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Honshu and Okinawa

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I am back. I spent 10 days in Japan, 5 days for work on the main island of Honshu and 5 days of solo adventure in Okinawa. Travel is so invigorating dispite the uncomfortableness. Jetlag, anxiety, crowds, and other discomforts aside, it is mind-expanding and rewarding. Work went well. I flew a new airline (Skymark) from Tokyo to Naha. I am always wary of strange discount airlines and all the traps they set. However, I had a great expereince with "Sky". I was actually shocked. Super easy checkin at the airport, no extra fees even with extra luggage. The primary mission in Okinawa was to visit the Peace Park and the suicide cliffs of Okinawa. From what I understand, at the end of WW2 the inhabitants were encouraged to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans and get tortured and eaten. Besides other types of suicide, they jumped off the cliffs at the Southern end of the main island. If you have seen the original color footage taken at the time, I am sure you ...
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Cuba Jurassic Park

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We are back from our Christmas trip to Cuba. A very unusual place for sure. Currently, there are no independent tourism visas issued by Cuba. We traveled on journalism Visas. So I am shamed into writing more as we get unpacked. Angie was questioned entering Cuba for at least 30 minutes. I had no questions asked of me. We don't know why. The people in Cuba were the most pleasant surprise. Extremely upbeat. I suspect you have heard outlandish theories of lizard people or Anunnaki or an otherwise different species of humans living among us. They are different, but look the same as everyday humans. In Cuba, it feels the locals think of the gringos as lizards. The lagartijas and the largatos, the special men and women intermingle among us, take pictures, drink alcohol and observe. They are indeed different. The clothes are different, the shoes are different. They walk a little different. It’s almost as if there is plastic bubble around them moving along with them, protecting them. ...
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Middle East 2022 trip

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We are back in Atlanta. We took our Thanksgiving holiday primarily in the Middle East. The country list was France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon. That made four new countries for us bringing our total to 85 Countries visited. We had 9 flight segments in 12 days and capped the trip off with marching in the Macy Day parade in NYC again this year. We are very strict on what we consider a country and we use the US State Department as the standard. We both lost (and gained zero) "countries" using this standard. Examples: Antarctica is not a country and isn't counted. Macau and Hong Kong were indepenpedent counties when visited, but now don't exist and aren't counted. There are a number of unexpected occurances that happen when using the standard over time. Unfortunatly, we got a bug somewhere in our travels that started providing symptoms in NYC. Black Friday was indeed Black Friday for us. We dont have much more recollection than being home in Atlanta. O...
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