Libraries and Book Dorkdom :)

I'll start off with the question for comments. Does this make me a total book dork? (Be kind in your answers!)
On my massive walk of Tokyo Monday afternoon, I came upon a library. Of course I entered. There were two free temporary exhibits (unfortunately both entirely in Japanese), one on kimono history and the other comparing historic and present-day photographs of Japan. When I saw that the OPAC had an English option, I had to check it out. I've been trying to figure out why all the books in the school libraries are catalogued as 933. (Unfortunately still no answer as to why the Japanese equivilant of Dewey seems to be one number...) So, who do I look up but my favorite young adult author, John Green. And after fighting with the Japanese keyboard, I eventually realize that the library 'should' have a copy of some John Green book. The next 10 minutes were memorizing kanji and searching the stacks. Eventually....presto! Here I am with Looking for Alaska, John Green's Printz award-winning book. Success! I had to get my picture, even though I couldn't read a word of it. I was so excited that his book was part of the collection of some random library tens of thousands of miles from his home that I had to get my picture pretending to read. (Don't rule out a new Read poster.) I was extra excited because John Green's third and most recent book was published in mid-October, after I left the US. It's a sure bet that if I had been in town on October 23rd, I would have driven to Orlando to hear him speak. As it is, I can't wait to read Paper Towns when I return to the states. Any other 'Nerd Fighters' among my readers?

If all invasive species looked like this, I think we’d be more active in making sure we didn’t introduce them to new environments.

(Horror!!!! The obese red-eyed, bushy-tailed, double-fanged Mammal will come after you in the night.)

It was interesting to note, however, that a lot of native Okinawan birds are the same ones we see on our coast. Okinawa is working on rebuilding wetlands as a flood barrier, just like Bradenton is doing in Robinson Preserve. They just have about a 15 year headstart; luckily, mangroves grow quickly.

On another unrelated note, I found a church in Tokyo and decided to see how it compared to churches in the US and Europe. Fr. Roy, take note. They’re a little more strict over here! Do you like cantaloupe? How about gold-plated ribbon? These beautifully decorated cantaloupe are 15,000 yen, about $18 in the rapidly (!) declining US dollar. And I had trouble paying $1 for 1 apple...