ok, imagine your shoulder going 30KM straight down onto live coral. i swear i thought my whole right side of my body ripped off. it all happened in 2 seconds and i’ll be feeling pain for weeks or months.
after traveling all these years, as soon as something bad happens like getting hurt, the first thing that comes to my mind is ‘i wanna go home”… it’s nothing about being homesick or anything, it’s just i feel so comfortable in hawaii with the hospitals and stuff. so after hitting that hard and shaking up my whole body and soul, i was ready to drop everything and get back to hawaii the fastest way possible…
BUT…..
i feel like home here in okinawa. the people here are so caring and loving… people were helping me all night trying to cheer me up and make me feel comfortable. i’m really thankful for having such awesome people like that around me. it’s the aloha spirit that you won’t find in too many places….
as down as i was, i couldn’t be happier around such happy people. this was at hokulea with satoru-san, yumi-chan, and youichi-san. thanks guys….
after dinner, youichi-san took me over to hard reef to kill the pain. after 5 corona’s and 4 jack and cokes, i didn’t feel anything… well, except for youichi-san hugging me and squeezing my shoulder, and hitting my back, and stepping on my cut on my foot all night long. i would be like “ouch”, then he’d say “sorry”, then do the same thing over and over….. it hurt but i know youichi didn’t mean any harm…
then kazubo-san stopped by to drop off some sweet okinawan mangos to cheer me up. it sure did. i love this place and wanted to thank everybody for making me feel like it’s my home….
**and also wanted to thank the hundreds of emails and phone calls yesterday from people around the world. i really really appreciate each and every one of you. doomo arigato gozaimasu…. now i have to make a decision whether to stay in japan and bear the pain for i don’t know how long, or go back to hawaii and get proper medical care. the only problem is that it’s peak summer vacation here and i can’t get a flight out of anywhere….
