Yesterday I went up to the town of Obama, in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, to watch the results of the American presidential election with the residents of the town. It was
the place to be in Japan yesterday. There were hula dancers, a wacky Japanese band, and some very happy town residents (not to mention a huge Japanese and international media contingent). They had CNN going on giant TV screens and when CNN called the election for Obama, the place went mad. It was great. On a related note, I wrote my epitaph for the Bush years
here 
One of the best things I saw in Obama yesterday was a tiny little shoe store in the shopping arcade that was displaying these oil paintings of Obama. It reminded me of the old households of African Americans who used to display pictures of JFK and Martin Luther King together.
