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An overnight visit from Jody's refugee friend, Anna Kamura, and her two children at our guest apartment on the grounds of Soka University.

7/23/2017

Anna and her two children, Fatima and Chloe, sought political asylum from Malasia 6 months ago and were traveling from Malasia to Canada where they already had an approved Visa. However, at Tokyo Airport for unknown reasons Japanese Custom Officials confiscated her passport, put her in detention, and separated her from her children for 6 weeks. She was eventually reunited with her children and currently lives with them in Tokyo in a refugee program. She has human rights advocate lawyers working on her behalf so she and her children can continue on to Canada. Japan has not granted her even temporary asylum. It has been extremely stressful for Anna and her children and she hasn't been outside the city since arriving. Jody and I invited Anna and her children to stay with us over last weekend so she and the kids could get out of Tokyo and experience some fresh air. Hopefully, it helped. Jody and I plan to remain in touch with Anna.

Fatima, Jody, Anna, and Chloe, from L to R.

On Sunday, we all took a walk around the beautiful Soka U. grounds.

The Poi in the University's pond all came up to greet us, opened their mouths and begged for food.

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Trip to Hikarigaoka Park

7/20/2017

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Jody and I visited Hikarigaoka Park (AKA Grant Heights) on July 20, 2017. Since April 3, 2017, we have been living in Japan at Soka University where Jody is a visiting guest lecturer. This park is the childhood home of my friend, Karen Williams, who has such fond memories of her life here as a child until she and her family left in 1972. However, this didn't use to be a park. It was formerly a U.S. military base: https://en.japantravel.com/tokyo/hikarigaoka-park/611. After the military left, the Japanese government converted the entire base into a beautiful park. Jody and I have traveled extensively around Japan since arriving and have seen many parks. This one was special, not only for its connection to Karen, but also because of its beauty and tranquility. It is clearly a treasure to the surrounding community and is known to be pretty much off of the beaten path, lying just outside Tokyo proper. The pictures help tell the story. Jody and I look forward to getting together with Karen to discuss our mutual Japanese experience when we return to Sarasota, Florida in August, 2017.

Our first view of the park as we approach the entrance from the subway.

My welcome to Hikarigaoka Park!

One of our major problems has been that neither Jody nor I speak Japanese. Thus, we are unsure what this statue signified.

We entered the local library as we understood that there was a section devoted to Grant Heights.

This was the first of several pictures hanging in the Grant Heights section.

This is the Grant Heights section. Virtually all of the books in this section were in Japanese.

Map of the park.

We began circumnavigating the entire park. It was a weekday, Thursday, and there weren't big crowds, just various cyclists, joggers, walkers, and people enjoying the serenity of the park.

There were numerous rest stops like this one located throughout the park.

The West entrance to the park.

Our only disappointment was being able to locate the park's plaque. We spoke with the library staff while visiting and showed them this picture. The language barrier was considerable. They had no idea where this plaque was located and the one staff person with the best English looked at the writing on the plaque and said it belonged to a different park. Go figure.

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Okinawa - Day 5

7/15/2017

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On our last day in Okinawa, we chose to finally go to a Japanese cinema, something I had always wanted to do while in Japan. We were able to do so in the afternoon and saw the new movie, KING ARTHUR. It was in the original English soundtrack, but with Japanese subtitles. Although the movie wasn't great, it was enjoyable and gave us a nice, air conditioned afternoon before our bus AND monorail ride back to a different hotel in Naha, the Hotel Hokke Club.

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Trip to Okinawa - Day 4 (MY BIRTHDAY!)

7/14/2017

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Jody and I started out our day by taking a trip back to the beach which I enjoyed the previous day.

How nice! It was much clearer and crisper on my birthday. Thus, there were more people on the beach. Yes, I know that for you that live in Sarasota, Florida, home of Siesta Key Beach, winner of the world award for the nicest and purist sand in the world, I should be blase' about this. But, hey! It's Japan, Okinawa, and the Pacific. Give me a break.

Ok, there's Jody with both hands up above and to the left of my right foot. Yeah, I know. Enough feet!

