Alan Fox

Shortly after we arrived in Tokyo for a three-week vacation, I needed to be seen by a doctor in the central hospital because there was a little blood in my urine.

The Japanese doctor seemed quite competent, but when he threaded a catheter as part of the exam – suffice it to say I felt quite uncomfortable for a minute or two.

As a way to distract myself… I began to hum.

I didn’t hum just anything. I hummed a song I had first heard in 1953, the year that the movie LILI was first released in U. S. theaters. (click here to see a clip of Leslie Caron as a. 16-year-old waif, singing the song.)

The lyrics aren’t as important, but obviously the catchy tune was memorable enough that I have carried it along with me for more than seventy years.

And what a great distraction it was. As I hummed the tune, over and over, I was thinking more about what the doctor was thinking about my humming than I was about what he was doing to me. Isn’t it amazing how humming a little tune can make a frightening situation better.

For the rest of our cruise around Japan the high points for me were both the friendly Japanese people and our day in Busan, South Korea.

We’re back now, but my favorite moment during the entire three weeks was – as usual – walking into my bedroom at home after we returned.

I’ll be seeing a local medical specialist to follow up. Perhaps I’ll hum a happy tune through the exam… Hi Lili, Hi Lili, Hi Lo.

Alan

Somber.

That word fills me as I visit the city that was devastated (there is no other term that will describe it) by an atomic bomb – the first ever to be detonated over a populated area. The second was detonated over Nagasaki a few days later at the end of WW II.

We took the attached photo of the domed building at ground zero, through the arc of a memorial to peace that was later erected.

Hiroshima was bombed when I was five years old. It was a day when people were going about their ordinary activities – taking a bus to work, raising their children, and planning for their future.

On August 6, 1945, the population of Hiroshima was approximately 350,000. In an instant, the dreams and lives of more than 100,000 of those souls abruptly ended.

Today’s population is well over 1,000,000, and the city supports a major baseball team.

Japan and America are now close allies.

Irony is part of life.

Alan

Last Wednesday morning in Tokyo, I woke up a little after nine am. Daveen was peering out the window of our Disneyland Hotel and told me it was snowing.

Tokyo. Mid-March. Snow.

With a group of family members, I spent the rest of that day inside DisneySea, a Japanese theme park inside the Disneyland Resort in Tokyo.

How did I like the rides?  I didn’t like, or dislike, any of them — for the simple reason that I didn’t go on any of them.  The crowds were too large and the lines too long. I’m simply not willing to wait three hours to experience three minutes of what? Terror?  (At least on the roller coasters.)

What did I learn?  Beyond any possible doubt – I dislike waiting in a line for two hours to get in anywhere, and I absolutely hate crowds.

If this had been a baseball game (yesterday the L A Dodgers played the opening game of their season in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs) the score might have been:

Disneyland – $2,000

Alan – one hot dog-like bun with something in it. I don’t know what. Somewhat tasty, but I asked Daveen to donate the second one to a hungry grandchild. He finished it off quickly.

But the crowds!  Did I mention that we stood in line (as part of a mass of thousands) for more than two hours to even enter the park?

And did I mention the walking?  I force myself to walk at least 3,000 steps a day. Yesterday I put in 8,164 steps.  Daveen tells me she walked twice as many.

Fortunately, I’m about to chart my own destiny for the next few days and it doesn’t involve standing in any lines because I had the foresight to bring six books to read. I’ve already almost finished Framed by John Grisham and Jim McClosky. I’ve also started reading. Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. It’s an expose about the antics of those who founded Facebook. The dust jacket describes the book as, “A cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism.”  The New York Times book reviews claims it is “an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world.”

Meta , the parent company of Facebook, doesn’t want you to read it. So, what else is new?

I’ve traveled to Japan for a two-week cruise around the entire country. The cruise starts in three days. Disney was a side trip for the family – who love all things Disney.

We all learn from experience. But, I prefer to benefit from the mistakes of others, rather than mistakes of my own. But now I know. Disney just isn’t my thing.

So, I guess I’ll hang out for the next three days in our hotel room. I’ll buy snacks from the hotel’s small convenience store where, last time I looked, there were no crowds of thousands blocking my way.

As Daveen and I are fond of saying, I enjoyed both of my visits to Disneyland Tokyo.

My first, and my last.

Alan

P. S. In fairness to Daveen, who loves everything Mickey (and who makes the best of every situation), she had a great time. But she usually does. And I’m enjoying the books I’ve brought to read, so all in all, we’re off to a great start.