Yokosuka

NDA HQ building

Today, I had a very useful discussion with a former Ministry of Defense official before heading off to Yokosuka, the site of both the big US Navy base and the National Defense Academy.  It was the latter we sought as Takako Hikotani is a professor there when she is not guest professing at Columbia.  It was fun to see her students whom she made practice their English with me.  We toured the campus and met her colleagues. 

NDA is their military college--West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs all in one.


Their motto, seen to the right, was most interesting. Courage, Honor, Propriety.  Definitely not an American motto.  The first two parts? Sure.  The last? Nope.

 I love a good Star Wars reference

 There was some drills we watched--they are rusty due to spending their recent time studying for exams.

The advantage of commuting with a research partner is that I learned that this ad and the average ad on the train are for companies that seek to loan money at very high rates. 









Twas a very warm day and no typhoon yet.  It as a good start to the month of research.