The Dalat's Update winter 2017

The Dalat’s Update The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

Winter 2017

Exploration

෭๜͡Ο΄ๅෛ

Adventures

Sapporo City Hall, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Taste of Japan Page 1

from Japan

Achievements

Contents

The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

Introduction

Page 3

Exploring Japan

Page 7

Dan’s Corner

Page 4

Taste of Japan

Page 8

Daisy’s Den

Page 5

Gadgets

Page 9

Hanna’s Canvas

Page 6

Family Legacy

Page 10

FUJI SUNRISE - Photographed by Lieutenant Colonel Lan Dalat, US Army Japan 2016 Army Digital Photography Contest Winner Awarded 1st Place in Division 1: Active Duty Military People Category Subject: US Army Captain Nhu Weare, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Vietnamese - American Location: Mount Fuji, Japan Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Lens: XF18-55mm Settings: 1/60 sec at f/ 6.4, 18.8 mm, ISO 800

COFFEE BREAK - Painted by Paintyul on Instagram.

It was a great honor for me to be selected as one of the subjects painted by a Russian artist who’s living and painting in Italy.

The unique aspect about these portraits is that the artist uses coffee as color for the painting.

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The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

HIGHLIGHTS Academics Dan received college admittance letters from several universities with four years scholarship and financial packages

30 Years of Service

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FUJITEN, JAPAN: Dalat family travels to Fujiten Ski Resort near the base of Mount Fuji where they enjoy skiing with the sponsorship of Boy Scouts of America Troop 34 based at Camp Zama, Japan.

On Dec 27, 1985 Lan enlisted in the Army Reserve. On 21 Dec 1996, Lan received his Regular Army commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Birthday Celebration

inter in Japan is much milder than what we were getting used to in Seoul, Korea. Due to our elevation and location on the Kanto plain, we received slushy snow during a one day period and melted all away the next day.

We had a busy winter that filled with adventures and achievements.

The winter adventures took us west to Nagano where we experienced snowshoeing and cross country skiing for the first time and north to Hokkaido where we witness some remarkable snow and ice sculptures at the 68th Sapporo Snow Festival. Then, we went south for a skiing adventure at Fujiten Ski Resort.

However, in between of those adventures, we worked hard at school and at work to earn our pay and to achieve greatness. Those achievements did not come easily. They come with a price of hard work, commitment to excellence, and many long hours.

One of the things that we enjoy doing during our trips is to look for the best food in town and to experience it. In Japan, there are many good choices. In this journal, we highlighted one of the best sushi places in the northern region of Japan.

To capture our adventures, we want to show you some of our new tools of the trade.

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During the Winter season, Lan is the only celebrating his birthday since he was born on the eve of the first full moon after the Lunar New Year in the Year of the Goat.

Sapporo Snow Festival Sapporo Snow Festival is a week long showcase of the most amazing work of arts carved out from snow and ice.

Mailing Address LTC Lan T. Dalat PSC 704 Box 3737 APO AP 96338

The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

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ecision, decision, and decision. Dan has some tough decisions to make during the next few months as he needs to narrow down to one choice for academic institution in higher learning.

During the summer, Dan and his family traveled up and down the west coast of the United States visited some of the universities. Having seen a glimpse of a college life, Dan worked hard during the fall applying for acceptance into those colleges.

Dan receives his Principal’s List award from Dr. Louis D’Angelo, Zama American High School’s Principal in the auditorium where the junior and senior class are attending the recognition ceremony.

Toward the end of winter and early spring 2017, acceptance letters (email) and scholarship offering began to arrive. Historically, these letters arrived in U.S. Postal Service mail. However, with the modern digital technology and conveniences these news arrived as an email message with a URL links to a website where the accepted student was issued a student ID for the logon process.

Upon clicking on the link, a new website popped up and asked the student to input the logon ID and create a passphrase. The excitement began to wear down as frustration increased due to the passphrase requirement. “Sorry, your passphrase is not correct. Please try again.” After numerous attempts, Dan got into the website only to see more highlighted links that would lead him to the acceptance letter.

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The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

Cadet First Sergeant Daisy attempts to stay afloat by manually inflating her Army Combat Uniform during the Army Junior ROTC Leadership Training at Camp Zama, Japan

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t the beginning of the winter, we were concerned with some of Daisy’s grades due to her involvement with the Tennis Team. As the number three in the team, she was selected to complete a all levels to include the regional champion ship in Okinawa.

Thus requiring her to miss her classes to compete. However, she worked hard and overcome those challenges.

Not only did Daisy earned the Varsity letter in Tennis, she was also promoted to cadet First Sergeant in the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps ( JROTC) and received the Principal’s List Honor for maintaining 4.0 GPA or better during the second quarter.

Daisy receives his Principal’s List honor from the Principal, Dr. Louis D’Angelo in the school’s auditorium where the junior and senior class are attending the recognition ceremony.

For Daisy, good news did not stop there, on Friday March 17, her parents received the news that she had been selected to be a member of a prestigious organization - the Zama Chapter of the National Honor Society.

The selection was based on her Scholarship performance, her Service to the community, her Leadership, and her Character.

Daisy is scheduled to be inducted on March 23, 2017 at Zama American High School on the outskirt of Tokyo, Japan.

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The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

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ecently, a note was sent home along with a copy of the artwork (above). Based on the note from her teacher, Hanna’s artwork titled “Save the Animals and They’ll Save You” was selected and sent on for final judging in Washington D.C. If win, the artwork will be used to promote the Combined Federal Campaign’s (CFC) Show Some Love” campaign.

In addition of doing great work at school, Hanna had volunteered to do a Taekwondo demonstration at school. Each day after her homework, the Taekwondo second degree blackbelt Hanna practiced with two nunchucks until perfection. “Daddy, can you buy me some boards. I want to practice breaking them.” Hanna asked.

