The GW Carrier Comes Home to Protests

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington is replacing the USS Kittyhawk (a carrier my dad flew jets off of back in the 60's). But now this new carrier is nuclear powered (which obviously brings back painful memories for the Japanese people) so many of them held protests prior to the GW's arrival and on the day it came into port. I teach English off base near the bay every other Thursday and this past week I taught happened to be the same day the carrier came home. My Japanese students take the train from Yokohama (30 minutes north) so stepping out of the station and seeing the protests near the base got their hearts pounding. They had to pass through a couple of demonstrations on their way from the train station to our meeting place, but they were fine, the Japanese protesters aren't violent. Compared to European protesters they are quite civilized and non-threatening. They raise their voices and shout at times but mainly they're just a well-organized group of disgruntled people holding signs. I can see both sides of the argument but the GW is not being reassigned to another location so we'll just have to be a little nicer to our Japanese friends off base and help them get through this awkward transition. Gomen! (Sorry)! I should have baked the protesters some homemade chocolate chip cookies. It's hard to be mad if you're eating something sweet. :) Peace, love & cookies!