Doraemon to do something about this. Doraemon, who is constantly barraged with favors from Nobita, responds by producing a future forecasting mirror-like machine from his pouch (Doraemon stores all sorts of wonders in his pouch- such is the lot of robot cats without ears). With this machine in hand, Nobita sets out to select his destiny.

these are the last two pages from this story. near the end, Doraemon gives Nobita what I find to be a very stirring pronouncement of the nature of fate.

enough for two