Waikiki--Again

This is the third time that the Army has sent me to Hawaii. Once to Schofield Barracks, and twice to Waikiki for conferences / planning sessions. This time around, I have some Japanese officer buddies from the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF) helping me to plan an exercise in Kyushu, Japan (southern most island). Kyushu, incidently, is where Nagasaki is located

I was in Kyushu in April for an initial planning conference, and my good friend Lieutenant Colonel Takano (Judge Advocate General Corps, JSDF--lawyer), arranged for me to visit the cave where Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest swordsman in Japanese history, sat down and wrote the "Book of Five Rings." The samarai penned the small book in his sixties, to reflect on just why he won over 60 sword duals in his lifetime. American business picked up on this little tome in the '80s, during the "What the Japanese are Doing Right" educational blitz. Apparently, the Japanese thought this amusing, since the book is not really a metaphor for business tactics, but a manual on how to "cut a man down" with a long sword and short sword. It does lend itself well to the imaginative lecturer.