A nice shower after the beach, and on to the birthday festivities with a short walk up the beach from our hotel to just outside American Village and to the Four Seasons restaurant (not related to the U.S. Four Seasons). It came recommended for its steak.

Jody looked GREAT!

However, she did at one point look a little like JANE EYRE with this scarf holding down her hat.

The Birthday Boy? Meh! The usual. We proceeded to dine on a course of pork, steak, and lobster tail. Delicious and deserving the restaurant's reputation - great food that's over-priced. Actually, considering what we got, the bill wasn't half-bad.

We both were so relaxed and very happy campers following this meal. Now, on to the major tourist-trap, American Village.

It's called American Village because it appears to chiefly cater to the local American servicemen at the U.S. Military Base in Okinawa, as well as others. Basically, they sell pretty much the same stuff we can get at home, only at a higher price (which figures considering the transportation and import charges). Our hotel manager told us that tourists visiting this resort town are comprised mostly of Chinese, S. Korans, and Japanese. We all know how much Chinese love to buy American stuff.

It was somewhat sobering to see a toy of the U.S. B24 Liberator in a local toy store here. It was a heavy bomber that flew many bombing missions over Japan and I suspect, Okinawa. Well, I guess it IS American Village. At least it wasn't the B25 Mitchell that bombed the Hell out of Tokyo in retaliation for Pearl Harbor (THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO - Great book and movie, BTW).

One last round of sunset pictures for Jody.

Right above the sunset in the middle you can glimpse a jet being given a very dramatic sunset picture.

This was the best selfie I could get of us due to the intensity of the sunset.

After the sunset, Jody and I continued to shop around the hugh shopping village and made our way toward the ferris wheel for Dick's birthday ride.

Inside the building that lead to the ferris wheel, there was a working train diorama of Godzilla and other Japanese movie monsters destroying the town. Hilarious! The Godzilla they used is the actual one that I purchased for my nephew, Eli.

The look above from inside the ferris wheel cabin. It ferris wheel moves so slow that it took 15 minutes to make one complete revolution.

Looking out toward the ocean.

What a wonderful birthday I had. Thanks Jody.

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Okinawa - Day 3

7/13/2017

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This was Jody's day to go scuba diving and mine to chill on the beach. First up - pictures from Jody's sinking into the depths off of Okinawa.

See above of Jody and below from THE ABYSS. I always knew that Jody was "Way Out There!"

First, you have to get out to the dive sites.

"Hello Jody!"

Hunk on board. Figures.

So now we go from Jody scuba diving like Mike Nelson in SEA HUNT to me sitting my fat ass (not a hunk) down on the beach and groovin' to music and the surf. Did I mention that it was HOT. Just like back in Sarasota.

Looking down the beach.

Looking up the beach. Very exciting.

More feet. That's it!

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Trip to Okinawa - Days 1 & 2

7/11/2017

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From the airport, we arrive at our hotel in Naha and before we can check in we decide to go for a short walk to what is supposed to be a be a shrine with beautiful gardens.

Nice views of the Pacific with a sandy beach for families to frolic in.

And there was, of course, a cruise ship at harbor.

Rubbing the head as I need all the luck I can get.

The gardens weren't as beautiful as we had hoped, possibly because it was the dead of summer and extremely hot. The picture above is of a shrine commemorating the sinking of a Japanese ship with many children and families aboard by a U.S. submarine during the battle for Okinawa. As recorded below, it was hushed up, presumably by the U.S. Government, until years after the war. Typical!

After a nice night at our hotel in Naha, we took a 50 minute bus ride and arrived at the Beach Front Tower Mihama hotel in Chatan with a beautiful view of the Pacific. This was probably one of the nicest hotels we have stayed in and it was only about one year old. Exquisite.

Of course, it wasn't quite as beautiful yet as it was low tide. Wait until you see it during high tide.

Looking out our balcony we see American Village with its signature ferris wheel. At first, we were disappointed as the ferris wheel didn't appear to be turning. Only later did we discover that it was indeed turning, just very slowly. Finally, I'll get a ferris wheel ride in Japan.