#flathal #flatstanleyproject #Japan #okinawa
The Flat Friends’ first port in Japan was on the island of Okinawa. Our fellow passengers were amazed by the island’s unique history. Before 1879, Okinawa was part of an independent nation called the Ryukyu Kingdom. It became a Japanese prefecture about 147 years ago. For 27 years after World War II, the United States governed the island before it was returned to Japan in 1972.
Each time we enter a country, local officials process paperwork. Our passports are checked, making sure we are citizens in good standing (well behaved) with permission to travel. Often the cruise ship takes care of this for us, and we go ashore without even being aware anything happened!
Sometimes, we have to appear before a local official, with our passport in hand. At one of these “face to face” checks, our passport is opened to the photo page. The official makes sure it is our passport by comparing us to the photo, and makes sure the passport hasn’t expired. (Many countries now take a picture of us, and scan our passport into a computer and let technology do the comparison!) In Japan we placed our index fingers on a scanner, so they could take our fingerprints.
Once it is confirmed everything is good the passport is stamped, and we are marked as entering the country.
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