π Shioyazaki Lighthouse, Fukushima
The land flattened out, then it stopped being land, and a month after I had walked the sand of the Sea of Japan, the placid waters of the Pacific Ocean lapped against my bare feet. The night was warm and black, and I shot rockets into the sky with a group of giggling college students. Our barrage would soon be returned from Santa Cruz, California, the place where the 37th parallel reached land again: as our munitions grew low, the clock ticked over, and it was the Fourth of July.