Friends, great conversation, and still learning!

While walking to have dinner and visit new friends, I saw a protest occurring which was interesting to watch. Similar to the United States, they had a police escort in front and behind to protect them from traffic and violence but it was interesting to watch. I was only able to get a picture from behind unfortunately but I imagine it was close to 50 people marching and chanting on a loudspeaker. I asked a man standing next to me on the street corner what they were protesting and he said he didn’t know. He stopped where he was going and led me closer to the group to find out which was thoughtful. He said that it was hard to understand but it seemed like they were protesting the government’s increase of the national military and defense budget. Interesting.
The food continues to be awesome and there are snacks everywhere ha. Also laughed at an anime version of Cruickshank haha.
I had a wonderful conversation with a new friend for over two hours about ai and how it is changing our world. He works in marketing and we discussed some of the implications. We had many laughs with the translation and I felt like we could talk for many more hours. Great guy.
While walking around the city today, I was impressed with the flood channels. They were widely used for recreation when not in use to control flooding and I enjoyed watching people enjoy the nice weather.