Wayne_san comments

You people ... I don't know whether to laugh or cry ... seriously. I left Japan in February '05 (not my choice - job requirements) and am back in the USA ... you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one each of every fast-food gut-bomb joint there is. With the weather turning cold, what I wouldn't give for a bowl of Miso Ramen ... sigh ...

Japan, like youth, is (apparently) wasted on the wrong people.

I'd like one of each, please. Variety is the spice ...

I wonder if there was a Christmas tree beside Christ when he was born in cold Winter.

Calculating from clues in the Bible, Jesus was born in the autumn, not December. The shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks - unthinkable in the cold of midwinter.

Been there at Christmas. December isn't "midwinter". It isn't that cold, either. After Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at St. Mary's in Nazareth, walking around in a light jacket was quite comfortable.

Still, it's ironic (comically) that the holiday is actually a Christian spin on a previously "pagan" holiday. And now, it's a huge commercial enterprise.

Japan was a very cool place to spend Christmas (speaking as a non-christian bachelor half a world away from family and their traditions).

Speaking from experience, I say it's a nice piece of precision flying. Coordinated sky writing like that is harder than it looks ... and the poster who mentioned spacing is quite correct ... that's one of the more slippery parts to get right. Nice photo, too. (I miss Yokohama.)

I saw a TNR program in the Florida Keys work very well. While the cat was anesthesized for the procedure, it's ear was marked so that if it turned up in a trap again, it would be immediately released Pity the feral cats aren't effective in holding down the runaway crow population.