Tour Tales

I’ve had some really fun guests in the last couple weeks, including a couple from New Mexico and a young couple from Italy.

The Italians, from near Milan, love to travel. She is a teacher of Japanese language. He works as an optometrist. This was their second US visit in recent years. They have also been to California.

They spoke limited English but loved Niagara Falls, the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds. They also ate 3 slices each of DiCamillo’s pizza each, first what they called “neopolitan,” we call it "old fashioned" or "romano," then mozzarella.

They had fun interaction with the folks from New Mexico who are used to the desert and amazed by the size of the Niagara after looking at a depleted Rio Grande.

“We dream of living in America,” the Italian named Michaelo said. “It would be wonderful.”

“Why would you want to move here?” the New Mexican man asked, with a tone of skepticism that comes from living in an America that needs to be made great again.

“Because everything is free and Italy is too expensive. We spend 50% of our money on taxes and it is only getting worse.”

I brought them to Whirlpool State Park.

“It is so peaceful here,” the Italian woman said. “This is a beautiful place. You are lucky to have this near your home.”

As much as our country sometimes seems on the rough side, especially given what is going on in Washington, D.C, it is important to gain some perspective.

Different perspective came from a Japanese guest who works in Manhattan in banking and survived being on the 80th floor of the South Tower on 9/11.

He flew in for the day from New York with his son from Tokyo. He only gets to see his family a few times a year. He said Japan is an even more wonderful place to visit right now because the Yen is severely depressed. Interest rates on bank accounts are at 0.01 % or less. Consider 3% inflation and for the average Japanese family, their money is losing value daily. He was 55, too young to retire but dreaming of it.

Waiting in line at the Cave of the Winds, we saw some Asian people.

“There are no Japanese people here,” he said matter-of-factly. I asked him how he knew.

“Because Japanese people are very peaceful. Chinese and Koreans are not the same. They have tension. They always want to fight”.

I didn’t question it because of his confidence but it gave me pause that made me recall crass Howard Stern games like “Who’s the Jew” or “Guess the Gook.” Most people I know, myself included, can’t tell but my Japanese guest could.

It reminded me of the banker from Hyderabad, India recently who told me even though his people still were leading their Mosque, he feels like a stranger in his own house because of the people of Bangladeshi descent who recently joined his congregation. While it doesn’t seem politically correct, the emotions are real, like a pebble in your shoe. It is better to take off your shoe, shake out the pebble and admit your socks smell bad than to pretend you aren’t getting a blister.

My Japanese visitor talked a bit about baseball as well. In Japan, Ichiro led a generation to play ball. If it wasn’t already, baseball became the national sport. Then came Ohtani. The craze deepened.

“Ohtani is not human,” my guest said, laughing. “He is another species.”

He said his job is very stressful, involving lots of decisions and responsibility over loans, credit and investments.

I told him I run a news Website as a community service, do volunteer work, work as a tour guide because I love sharing my city and work for Allstate helping people with investments, retirement planning and life insurance.

We stopped at Whirlpool State Park and walked down to admire the river from above.

“This is your front yard?” he said. “It is so peaceful. I like your life better than mine. I could buy a house and move here.”

The thing is, he probably could. One more time, I have another explanation for why, when people ask me how I am I answer “thankful.”