Hai, Hai,
It is 12:32 am Minamisoma time, now Saturday Oct 25. Friday we visited a tatami mat workshop and a large thermal power plant which supplies 18% of Japan's energy. It rained hard today, and the ocean was very turbulent; we were able to visit it for a few minutes since the power plant is very close to the ocean. It has it's own port where ships deliver coal, and it needs the water to cool the water it is returning to the ocean after heating it up. The power plant sits on 378 acres of ground, 16 of which have been reclaimed from the ocean. It was very interesting,and I have much more to say, but I might have to save some of the information for a presentation when I get back to Kentucky. I still have to pack tonight. Tomorrow we meet our host family and will stay with them Saturday, and then we will leave Sunday afternoon for a Japanese style inn called a ryokan (pronounced row-can). We were told that there would be no Internet access for those 2 days.
So, don't think that I've forgotten you, I will blog on Monday when we get back to Tokyo.
