{"id":2856,"date":"2000-11-08T00:20:00","date_gmt":"2000-11-08T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sch1auh0s7.site.nfoservers.com\/wp_lew1slau\/?p=2856"},"modified":"2022-04-25T00:33:01","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T00:33:01","slug":"okinawa-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/2000\/11\/08\/okinawa-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Okinawa, Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, and was undergoing chemotherapy since March. In late October the doctors announced that the cancer was not under control, and due to my mother’s deteriorating health, there was not much they can do at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I don’t understand is that these doctors, the best that Taiwan has to offer, decided not to tell my mother about her own condition – I get the idea that sometimes people get worse if they know of their own status\u2026 but my point is that if the doctors decide not to tell the patient, is it up to the family to inform their loved ones?. To this day I do not understand how they can decide to play GOD and not let my mother know, instead lying to her and telling her that she was on her way to recovery\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to my current visa status, I am not able to go back to Taiwan to visit her, so Dieter arranged a trip for me and her to meet halfway in Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also in the process of setting up appointments with doctors in the United States to have a “second opinion” on my mother’s condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since she was in good spirits, and there were no obvious symptoms that were bothering her, both my mother and I were looking forward to meeting for a brief relaxing visit, a break from the usual hospital life, so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the trip, I was already looking forward to seeing my mother in Okinawa, and also see her again soon in Minneapolis. I had no idea that this would be the last time I got to see her\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A few nights before I flew out, there was this amazing thunderstorm at around 2:00am…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Can you believe this picture was taken\u00a0without flash\u00a0<\/strong>at 2 in the morning? Gives you an idea how\u00a0bright<\/em>\u00a0the sky was that moment…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Picture from the airplane, heading towards Japan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
I landed in Narita International Airport at around 5pm the next day, and immediately took the shuttle bus towards Haneda Airport (the domestic hub). Checked in to the Haneda Tokyu Hotel…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
I am totally in love with this\u00a0washlet<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0gizmo. It is this attachment onto a regular toilet;\u00a0heated<\/em>\u00a0seats plus a\u00a0spray jet\u00a0<\/em>underneath. I don’t know about the spray, I think it takes a bit to get used to a waterpik for your behinds… but that heated seat, oooooh so nice for those freezing winter nights in Minnesota (for example, current temperature in MN is about 15 degrees F below, without windchill)!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
I am sure the designer of this specific model\u00a0added\u00a0<\/em>that water pressure control for\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0reasons… hehe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had called my old friend Maki from California International School (Hong Kong) to see if she wanted to meet me for dinner, since I had to fly out tomorrow morning to Okinawa, and may not have time to see her when I get back…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She brought her friend Yuko (whom I had met before but hadn’t been in contact for a few years)…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
My friends Yuko on the left, and Maki on the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
That’s me and Yuko. I was really tired since it was about a 15 hour time difference (read: Lewis was eating a big meal and drinking beer at 6 in the morning)…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Called mom and made sure she was all right for the trip tomorrow, since she had been in the hospital most of the time from March of this year. She was psyched to be coming to Okinawa, to see me and Dieter. Went to bed pretty early – I didn’t want to miss my flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Got to the airport and met up with Mr. Arakawa and Dieter at the JAL check in counter. The temperature in Okinawa was a warm 29 degrees C, close to spring temperature in the United States… I don’t mind that one bit, springtime temperature in November and all…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The coolest thing I have ever seen on an airplane – they placed a camera directly under the body of the airplane, and displayed the camera view while we took off… awesome.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Perfect weather outside the airplane, blue sky and all…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Wonder what the temperature was like in Minneapolis at this time… \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Mr. Arakawa taking a short break from his usual busy schedule…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The view outside the window…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
… and the same view from the monitor right in front of me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Taxi map of the Okinawa islands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Gullable me, I actually thought that was the ultimate TREE HOUSE… later found out that the tree was just\u00a0plaster and concrete<\/strong>…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Yup… one of those i-mode Docomo phones in Japan. Cool as\u00a0&%*#<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Somehow I always manage to get a buzz the first night meeting Dieter… it’s hard to keep up with his drinking capacity… Sometime around 10:00pm I started taking pictures from inside the restaurant…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interesting thing about this hotel… its name is Okinawa Harbour View Hotel. I look all AROUND the hotel and where is the harbour<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer came later when my mother explained… she visited Okinawa around 30 years before, at the exact same location of what is the hotel today… at that time there\u00a0was<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0a ocean view from where we were, the then-American club of Okinawa… how creative, these Japanese folks – run out of land to build more buildings? Just fill the ocean to make more land…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While Dieter and Mr. Arakawa started talking, I was dozing off… and I used to be so proud since I never had jet lags…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, and was undergoing chemotherapy since March. In late October the doctors announced that the cancer was not under control, and due to my mother’s deteriorating health, there was not much they can do at this point. What I don’t understand is that these doctors, the best that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/DSCN0245-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2885,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions\/2885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}