A few months ago I realized I had about 6 days of leave (vacation time) that if I did not use before October 1st they would vanish (referred to as "Use or Lose" in the military). So we requested a random week in September when the new members of my workplace would be settled in and it would have minimal impact. I don't plan vacations well so we did not really decide was to do until about 1 month beforehand (minimum time required for me to get permission from the military to travel overseas). We decided to go to Okinawa which is a Hawaii-like island part of Japan for a week. There are a lot of pictures here so I will try to break this up into 2 posts with minimal commentary. Though in the end, part of the blogging is not for the world or to showcase my kids. It is to serve as a family journal so the kids can look back and see themselves and remember things.
Incheon Airport is busy. It is much easier to navigate when you fly a small airline (I actually bought tickets for Korean Air as I like them more and thought the extra $100 total would be worth it but the Korean Air actually turned out to the Jin Air which is a sister company using slightly older aircraft... lame) and when you have kids as they push you through faster.
Zachary loves the moving walkway. He loved to squat down and feel the little black bristles along the segments of the walkway brush past his fingers; he would giggle every time.
I think we took about 10 laps.
Oh, the red spot - he had a bug bite on the head, then he fell and bumped it and it turned into a bruise.
Southeast of Japan there are lots of really beautiful coral reefs in the region.
. Okinawan beaches are actually small bits of coral broken up so they are different from any other beach I have visited. You can see some of these coral reefs from the air (dark spots in the ocean)
Sleeping Kids
I am glad we rented a car ahead of time though finding the rental place was not really easy.
But I got to drive (you need an International Drivers License for anyone interested, $20 at AAA) during our trip England style: right side of the car, left side of the road.
We rented a place through Air BnB which had a small view of the ocean - in the distance anyway.
The first stop was the Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters which was used during the Battle of Okinawa in WW2. Here are some pictures of the small museum.
Believe it or not, this was the best picture we got in front of the flag.
A bit blurry but interesting info:
- 2.7 million shells fired at the island
- Over 200,000 people KIA
- 2,400 bodies were found in this underground network of tunnels.
Stamping our books before going in.
Cool night picture of the firefight.
Again, blurry. Sorry. The island was demolished. Really sad to see what war does.
Clearly an old gun, but more interestingly you see a stick fashioned with a knife. When the Japanese ran out of bullets they fashioned knives to whatever they had and came out of the tunnels to attack. Dedication to country and honor. Again, sad to see what war does.
Entering the tunnels
The tunnel system was done by a core of "engineers" given nothing to work with. They literally used a pick-ax to mine these tunnels and rooms into existence.
Painting depicting the engineers at work
Going into the communications room.
Some rooms and areas have sediment leaching through the walls covering everything now.
This was the medical room.
We took more pictures but they all looked like this. One room (commander's room I think) had been covered in plaster to coat the walls and one half there were ~100 pockmarks on one of the walls from a grenade used in an act of suicide. Sad.
Random moss/plants growing inside the tunnels
Monument outside
A bit windy
Yes, a bit windy as the tropical storm we came in with made landfall.
I am not sure if this picture was from this day or later - but it does not matter much. We passed out some granola bars which we thought were consumed but Zachary later found a chunk and painted his clothes, hands, and arms with chocolate.
Gratefully Charlotte was willing to help clean him up.
On our way to stop #2. I had to convince Charlotte to let Hazel sleep in her lap. Charlotte was not happy about this but we gave her lots of praise and a few days later she offered to let her do the same thing again all by herself (no prompting). Really nice of her.
Next stop bowling. Unique to Okinawa? Absolutely not but the kids view it as a grand experience because we don't go often. We let the kids take turns bowling under the same name. Sadly they did better than I did...
They had such a good time and it was raining outside so we started another game but interest dropped over time. Still, they had fun. As you can see from the video, Charlotte loved this Rhino-machine thing that would pop up on the screen when you got 8 or more pins.
The next stop was dinner: Japanese Ramen. This place was just downstairs from bowling and was super (pun intended) delicious!
Eating with Zachary is always a near disaster so we took turns. He is 18 months so what do you expect?
Sad it turned out blurry :(
The last stop of the night was Mister Donut.
DAY 2
I tried my hand at a new hair style: an inside-out ponytail. There is probably another name for it, leave it in the comments if you know.
Rain, rain, and more rain. but we set out anyway to the north part of the island.
Rain.
Rain and a beautiful lady
The destination for the morning was an Aquarium. It had great reviews and I can see why, it was really well done and the kids enjoyed it. Oddly enough the clouds parted once we were there and ready to spend time inside.
Quick snack and water break outside before going in.
The first stop was a shallow pool where kids could pet starfish and sea cucumbers - but very very gentry (not a typo).
Underwater shot.
Lots of beautiful fish. It really is therapeutic watching the fish float. It almost seems to make me feel like I am floating and I kind of forget about life for a moment as I contemplate the life of a fish.
Nice big eel.
Quick dash outside for the 10:30 dolphin show.
Blowing bubbles
Love this shot of Hazel. What a doll.
Here are the dolphins doing tricks. Mostly I wanted the Japanese writing in the picture. We have now seen some sea animal show in America, Thailand, and Japan. Very blessed indeed.
Here are the dolphins singing for us.
