Greetings from Japan, where the steam coming up from the sewer grates smells of Hai Karate. (Younger readers may have to Google that one.)

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Here are the famously overpriced musk melons. I'm not sure if the $40 is for one or for a set.

The joke goes "The last time I paid $40 for a set of melons..." I'll let you finish that one yourself.

I would have bought one, but Kathleen says I'm musky enough as it is.

Wrapped in tissue paper? Is that necessary?

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You Southern-Californians in this readership may not realize this, but Nagoya Japan is Los Angeles’s sister city. That information and 140 Yen will buy you a cup of coffee at Denny’s. (They really do have Denny’s over here. Can you make ‘Moon over My-Hammy’ with squid?) There is a monument here in Nagoya’s Central Park to the union of the cities. There is a lovely fountain which is more like a mountain stream running over rocks. Just like in Los Angeles(?) Hmmm. It reminds me of all the places outside of Los Angeles you can go to see lovely rivers. Actually a fake stream is a perfect tribute to Los Angeles…It’s completely artificial and contrived… yet still nice! And the City of Los Angeles donated the rocks as a sign of civic sisterhood. Rocks. Someone drove up into the San Gabriels, crated up rocks, and sent them on a plane to Japan to install in a fake river. Your tax dollars at work.

I don’t know what Nagoya donated to Los Angeles for their sister city tribute, but whatever it is, I bet it’s still in the crate in a warehouse in Norwalk.

The other part of the sister city tribute is a re-creation of a portion of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There are stars set into the sidewalk, but only a select 25 or so famous movie stars. They are set in alphabetical order, which is a bit odd. Nothing in Los Angeles is that ordered. And how did they decide on which movie and music start to include on the mini-walk? Hard to cipher that one. Alphabetically, right between Robert Mitchum and Anthony Quinn sits the star belonging to Olivia Newton John. Don’t get me wrong, I love Olivia Newton John. I just saw a movie called “Sordid Lives” which had a small but lovely appearance by Olivia. But add that movie to Grease and Xanadu, and that pretty much rounds out her film career. Not exactly a movie icon worthy of sidewalk space next to Mitchum and Quinn. Maybe they just needed a ‘N’, and couldn’t think of anyone else. Don Notts? David Niven? Jack Nicholson? Willie Nelson? Heck even Judd Nelson had a bigger movie career.

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"Even a sheet of paper has two sides"
- Japanese proverb