An artist at heart prepares to go to school on a crazy hat day.

To get anything fast here, we go to amazon.co.jp. As an Amazon Prime member, a click of purchase, 10 boards would arrive at the main gate the next morning. Can’t wait to see her at the demonstration next month.

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Exploring Japan

The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

Otaru Canal, Hokkaido, Japan

Nagano

Lake Ashi, Hakone 68th Sapporo Snow Festival, Japan

Osaka

Susukino Ice Festival Yokohama Chinatown - The largest Chinatown is all of Asia outside of China.

Page 7

Tokyo Tower

Godzilla, Shinjuku

Japanese Food

Sushi Chef prepares a tray of freshly made sushi for customer at Sushizanmai Sapporo.

Minnie prepares to pour sake for Lan before the meal as a Korean and Japanese tradition.

The Dalat’s Update Winter 2017

2017

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fter a long day walking in the cold admiring at more than 200 spectacular snow sculptures along a mile long Odori Park, our family became separated with Daisy for an hour. Due to careful planning by the organizer, a Police station was strategically placed next to the food area to assist festival goers with lost and found and other services.

Earlier during our stroll along the path, we identified that as a meeting point just incase we get separated due to overly crowded venue. Based on that plan, Daisy returned to the Police station where we were able to reunited and continued on with our agenda.

Following our visit at Odori Park, we walked over to Susukino Site in the vicinity of Ekimae-dori (Station Page 8

Avenue). There were some amazing ice sculptures on display in the middle of the avenue.

The sun began to set and our stomachs started to growl, we explored along the restaurants row to find a place to dine. As we were windows shopping, Minnie recognized the King of Tuna Kiyoshi Kimura who won the annual auction of the prized bluefin tuna for 74.2 million yens or $636,000 dollars during the new year. Immediately, we went inside Sushizanmai Sapporo and prepared for an ultimate sushi experience. So far, that is the best sushi restaurant outside of Tokyo.

Ice sculpture with sea food inside

Dalat’s Darkroom

FUJIFILM X-T2 camera offers the retro camera looks and feels but equipped with modern conveniences such as flip out screen, remote control using an modern iPhone/iPad apps. The auto focus is extremely fast while capturing up to 11 frame per second. For me, most important feature has to do with lens mount. This camera allows me to use my old Leica lenses with ease. Best of all, this camera has a solid construction that feels right in my hand. It is smaller than my old Canon 7D. This small form factor mirrorless camera allows me to travel light while not sacrifice quality. In addition, I’m able to use my Leica and Canon flashes. If you are in the market for a mirrorless camera. This is the one.

For a cheaper version, you can look at the X-T20.

Fujifilm X-T2 with Leica 50mm f2.8 lens

CAMERA ACCESSORIES SAMPLE IMAGES:

EVERYDAY SLING

FIELD POUCH

SLIDE

Stores audio recorder

Multi purpose strap

Using the Fujinon 23 mm, the beautiful bokeh was rendered at f/2 with sharpness and color rendering. This is a sub $500.00 lens. This shot is usually achieved with full size sensor camera and expensive lens

HIYUN CRANE

Fujifilm X-T2 performs exceptionally well under low light condition.

This photo was captured at 3200 ISO and has no noticeable noise level detected. Additionally, no moire can be seen.

This gimbal is light and amazing to use. Very easy to balance and allow me to create very smooth movement in video capturing. See video on YouTube below.

https://youtu.be/Dq05J-GRDlY

Family Legacy

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The plaque comprised of three major elements proudly sits on the desk of Lt. Col. Lan T. Dalat in side building 101 at Camp Zama, Japan. Element 1: the rescued photo of the Vietnamese boat people. Element 2: the only surviving artifact from the wooden boat that was saved by Patrick Coffey. Element 3: the steel brick from the flight deck of the USS Ranger.

n March 20, 1981, 36 years ago, my mother, my siblings and I were given a second chance of life after being stranded on an unseaworthy wooden boat afloat helplessly on the South China Sea for more than 10 days while in search for freedom outside of Vietnam. 138 lives on that doomed vessel were on the verge of slow death due to starvation, dehydration, and exposure on the high sea.

Suddenly, our fate changed drastically due to other crisis around the world. On January 20, 1981, the 444 days Iran hostage crisis came to an end. U.S Navy Captain Dan A. Pedersen received orders to redeployed his aircraft carrier and crew back to their home base in San Diego, California. The crew of more than 5000 sailors were eager to return home after an extended tour of duty on the USS Ranger CV-61. “We were extended, until further notice, until the hostage situation in Iran was over…our deployments would normally last six months, going out there and back.” Bill Burris a former crew member recalled the event.

After the port call in Singapore, the Ranger

and its crew were underway to US Naval Base Subic Bay, Olongapo, Zambales, Philippines. During their deployment on the Indian Ocean in support of the hostage situation in Iran, most of the pilots were grounded due to tensions in the region. So on that leg of their redeployment, most pilots were back in the air to maintain their proficiency. Early morning on March 20, 1981, two EA-6B electronic warfare pilots reported back to the command center that they have spotted a boat full of people.

“Do you know what it takes to make a change of course for an aircraft carrier.” US Navy retired Captain Pedersen asked with a friendly grin. That evening, a fleet of ships appeared on the horizon where the unseaworthy wooden boat was stranded. All 138 lives were saved on that day. I was one of them. Sitting proudly on my desk at the Office of the United States Army Japan G6, is this plaque that has a photo of the rescue, the compass from the unseaworthy wooden boat, and the steel brick from the flight deck of the USS Ranger CV-61.