October 15

By Al

Today, I went to a film showing at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.  The film being shown was "The People's History of the United States".  This film was based on the book by the same name that was written by Howard Zinn in 1980.  The New York Society for Ethical Culture is a humanist organization founded in 1876.  It has a very large building on Central Park West.  I conducts non-theistic services in a congregational setting.  It also has many events and educational opportunities.

The film was actually a showing of the video tape of a documentary about the book.  I don't know when it was done, but it was pretty dated.  The book when first published was a new approach to history.  It sought to present American history through the eyes of the common people.  What it seemed to mainly do was present all of the stories of oppression of native peoples and the under classes that most American histories neglected.  To that extant, it was probably an important work at the time.  However, I did not find that I was learning anything new.  These stories had already been told.  So, I left after about an hour.

I did wander around the building a bit.  I thought it might be fun to attend a service and see what it was like. However, as I encountered people in the building I found them uniformly unfriendly.  So, I decided I would settle for my lookaround.  Perhaps that was unfair, but there is enough to do in New York without seeking out unfriendly people.  New Yorkers are, contrary to common belief, quite friendly.  They like to get to the point and not waste time on pleasantries.  But, once you get past that, they are friendly.

This is the sanctuary viewed from the back of the balcony.

One of the statutes in the corner of the balcony.

After leaving the building, I walked across Central Park to go home.  It was overcast.  This is view looking southwest across the Sheep Meadow.

This fellow was training his dog in Central Park.  I know he is a famous person.  Does anybody recognize him.  This is the best picture I could get without directly confronting him.  I only took the picture to see if anybody could tell me who he is.

October 14

By Al

Today, we went on a walking tour of the Lower East Side organized by the Museum at the Eldridge Street Synagogue.  The Synagogue was built in 1887 and is one of the oldest Synagogues in New York.  It was recently renovated and serves both as a active synagogue and museum of the early years of the Lower East Side.  This area was heavily settled by Jewish immigrants but has transitioned through several other groups since the 1800's.  It is right at the Manhattan end of the Manhattan Bridge, just north of Chinatown and east of Little Italy.  The tour was very interesting.  It is always amazing how much history New York packs into a little over a century.  

The front of the Eldridge Street Synagogue

Inside

The window at the front.

Another window.

The street outside the Synagogue

Another old synagogue that is now a Buddhist temple with a Buddhist book store on the first floor.

This used to be a movie theater.  You can still see the old water air conditioning system on the top of the building.  This was one of the first theaters in New York to have air conditioning.

A pickle store that we stopped at.

This is the store.

We also stopped at a very good candy store.  After the tour, we stopped at a small Chinese restaurant and had a very good inexpensive dinner.  From there, we decided to walk home.  It was about 5 miles, but we took a couple of hours and enjoyed seeing more of New York City.

October 13

By Al

I've got nothing

October 12

By Al

Today, I had tickets to the New York ComicCon.  This is a major convention and gathering of comic book and science fiction publishers.  It was huge and quite overwhelming.  It was in several parts of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center.  I could not find and map of where things were and it was so crowded that it was difficult to get around.  I was able to buy several comics.  My biggest find was that some people were bringing back the Valient line.  This was my favorite publisher in the 90's.  They went out of business, but some new people were reviving the titles.  I bought all that they had and look forward to more coming out.  I also bought some books from some new publishers that looked interesting and that I wanted to encourage.

The most interesting thing was looking at the people in their costumes and at some of the celebrities that were there.

Costumed characters

More costumed characters

Brutis "The Barber" Beefcake, wrestling star

Tito Santana and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, wrestling stars

The television Batmobile.

The Bella Twins and Kelly Kelly, wrestling stars

Kelly Kelly

Costumed characters

Costumed characters mock fighting.

October 11

By Al

Today we rested.  Nothing to report.

October 10

By Al

We had to catch a train from Nagasaki at 6 AM, so we didn't get much sleep.  Fortunately, the train station was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  But, trains in Japan are very punctual, so we had to make sure we were there on time.  The train pulled in and left 5 minutes later, so we didn't have much time to board.  When the train gets there, you have to be ready.  At some stops along the way, I am sure the train did not stop for more than one munute.  People are ready to get off, they get off and out of the way and people get on, luggage and all.

We got to the airport about 2 PM.  Our flight didn't leave until about 7 PM, so we had a wait.  The flight left on time.  Japanese emmigrations was very easy.  So we settled down for a long flight.

Eleven hours later we were in Seattle.  We had a two hour layover.  Four hours after that we were in the Twin Cities with a one hour layover.  Three hours after that, we arrived in New York City. 
Thirty hours after leaving Nagasaki we arrived in New York.  Needless to say, we were tired. 

We got to our apartment.  Two friends from St. Paul had arrived in New York and were staying at our apartment.  They were expecting us back, but thought it was to be the next day.  So, when we arrived at midnight, they were a little surprised.  However, because they weren't exepting us,  we knew they hadn't made any special effort to clean it up; so it was good to know that they were responsible guests.  The apartment was in good shape.

It was good to be home and we were tired, so we didn't do much the next day.

October 9

By Al

Today Amy and Drew started their journey back to the US.  We missed them immediately.  The rest of the Rotarians also left for the US.  We missed them too.  Sally and I were scheduled to spend one more day in Nagasaki, which was good.  In 1998-99 we had an exchange student stay with us from Nagasaki.  Her name was Naoko Sato.  She was one of our favorite students.  We had not seen her since 1999.  We have had occasional email contact with her.  Before we went to Japan, we asked Shige Nakamura if he could find out where she was living.  It turned out that she had been living in Tokyo, which we knew, but had had some health issues and was back in Nagasaki.  We had hoped to see her yesterday, but she was not feeling well, so she had to cancel.  Well, she was better today and we met with her and her mother.  We had met her mother in 1999 when we visited Nagasaki, but Naoko was not there then. 

It was wonderful to see her again.  One of the high points of our trip.  When people talk about hosting exchange students, they always talk about emotional attachment you develop for them.  That is very true.  It was great.

Shige had told her mother that Sally wanted to look for quilt fabric while in Nagasaki. She and her mother had visited most of the fabric shops in Nagasaki to find out which ones had quilt fabric. So, that was too be our day. First, they took us to lunch and a very nice traditional restaurant. Naoko's mother owns a traditional restaurant, but they were not open for lunch so we went to one owned by one of her friends. Of course, we had great food and great service.

Sally, Naoko, and her mother at the restaurant.

This was our food.  Good quality and great presentation.  In Japan, presentation is have the job.

We pause for a photo opportunity.

Interestingly, the fabric stores they took us to were back at the same mall.  The second and third day of the Kunchi festival, the different groups go around the city asking business and citizens for donations.  This is a major fundraising event for many of the temples.  Anyway, here is a group going through the mall.  You run into them all  over town.

Another group in the mall.

And another.

And another.

Some ladies quilting in one of the fabric stores.

Sally looking around in a fabric store.  She got quite a bit of fabric.

Lion dancers canvassing for money on a typical Nagasaki street.


We were scheduled to leave Nagasaki early the next morning, so we spent the evening packing for our trip home.