Japan 2023 Part 6

 

On Saturday, one of the guys who had invented a tea processing unit invited us to come to his home on Sunday for me to drive a tea harvesting machine. So, at 0930 in the AM, we trekked just under a half mile to his home. After a warm welcome and some iced coffee, he let both Davey and me drive the harvester down a row. It was interesting and extremely sensitive in the steering. Afterwards we picked some of the tender tea shoots—it is harvested 4 times per year. The friend’s wife fried up the tea leaves in tempura and served them along with cookies made of green tea. The tea processor has several acres of tea bushes—that last about 100 years. He also grows rice and strawberries. The wife served us up a sweet dessert composed of shredded frozen strawberries mixed with a little sugared milk. The farmer had eaten so many strawberries as a boy that he no longer eats them. He also showed me the very elaborate shrine to his ancestors inside his home.

For Sunday lunch we went to Jolly Pasta, a very popular local Italian restaurant. It is Nene’s choice for her birthday celebration. The cheese fondue with little toasted pieces of bread was very good. For dessert I ordered us a banana pizza with chocolate sauce and a small scoop of ice cream. It was good, but not quite as good as it sounded.

For 4 adults (Bre and I shared a meal) and 2 kids the bill was 8360 Y= just over $60! When I checked the median household income to be a bit over $39k, it shocks me what food costs.

Japan 2023 Part 5

 

Saturday was a special day in Davey’s local community. He and his young colleagues spent a few hours cleaning up their highly decorated and sophisticated cart. This was immediately followed by an all-day cook-out. Though it was pretty hot, we spent the day eating a variety of grilled foods:

Sweet garlic roasted.

Scallions dipped in miso.

Barbeque diaphragm—very good.

Chicken wings

Chicken on wooden skewers with onions between

Barbeque tongue—a bit tough, but tasty.

A variety of beverages are drunk, a few of which were non-alcoholic. The drinks included potato wine, plum wine, sake, and a variety of beers.

Especially noteworthy was that most of these young men- all under 40, mostly smoked or vaped. They were very hospitable and most of them made a point of spending some time chatting with me. Another noteworthy experience was how highly esteemed my son Davey is in this culture. More than one of these guys made a point of telling me what a fine fellow he is and how highly he is respected.

The mothers and school children were all at the Nagoya Aquarium on a field trip. They had between 4 children and two.

Japan Trip 2023 part 4

 

At 2:50 sharp we put Anna on the bus for Terminal 3 of Haneda Airport in Tokyo. As we stood waiting on the bus, I heard clear English and struck up a conversation with a young man from San Bernadino, CA who moved to his native country of Japan to teach English, just like David.

Anna’s return trip was stressful. Her bus encountered heavy traffic, which was built into the schedule, but Anna had no way to know that. Her plane was late taking off and her layover in Seattle for clearing customs was only a little under 2 hours. Her checked bag never appeared, but she, along with about 10 others were allowed to board their Denver flight despite the doors being already closed. In Denver she made a long walk to her BHM gate, but was able to grab some food, which she needed.

Bre and I and David’s family returned to Kakegawa, and the girls mourned the loss of Anna to return home. We did too!

Japan 2023 Part 3

 

It was HOT in Japan in July and early August—one of the key reason David runs at 0400. After sunset, it cooled nicely. Later, When we went up near Mt. Fuji the weather there was much more pleasant, though still sunny and warm.

On Saturday we went to the Kakegawa Castle and did a wonderful, albeit hot, tour. We followed that up with a visit to a “conveyor-belt sushi” restaurant. Here you ordered off an I-pad menu at your table. You order, the food arrives via conveyor belt and you get billed. As you empty dishes, most of these fit into a slot where they are whisked away. This technique of ordering food via computer at your table seems very efficient. Noteworthy too, no one tips in Japan.

On Sunday we three visitors led a worship service in David’s home featuring 1 Jn 5:1-12 and “Jesus Loves me.” It was sweet and I kept it very short. The lack of Christian visible presence here is again remarkable.

On Monday, 31 we drove up to near Mount Fuji. Even the drive up was interesting for us visitors. The drivers “pull-off” we stopped in was entertaining with an elaborate sales center. We bought soft-serve ice cream, which was tasty. It seemed not as sugary as ours, and was a bit pricey.

We spent some time in a tourist area reminiscent of Gatlinburg, Oshino Hakkai. It had Fuji-supplied cold clear water with lots of trout spread out in 8 ponds. One of the treats was a shop filled with deer-leather goods. That aspect got real when we saw some spotted deer on our drive to the wonderful resort, Sanctuary Villa which had a wonderful view of Mt. Fuji. We had the clearest view we have ever had, and David took a photo showing lights on the mountain as people climbed towards the top at night.

Monday, 31 July we also got to visit the Yamanashi Prefectural Fuji-Spring Fed Village Aquarium—whew! It was great. They had hundreds of fish and some very neat displays.

We boarded two paddle boats, one shaped like a duck and the other shaped like a swan (—sort of). The lake there, Yamanaka-ko, made a beautiful display at the bottom of Mt. Fuji. This was definitely a popular tourist area.

