I got home yesterday from an extended trip to Tokyo and regions. I was in the capital for both business and pleasure. During the weekdays I was busy following up thesis leads at The National Institute for Defense Studies and doing interviews at The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. NIDS was a typical government agency, old musty and dank buildings covered in moss populated by shuffling bureaucrats. The IEEJ on the otherhand was located on the tenth floor of a beautiful building with a great view, bustling with all sorts of people. The IEEJ is probably the only energy-specific thinktank in the world and employs over 200 people. I was amazed at the digs considering this is an NPO. Anyways, I obtained some good information at both places, and only wish I lived in Tokyo so that I could visit more often.

The weekend was spent with my dear Curzon and Lady Curzon (Lady Younghusband was also there) near Zushi, a popular beach town. Unfortunately it rained basically all weekend so we spent time at Kamakura visiting shrines, walking around the local areas, eating, and talking endlessly into the night about relationships, history and the future. On Sunday evening the four of us visited Adamu from Mutant Frog and his Lady in the Tokyo ghetto ;) where they prepared for us a great southeast Asian meal and we talked of regional politics, feminism, social quotas and how we each proposed to our wives (or didn’t as a certain case may be…).

A good time was had by all and I would like to thank Curzon, Adamu and their lovely wives for being such gracious hosts.

P.S. I uploaded some pics to Flickr.

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