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Visiting United States military bases in Japan

Visiting US military bases is fun for me. The US Army, US Navy, US Air Force and US Marine Corps use 75 facilities within Japan and Okinawa, 51 of which are dedicated and the rest 24 shared with Japan Self Defense Force. Though those facilities are usually closed to civilians, they are open to residents around them once or twice a year, and you can get inside the military places during these festivals.

Visiting those facilities is one of the few occasions to get in touch with the United States. You can eat American-made hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, turkey legs, and other American foods. You can pay foods, sodas, beer, sweets, and souvenirs with US dollars. You can talk to Americans in English. And, you can find out how average Americans live their daily life. What kind of groceries do they buy? What kind of foods do they eat? What kind of newspapers do they read? What kind of school do they make their children attend? You can catch a glimpse of those things without flying more than 12 hours to get to mainland America.

I have visited US bases and facilities in Japan and Okinawa for more than 15 years. With respect to what I have experienced, I’m grading each of these out of 5 by categories of accessibility, smoothness of entry and exit, freedom of movement, and availability of on-base building. 5 is the most excellent, and 0 the worst.

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May peace prevail on Earth – September 11

Today is one of unforgettable days in world history. Nine years ago the terrorist attacks changed not only America but everything in the world. Since that day freedom of our activities in the U.S. and other countries including Japan has been strictly limited.

Amateur 9/11 Footages
I hope political leaders of the world to take actions altogether to bring back peace. And I hope them to let us do anything we want, go anywhere with less restrictions, save and invest money in banks anywhere, and buy anything in any stores worldwide.

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The new age for change

Congratulations, Barack, on your inauguration to become a new US President today, and on having a chance to create a new, powerful, cheerful and great era for the United States, and for the rest of the world!

Barack, I want you to make the best efforts to create a more peaceful country not only for American citizens but also for the people of the other countries. I urge you to open the door so that we have easier access to the United States and so that foreigners who love America can have more chances to study at a school or to get a job there. And, as a netizen, I also hope you to make the internet world as free, exciting, and open to many people, Americans or foreign people, as in the era of Bill Clinton.

May America keep being good friends with Japan, one of the strong allied countries.

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結局オバマが勝ったわけですが……

はたして日本の国益にどれだけなるのかどうか。民主党政権は歴史的に日本に冷たいですからね。。。1996年のクリントン訪中のときみたいに、「ジャパン･パッシング」が再来しなければいいんですが。。。ブッシュは曲がりなりにも中韓ににらみをきかせてて日本の首相とも仲良くやってたんですが、オバマ政権は果たして北朝鮮の拉致被害者救出に協力的になってくれるでしょうか。。。

まあどっちに転んでも日本はアメリカなしでは生きていけないわけで、これまで通り仲良しこよしでやっていくしかないわけですが。。。無視だけはされないようにしないと、ね。

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Fever in Obama

From CNN:

They may well get excited, because they can earn a great deal of money from visitors to Obama City for at least four years from now. This might be one of Japan’s national benefits Obama Administration will bring to us.

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What will Obama do for Japan?

This afternoon media announced that Barack Obama had made history. He’s going to be the first Black US President in American history, as well as the President from the Democratic Party which has not sent the President for eight years.

Whichever will become the next US President, Obama or McCain, as a Japanese citizen our big concern is whether the new President will treat us well or not. We are afraid that Japan’s national benefit might be somewhat impaired by the Democratic administration. Unlike Republicans, governors and congresspersons from the Democratic Party have treated Japan coldly in the past. We are anxious about the so-called “Japan passing” attitude coming up again. We’ll never forget that, when the former President Bill Clinton visited China in 1996, he “ignored” to see Japan and returned home without dropping in.

Our national security is also an important issue. There are several countries of which we need to be cautious, including China and North Korea. The current President Bush, apart from his other policies, has been playing an important role together with Japan’s Prime Ministers to keep the Asia-Pacific area still safe and secured, with great influence over those countries. On the other hand, seeing that the Democrats will be dominant in American government and congress, we wonder how much the United States will help us to protect our country from those “dangerous” countries. How much will Obama Administration be cooperative to save abducted people out of North Korea?

Nevertheless, however much we feel uneasy about Obama’s policies, Japan can’t live without the United States. We have no other options but to keep up with America’s way. All Japan has to do is to keep good relationships with the US, and, more than that, to make its best efforts not to be “ignored” by America and the other countries in the rest of the world.

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米国大統領選

いよいよ投票が始まりました。一番早い投票締め切りまであと1時間を切りましたが、トラブルなく開票が終わって欲しいものです。

オバマが勝つかマケインが勝つか。今後の日本の命運が左右されてしまう選挙だけに、目が離せません。

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US presidential election has begun

Now people are lining up to vote for America’s next presidential candidate in every state. If Barack Obama wins, he will be the first African-American US President. If John McCain wins, Sarah Palin will be the first female US Vice President.

I can’t poll because I don’t have US citizenships, but it’s my big concern which will win the race, because Japan’s future depends a great deal on how the new President will handle the United States.

The first polls will close in less than an hour. Hope no troubles will occur in the vote.

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Where will America go?

America’s recession seems to begin. US stocks are falling down every day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from $13,500 in December 2007 to less than $12,000 right now, and the NASDAQ Composite was at around 2,700 in the end of December but now at about 2,300. For these five weeks, I’ve LOST more than 1/3 of the total amount of money that I’ve invested!

I’ve believed in the strength and the wealthiness of the United States, and invested American stocks and mutual funds instead of hopeless Japanese stock market. America’s economic growth was stable for over 50 years and the stock prices rose every year. You could get richer and richer as long as you buy and hold the American stocks or mutual funds.

However, the situation has changed completely for the last two months. America is no longer what it was before. What the hell happened to America? And what will happen in the future?

But I won’t give up yet. I’ll keep trusting America, because I love America and America will be still alright and won’t lose its presence in the world as long as it has the strongest military power and global standards in many fields. I have confidence that America will make it by any means.