Japan 2023 Part 2

 

On Thursday AM (we left on Tues, 25 Jul but lost a day at the date line), we took a taxi from right outside the hotel, and for 7k (1.38.39 Yen/$=$50.58) Yen we 3 made it to the Shinagawa bullet-train station in good fashion despite much traffic. From there we took the bullet train to Kakegawa. The trains are very clean and run on time. Our 10:04 train arrived in Kakegawa at 11:34. Finding the train took some help from friendly Japanese travelers, but wasn’t tooooo hard. The trains don’t tarry long, so you have to be ready when the doors open. Wrestling our 9 bags wasn’t too hard, and fortunately there was only one small suitcase already on our train. Cost from Shinagawa to Kakegawa was a bit over 14,000 yen for Bre and I (=$102). Davey, Rie, Nene and Juno met us at the Kakegawa train station in a van and coupe to hold all of us and our baggage. It was about a 25 min drive to Davey’s house.

The first morning, Friday, at Davey’s house we made a 5-mile (6mile on my Fitbit) run at 0400. The area is suburban and there is a long hill at the 1KM mark. We did not encounter a single auto until the last KM of the run. We did see two people out walking for exercise. At about 0830 we were headed to the beach. The sand is dark, similar to Galveston beaches. We only paid about $4 to park. We left there after about 45 min due to the strong currents. Parking at the second beach was free. Neither beach was crowded.

Friday night dinner was at Sawayaka. For 7 of us, total was about $71 for dinner (no tipping here). Their specialty was ground beef cooked rare with a salad and some vegetables. The meal was delicious and their sweet potatoes were especially good.

The first night of sleep at the hotel was 6:49 hours with a score of 73—which was good for being jet-lagged and getting no sleep on the trip out. On Friday night (2^nd night in Japan) my sleep score was 83 on 7:31 hours of sleep. This was an increase from the 7.0 hours of sleep and 71 score of the first night at David’s. All these traveling mercies I attribute to G^d’s blessings.

Japan trip 2023 Part 1

 

Japan Trip Report 25 Jul-8 Aug, 2023

Had a very smooth trip from the USA to Tokyo—thanks to the prayers of our friends and the provision of G^d. The plane to Chicago landed right on time, which only gave us about 20 minutes to travel to and wait at the gate. Nice.

The 12.5-hour flight to Tokyo on ANA-All Nippon Airlines—was probably the nicest ever (remember this!). The food was good and the service excellent. I did NOT want to sleep due to the time zone change, and the discomfort of trying to sleep in an airline seat. The trip went by quickly, which surprised even me. It took a while to work our way through Tokyo customs at Haneda Airport, but it was only a short and convenient walk with our 3 bags each to get to Villa Fontaine Airport Hotel. Our rooms were small (Anna Grace traveled with us and id’ed the hotel so we could make reservations.) but functional. We got into the hotel at about 10 PM. You are automatically booked into your room and given a key by a machine similar to the modern airport kiosks. There was no breakfast or room snacks, but they did have pour-over coffee available when we checked in. It was very easy to use and tasty.

Reflecting on AI

My Initial Reflections on AI

Most of us can remember when the FIRST word-processors came into general use. I have spent most of my professional life writing scientific papers. My earliest papers were typed on a typewriter with the typist committing her novel errors in addition to my own. I was among the first graduate students to type my own dissertation, with my wife's help, on to an Apple IIe computer with tractor-feed paper. Thus, having already experienced the many, many advantages of word-processors, I was frustrated that my research university was slow in adopting it. I know well that word-processing made my career so very much more productive and enjoyable than it would have been with typewriters.

We are now so accustomed to word-processors that few of us have seen a typewriter in many years. One aspect of the word-processor is that all programs now have “Spelling and Grammar” checking options. As a University professor, I do NOT recall anyone having ethical reservations about using spell-checkers on word-processors.

With AI generation of written work, we see word-processing “on steroids”. Now we have much, much more than spell-checking. But, hopefully we having learned a bit from the popular adoption of word-processing, I would suggest:

1. AI text generation is here to stay.

2. AI use in writing is extremely difficult, though not impossible, to detect.

3. It is an amoral tool—though my friend, Dr. Richard Edlin, does point out that AI creators do have moral & ethical positions and it would be impossible for those not to manifest in AI products.

4. AI is a tool, like word-processing, and it, like the computer itself, like electricity, like most technology, has good and bad aspects. E.g. The World Wide Web has made it possible to minister the Gospel worldwide in seconds, it has also make internet pornography a very convenient means for serious sin.

5. AI is a tool, and it should be utilized for the good of mankind, with acknowledgment that it will also be abused to the detriment of mankind.

6. The only ethical restriction I can envision, is that like plagiarism, we must not use AI's words without rightfully acknowledging them. (Note that we did not require that of word-processing use, but it was adopted so fully that everyone knew it was being used—perhaps AI will be the same and only when it is NOT used would that be noted.)

AI is a tool that is here to stay. Let us explore ways to ethically use AI to help us all. As Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us, “There is nothing new under the sun!.” G^d is not surprised by AI. Mankind is clearly fallen. I predict, with certainty, that AI will be used for evil, and for good. AI may contribute to the end of the world, but G^d is omniscient, omnipotent and still interested in mankind, and in charge. We don't put our faith in technology but in the G^d who created man, and everything in the cosmos (Gen 1:1).

For a deeper, fuller discussion of these issues see, Edlin, Richard (June 2023). It’s a matter of the heart: Thinking Christianly about ChatGPT & AI. It can be found at,

All of Life Redeemed. https://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/RJE2023ChatGPT.pdf