Nathan’s school is in a very residential area off base (the school itself is a house-converted-into-a-school type deal). In the house next to the school is a day-care and at the end of the block is a Japanese elementary school. Streets in Japan aren’t wide to begin with and as the little elementary kids walk their way to school its not possible for two cars to pass so we spend a lot of time creeping down the block. Nathan always asks about walking to school and I tell him “when he’s older.” I used to walk to school. Except in high school when I could drive, and I think technically we lived so close to school that it took me longer to drive, find a parking spot and walk in, then if I had just walked to begin with. Alas.

As I dropped Nathan off today I caught our 60-second radio news bit and heard they found the body of that girl in Florida and it gave me goosebumps. Why do things like this just continue to happen? With all the media outlets and twittering and social sites and satellites and whatever else we have to watch over us- how do we continue to LOSE people, only to find them days later in a dump?

Moving back to the United States is going to be a rough transition for me because in Japan, well, Japan is like the safest place on Earth. Being on a military base in Japan, I can pretty much let Nathan go grocery shop on his own and know he’ll be ok. For a good 6 months now we let Nathan go outside and play (with other kids) unsupervised (to clarify, he plays in our cul-de-sac at the park or in the yard with the neighbor kids while we are inside, checking on him periodically) and I never think twice about anyone taking him. He wanders a few aisles away at the 100yen store and while I dont like it,  Im not panic stricken. Hopefully Im not just being naive.

I’ve always been amazed when we have been in some of the bigger cities of Japan (ie Tokyo) that you see small children (like 5 and 6 yrs old) walking to school by themselves. On the busy streets of Tokyo.

I don’t know if this post really has a point. I have to believe that someone had to see that little girl after she was taken. Someone had to, right? When I was younger whenever we went on long trips I’d watch the cars passing us and if I ever saw one that looked “suspicious” I’d memorize the license plate because then maybe *I* would be the lucky caller on Unsolved Mysteries that had the missing clue: a license plate number. Well, I never was but I still try and be observant. I always stop if there is a child wondering around without a parent nearby. Do you think of someone was more observant she could have been found? I know there will always be bad people in the world. I just have to believe with all the technology at our disposal nowadays that it should be so much harder to pull something like this off.

Filed under: The Whole Wide World