Tokyo Blogging... last day...

My son has made his demand: a plastic sword. So off to Asakusa, where plastic swords, as well as "imitation" swords (with prices up to over $1000.00) with real sharp edges I don't ask for an explanation- my Japanese would quickly fall off a cliff, and English...well, as they say, fuggedaboutit.

I could have spent the day in Tokyo, but in the afternoon, after a lunch at a Chinese place that couldn't be beat (Japanese Chinese food, of course, is not Chinese Chinese food, but more like American Chinese food done really really well and really really costly) I head back to Makuhari, Chiba, where my hotel is located.

Koizumi will win the election; the New Democratic Party is desparate enough to hand me a flyer...

Back at the hotel, a BBC show is playing on the surviving kids of the Beslan terrorist attack. A child is putting toys and pouring a bottle of Sprite on a tomb of another child, as an offering to him. The children of Beslan have been brutally scarred by this event.

Likewise, the wounds of New Orleans will heal for many folks, but for others, this is a catastrophe beyond words. The firing of the FEMA head - oh, I forgot, he was "removed" to Washington- will not erase the wounds, of those who have lost everything, who have lost loved ones, who are completely displaced. It was a Beslan by neglect on a massive scale.

This is what happens when mindfulness is not practiced.