Travel is . . .

. . .Sometimes painful

The television film from Japan, as I watch the Sunday evening news, is brutal. It has been almost three days since the monster earthquake and resultant tsunami destroyed so much of that beautiful country. Three days and thousands of deaths.

Painful.

It has been many years since I visited Japan - 17 exactly - but I will never forget the view from our lovely room at Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel. We looked out on Mt. Fuji, occasionally misted over, but always discernible if only by its unique shape. And to us, the entire country was unique. I play that scene of beautiful serenity over and over in my head as I watch the gruesome sights on my television screen.

I really loved Japan.

I thought Kyoto and Osaka were charming andwas mesmerized and awed by the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki. The countryside, people, shrines, the vertical growth of Tokyo were all remarkable.

It was an experience of the senses and the end of a 14-day stay in Asia. The three days in Tokyo were a highlight I will never forget.

When I view the horrendous destruction the storm visited on the country - and the damage to Hawaii and the Northern California coast - I am once again made aware of the power of nature. It is absolutely daunting.

And painful.