Given Mr Koizumi's friendship with Mr Bush, many worry that relations between America and Japan may cool after he goes.

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In Japan the cool kids wear Arnold Palmer or Playboy stylish clothing.

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The next stop was the frozen north of Sapporo, more like a mid-west American town than Japan, with cool temperatures and an air-conditioned stadium with a spectacular Teflon-coated roof.

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Since the March 11 earthquake that ravaged northern Japan, workers at Fukushima Daiichi have been struggling to cool down three overheated reactors and keep pools of spent but still potent nuclear fuel from spreading further radioactive contamination across northern Japan.

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