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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.

Jody started tracking the sunset from our hotel room balcony.

Right next to us was a beach called "Sunset Beach." Now you can see why in the following pictures.

And in the last sunset picture, there was a cruise ship on the horizon.

Even though it was high tide, one was still able to walk out into the water quite a distance from the hotel.

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Visit to an event sponsored by Refugee Empowerment Network (REN) to learn a dance called Awa Odori

7/8/2017

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The Ofuna Monorail Coincidence

6/30/2017

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Ok, these coincidences are just getting ridiculous. Every day now I wake up to see what else strange will happen. Several weeks ago, I noted that a new Blu-Ray edition of Francois Truffault's 1966 movie, Fahrenheit 451, was being released. This film was, of course, taken from Ray Bradbury's famous dystopian novel of the same name. I managed to get a copy and Jody and I watched the film together here in Hachioji. Below is the poster for the film.

In that movie were a number of scenes with a futuristic monorail. When I saw this movie in 1966 at the age of 17, I had never seen a monorail before and was impressed. Back here in 2017, I wondered aloud to Jody if I would ever get to see a monorail. Below is the monorail as seen in the film.

Fast forward to June 28, 2017. On that date we traveled on our second trip to Kamakura. While there, we stayed at a hotel in a town called Ofuna. When Jody and I first got off of our train in Ofuna we began walking to the hotel which was right next to the train station. All of a sudden I heard a loud noise like a train above my head. I looked up and there was a monorail speeding past. I was amazed. This was the last place I expected to see a monorail and so soon after watching the movie. Will little wonders never cease? Below are pictures of the Ofuna monorail.

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Return to Kamakura - Day 3

6/30/2017

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On Day 3 we set out to visit the Ōfuna Kannon Temple (大船観音寺 Ōfuna Kannonji) which was within sight and walking distance of our hotel in Ofuna. This is a Buddhist temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The outstanding feature of the temple is a 25 metres (82 ft), 1900-ton reinforced concrete statue of the bodhisattva Kannon. Construction of the Temple began in 1929 by the Sōtō school of Zen. The outline of the statue was complete by 1934 but work was suspended at the outbreak of the Pacific War. The Ofuna Kannon Society continued construction work in 1954 and the Temple was finally completed in 1960. The statue construction is that of sections of poured concrete and was performed entirely by hand. No concrete pump trucks were used. The surface of the statue is oft painted white. The statue itself contains a small museum and shrine and both are open for viewing. The Kannon incorporates stones from ground zero of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to commemorate those who died in the explosions of the atomic bombs. A fire originating from the atomic fires of Hiroshima burns in a mushroom-formed statue.

From the top we should see the Hotel Mets where we stayed while in Kamakura.

The remarks in the sign-in book are generally reflective of a culture in Japan that emphasizes peace and love.

Inside the statue where we found hundreds of little golden Buddhas.

Following our visit to the temple, we set off via monorail for Enoshima, a beach side resort and playground a short train distance from Ofuna.

I finally get to ride in a monorail.

Notice how the vehicles are stacked on top of one another. Interesting parking solution.

We arrive in Enoshima, a small island off the Shōnan coast of Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture. It’s known for the Enoshima Shrine, with statues honoring Benzaiten, the Buddhist goddess of music. It's also home to the Enospa hot springs and the 19th-century, English-style Samuel Cocking Garden with its Sea Candle lighthouse. The Iwaya Caves feature tidal pools and Buddhist statues. Popular mainland beaches overlook the island. And for all you Beach Boy/surfing fans, Shonan Beach IS the surfing capital of Japan. The sun rises slowly, coloring the sky and the majestic Mount Fuji with a faded orange tint. The ocean also rises, offering a group of surfers a ride to the sandy shores. It’s just another perfect day for the locals along Shonan Beach.Among surfers worldwide, Japan is not considered a must surf destination like Hawaii or Tahiti because its surf is small and inconsistent. But Japan is home to hundreds of miles of sandy beaches, and its coastline hides reefs, points and river mouths, enticing many surfers to test the waves off the Land of Rising Sun. And the most famous surf area is Shonan Beach, a 20-mile stretch from Oiso Beach to Hayama Beach in Kanagawa.
Located about an hour train ride from Tokyo, 10 miles from Yokosuka Naval Base, 15 miles from Camp Zama and Naval Air Facility Atsugi and 43 miles from Yokota Air Base, Shonan Beach is often featured in TV shows, songs and movies. The “capital of surfing” in Japan has its own laidback atmosphere, a mixture of California, Hawaii and a Japanese fishing village.

Don't ask me. ???? I don't have a clue.

From the top of the island's tower.

As I've said before, I don't like to eat anything that spares back at me.

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Return to Kamakura - Day 2

6/29/2017

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On our second day in Kamakura, Jody and I visited another temple in the morning. Like so many others, it was known for its beautiful gardens and in this case, its Hydrangeas.

Another beautiful rock garden.

With an unexpected sunbather.

So cute.,

Now, did Jody wear blue on purpose?

After the temple visit, Jody and I returned to downtown Kamakura and linked up with her long-time friend from Emory College, Sachiyo Tahira, for a lovely lunch at a French restaurant. Jody had not seen Sachiyo in over 20 years when Jody was last in Japan. It was a wonderful opportunity for Jody to get together with her old friend.