It just keeps getting better and better…..

The news that is-personal and professional.

Besides the fact I have to be in Korea for two weeks when I should be dealing with more important things like finding gainful employment and figuring out where I am going to live a few months from now-here or there-the news on TV gets just better and better.

Under the category of “It sucks to be them”-its not a good day to be a qualified OOD on the JDS Atago:

Suspicions mounted Thursday that the crew on watch aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer that ran over a fishing boat at 4:07 a.m. Tuesday failed to spot the trawler, and the Japan Coast Guard meanwhile suggested the warship may have been at fault in the collision.

The trawler Seitoku Maru, which was chopped in two Tuesday by a destroyer, is set on a pier Thursday at the MSDF Yokosuka Base in Kanagawa Prefecture. KYODO PHOTO

The destroyer Atago, which is equipped with the advanced missile defense Aegis radar system, hit the fishing boat Seitoku Maru off the coast of Chiba Prefecture. The two fishermen aboard — Haruo Kichisei, 58, and his son, Tetsuhiro, 23 — are still missing.

The 3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters determined, based on gray paint traces found on the recovered trawler wreckage, that the Atago hit the fishing boat on the port side. The trawler’s bow and stern sections are lying on a pier at the MSDF’s Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture.

This suggests the Atago bore responsibility to bear way and yield to the trawler. Maritime law requires vessels to yield right of way to boats approaching from the right.

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Meanwhile-at Marine Corps bases across Japan, the lock down continues:

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Marine officials Thursday shot down rumors that a base restriction for all military-sponsored Americans on the island would end Monday.

“The period of reflection will last for an indefinite period of time,” a press release issued by Marine Corps Bases Japan stated. “At this time, we cannot speculate on future changes to the order.”

The restriction was imposed Tuesday by Marine Lt. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer in his capacity as the Okinawa Area Coordinator, the highest-ranking U.S. officer on Okinawa. It affects all military personnel, dependents and Defense Department civilians on Okinawa and on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and Camp Fuji in mainland Japan.

Under the order they are restricted to their bases, except for travel to their off-base homes, place of duty or employment, worship, education, or medical or dental treatment. All other activity outside the bases, such as shopping or frequenting off-base restaurants and clubs, is prohibited.

Local restaurants were particularly hard-hit.

Meanwhile, Mark asks an interesting question:

…is it possible to have raped a juicy girl if you paid enough, and if so, are you entitled to a refund?

Initial media reports in the latest case said the woman was in Japan on a visa as an entertainer and that the soldier told investigators he paid her for sex at an Okinawa City hotel.

An employee of the hotel told Japanese reporters the soldier and woman checked into the hotel at 10 p.m. Feb. 17 and that he left at 9 a.m.

The rape allegation grew out of her visit to a local hospital for treatment for serious bleeding, according to media reports.

This by the way is not helpong the Okinawa situation at all.

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As for my news-the less said the better. Things are starting to happen-just in the wrong geographic and obligatory order. Which creates a huge age old dilemna: Do what you want to do-or what you kind of deep down know you need to do-even if you are going to hate yourself in a year for it?

Film at 11.