Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series. The next day, I took a train journey to Sofia, Bulgaria on an old dirty overnight train that had no sleepers and hard uncomfortable chairs. A stop at the Bulgarian border took two and a half hours to check passports, even though there were few […]
The Kaeru Kid
THE KAERU KID: Roaming Romania and Bulgaria
October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.†― Mark Twain, […]
THE KAERU KID: Manzanar and more in Lone Pine
August 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The annual pilgrimage to the Manzanar National Historic Site takes place during the last weekend of April. This coincides with the opening of trout season that so many Nikkei look forward to, and this year was predicted to be the best opening in years as far as the weather and the chance to catch a […]
THE KAERU KID: A small bite of the Big Apple
July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are six million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.â€Â — Neil Simon I love New York and try to visit at least once a […]
THE KAERU KID: An island vacation for a song
March 29, 2012 by 1 Comment
One does not need to be okanemochi (a rich person) or have lots of vacation days to enjoy an exotic island vacation. Do you remember the song “26 Miles (Santa Catalina)â€? The distance is actually shorter and the story behind the song is quite interesting (see: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/15/entertainment/ca-socal15). There are many ferry rides that take an […]
THE KAERU KID: Bogota, Colombia: More than coffee
February 24, 2012 by 2 Comments
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series. When one hears the word Colombia, thoughts of coffee, cocaine, and emeralds might come to mind, and not necessarily in that order. On my recent visit to the capital of Colombia, none of these entered the picture. In November, I came from the beautiful city of […]
THE KAERU KID: Medellin, Colombia: The City of the Eternal Spring
February 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series. This city was once infamous for being Pablo Escobar’s home, the notorious head of the cocaine drug cartel, until he was killed in December 1993. The murder rate was very high and no sensible American would dare visit. There were an estimated 6,500 murders in 1991 in […]
THE KAERU KID: Go, going, Ghana (pt. 2)
January 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series. We again traveled by taxi to the Accra suburb of Teshie to see coffin makers ply their trade. The coffins are elaborate and limited only by imagination and money. It can take up to a month to construct coffins that resemble fishes, cars, boats, cigarettes, […]
THE KAERU KID: Go, going, Ghana
January 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series. Where? The lure of a fantastic low airfare offer and a chance to stay with couch surfers to save on accommodation costs hooked me, a sucker to travel anywhere I have not been before. A relatively expensive visa was required, as well as a yellow […]
THE KAERU KID: Farewell, Bend
January 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Bend, Ore. received its name when pioneers traveled to farmlands west of the Cascades. They forded the Deschutes River at the last hospitable place before reaching their destination and would call out “Farewell, Bend†and those that stayed here gave it the full plaintive call as its name, but when the application for a post […]
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