OKINAWA, Bolivia — Shiko Asato is glued to the TV set as NHK news shows the highlights from a recent sumo tournament. His wife Shizuko sets out cups of green tea, a plate of manju bean-paste buns and a couple of cans of nicely chilled Japanese beer. It has, after all, been a scorcher in the jungle.

"Oh, when I think back!" she says with a laugh that belies her 78 years. "When we arrived here we didn't even have water. We'd collect rainwater from puddles. Every day we'd cook a kind of mountain rat. There was nothing else."

Recalling the past, the couple breaks into hearty laughter. While Okinawa, Japan, was recovering from its post World War II trauma, the Asatos were barely surviving off rats and ditch water in Okinawa, Bolivia.