Yesterday, when we stepped out of the Yokosuka train station we took a detour on our walk back to the Main Gate. Melba had not had an opportunity to stroll through Verny Park and I thought she would enjoy seeing it. The favorable weather that greeted us in Odawara followed us back to Yokosuka so the park was a nice place to be that afternoon. As I've stated in an earlier post, Verny Park runs along 2000 feet of bay front real estate and provides a good vantage point to observe the Navy's port facilities. Someone operates a boat service that gives riders a tour of much of the Navy's port infrastructure for only ¥12. Looking across the water from the rail that runs the full length of the park's boardwalk we saw that there were no less than five Japanese submarines moored there, each flying the rising sun, the military flag of Japan. It was an uncommon sight for us."Take my picture," I said to Melba.
We each pack a pocket-sized digital camera wherever we go and since we've been in Japan I've begun to make an appearance in more of our pictures. One day I'll be a decrepit old man with only my memories and a few dog-eared photos to recall my former earthly glory or what's left of it. I know you can't form a sentence with the word photogenic and my name in it, but this mug is all I have to work with. I had hoped that God would have been more generous in the "Hollywood-good-looks" department, but I've come to believe that He showered that sack of blessings on my dad and when my turn came the only thing left in the bag was lint. I suppose God figured that was all I needed on the outside.
Luck paid me a visit this morning and it wasn't even my birthday. It would have pleased me to no end if she had been Lady Luck. I like her. She carries money, but this one was just called Luck and she wasn't handing out cash. I looked out my window and caught this scene out in the bay. It was one of the Japanese submarines slowly moving out of the harbor. I quickly reached for my camera. To an old ranch kid like me, raised out in the sticks in the South Texas brush country, what I saw was cause for excitement. As a kid the only thing I ever saw moving through the water like that were the heads of snapping turtles bobbing like corks on the still surface of the ranch lake. My older brother used to shoot at the turtles with a .22, the sub, I can only take aim with a camera.
