Where's Ron?
Japan, 1 December 2015 - 24 February 2016
Ron near Rotarua, NZ, January 2015
Hip Hop, Oysters, and Cranes
14 January 2016
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
At the suggestion of our friend Allen, Ron visited the Crane Observation Center outside Izumi, Japan. Here is his account. He also sent photos and a 6-second video (turn on your sound!), which was the longest video his slow connection allowed him to send - larger ones timed out during the upload after an hour or so!. You can look at the photos and video by clicking on the link below
Ron says in his report about the cranes that "there were concerns that the population was in danger so the Japanese government and the local community decided to do something," and this year the count is up. But he doesn't say what the "something" was that the government and community did. Lost in translation, perhaps? You can find information about the Crane Observations Center on the Web (the area was registered as a sanctuary in 1921), but I didn't find anything that talked about measures to restore the population.
Love to all,
Ellen
Hip Hop, Oysters, and Cranes
To see photos of the Crane Observatory at Izumi, click on the thumbnail at the left.
13 January 2016
Fukuoka, JapanHello, my dear,
Saturday night's Hip Hop production was nothing like I expected - lots of different groups of 2, 3, 4, 5 or more amateurs doing different kinds of choreographed hip hop dances, some with lots of fast movements and all with good music. They were very good and the facility was packed. My friend was the MC and fit the role very well, interviewing the dancers after their performances with lots of laughter getting them to speak.
Sunday I was driven up the west coast to Itoshima, a small fishing town with lots of boats and perhaps 10 or more large building with tables for people to eat whatever is in season. We had oysters in the shell (large) cooked on a gas burner on our table until they opened, some fried oysters, some rice and oysters, and even oysters in my soup (which I forget the name of), plus some very large scallops cooked the same way. Plenty of soy sauce with vinegar was available.
This is the area where I saw lots of palm trees. [Note from Ellen: Ron had told me he had seen palm trees and we discussed whether they could tolerate cold and/or freezing weather.]
I took the subway to the airport to meet Shin under a large billboard across from the entrance to the airport. I was concerned about finding it so I got there early - way too early. I wandered around in the airport, had a cup of tea and found a newspaper in English - The Japan Times published in association with The Times CO.UK. The two articles on the front page were "Wall Street ends its worst week since 2011," and "Sensor may detect cancer from breath." Both were interesting articles.
Then this young Chinese guy walked up and joined me under the sign to wait for Shin. It turns out he is a post doc working with nano tech materials for the "sensor" in the article. Which connects to one of Ned's interest: nano-technology. Then when I opened the paper to the inside there was a big headline article: The march of the machines: how they could take control (another of Ned's interest). Strange coincidence.
On Monday I returned to the Vietnamese restaurant and had a pleasant evening talking to customers from Taiwan and the Philippines as well as the Vietnamese and the Japanese owners.
Tuesday, Jan 12, I caught an early train to Izumi in the south of Kyushu Island to see the cranes that Allen, being a bird expert, told me about. This is the second time he has participated in my travels and I will try to send a video home. The best one was too large to send and some of the smaller ones show my learning on a new camera and are not edited or well made.
At one point in time the population of cranes dropped very low and there were concerns that the population was in danger so the Japanese government and the local community decided to do something and this year the count has reached 17,005 (and that "5" was included every time I found the number posted around town. When I arrived at the train station in Izumi, the information desk told me about the local bus, which for 1000 yen, about $8.50, would include the circular bus and the admission tickets for the museum and the observation point - that made it easy. From the bus I saw cranes in various fields but at the observation point where they provide feed, there were thousands. Quite impressive. I bought a video for Allen that played at the observation point and in the museum.
Since I skipped the museum on the first stop, I went around the second time to see it. I walked back to the train station instead of riding the loop again and waiting at each stopping point, and the walk through the fields and part of the town, while cold, was very pleasant and interesting. There are crane pictures, statues, paintings on buildings, sculptures, metal models on posts, etc all over town.
Having some extra time, I took the train further south to Kagoshima and walked from the train station to the lake front to see the active volcano in the middle of the lake that every now and then dumps a tiny bit of ash on the town. I wondered what it would be like to live next to an active volcano. It was a large and impressive size to be looming over the modern city. I was too late to enjoy the large aquarium on the lake front so I took a bus back to the train station and took the evening train back home to Fukuoka.
Love and miss you,
Ron
Back to the Japan accounts and photos index
cfw.com
Questions? Send email to Ellen, ebouton 
Last updated: 23 January 2016