Back inside for more fish. Really big lobsters. Charlotte is pretending to be one.
The whale sharks are massive and were a favorite.
There was an area dedicated to teaching about sharks which was fun. Got to see an early great white shark fetus that was still quite large.
Touching various shark teeth; very sharp. Charlotte did not dare touch them but Hazel gave it a timid go.
More sharks.
Good shot to show the size of the whale shark.
I did not think it would be hard to find lunch but turns out I don't speak Japanese so I had no idea what I was looking at. So we stopped when we saw a menu. Here we are someplace subtitled in English "Medicinal Cooking"
It was really nice inside and I really don't think they were ready for Americans with 3 young kids but they were very gracious and did their best.
Zachary was a pill so I had to walk while we waited for food.
And here we are starting at 12 o'clock and going to the right: fish with walnuts and cabbage in a freshly made sauce, rice, some sort of pickled/kimchi style roots (ginger and something else, tasted good), a tofu based pudding/jello that was mildly sweet, tofu tempura with sauce (on a stick), some jello-like stuff with some soft roots? topped with sesame(?) paste, and a soup (very bland) of various roots and noodles. Overall satisfying for me
Hazel shared some of mom's chicken, not sure if she was a fan.
I am sure Charlotte was not but then no kid is a fan of something new, they are prejudiced from the outset. Charlotte likes (or used to) fish so she got a bite or two of both.
Same for Jari but chicken.
At least there was rice.
On our way to a beach about a mile away the kids were restless and Jari suggested we look for something closer. Our navigation was in Japanese and our phones did not work so when I saw some coastline and a road going that way we headed towards the coast hoping to find a beach. We found a sports complex and stumbled across this small beach.
Kids were more than happy to get out and play in the water.
You may notice the sand looks more coarse than California and much more coarse than Florida. As mentioned before, the island has a lot of coral surrounding it so the sand is a bunch of small bits of shells and rocks.
The water was warm and very enjoyable to float in. Notice how calm the water was. Perfect for the kids.
Charlotte taking a picture
We were hoping to do a quick hike to Hiji Falls (came highly recommended) so after about 1 hour we jumped in the car and headed north. Here is a picture of some burial urns that can be seen along any road outside the cities in Okinawa.
This picture is mostly to document and show to Charlotte one day that Hazel let her sleep on her because I am sure one day I will hear the argument that Hazel "always sleeps on me and I never get to sleep on her."
And I present to you Hiji Falls. It is open till 6 pm according to online sources and the actual sign at the station here. There were people there working but they told me they were closed. Me: "It is 4:30, the sign says open to 6. Why are you closed?" A head nod, and grasping for words, then he points to the hills and then makes an 'X' with his left and right index fingers and repeats "closed." The X thing I have learned from Korea really does mean No. When we told some friends about the experience later on they just laughed and said, "Yeah, that sounds like Okinawa"
So while the kids were asleep we pulled the car over about a quarter-mile down from the check-in desk and got out of the car and Jari and I enjoyed a few minutes relaxing and pretending we were at the falls while watching the water. (Selfies with my phone always invert the image for some reason)
A beautiful large black butterfly floated around Jari and she tried to get a picture of it but the camera would not focus very well.
I was born in the year of the wild boar so I was thrilled to learn by way of caution signs on the express road that there are wild boars on the island. Hard to get a good picture of the sign though.
Shortly after departing the hiking site, the rain came down hard so maybe it was good we were not on the trail though we came in swimming suits planning to hike in the rain.
Coming from Vegas a year before we enjoyed the rain as we have not had much in a long while.
DAY 3
After a quick job, the kids were eating breakfast and I noticed it was not raining so we made a mad dash to the beach which was close to us.
No sooner had we got there than these large clouds rolled in and the wind started to blow and we could see a sheet of water coming towards us. The guys snorkeling jumped out of the water, collected their things on the beach, and sprinted towards the buildings. When in Rome...
So we gathered our precious things (children) and quickly moved to shelter.
Not fast enough
While the rain poured, we decided to go to the library at the USAF base on the island (Kadena) and read books with the kids. Then after looking for an indoor pool advertised online and discovering it did not exist we went to the BX and found some indoor activities (see below)
More rain
Round 1: Trouble. Harder than I thought for the girls to learn the rules.
Disney memory
Then a round of twister which was a hit, even with Zachary
Not sure if it was the poses or Zachary that caused us to fall the most.
Strong work Charlotte. This is a Yoga pose and is hard to do for most people.
Making a quick set banana/vanilla pudding pie.
"Shhhh... do you hear that? Neither do I. No rain. Get in the car! Quick."
The next stop was Shurijo Castle.
Charlotte randomly practicing her meditation saying "Ohhhmmmm"
Built in the 1400s.
Hazel was not ready to wake up from her nap.
More meditation
And Hazel woke up! Made taking pictures so much easier for me. Here she is in front of a small enclosed area that was a place of prayer/worship. According to the signs, the women were the most important element of the religion and served as Priestesses
Beautiful well.
We were limited on time and had to pay to go inside the main structure on top, so we quickly explored the gardens instead.
There were signs warning against a pit viper on the island and to watch out for it. Charlotte was concerned about where we were and what we were up to - convinced we were going to find a snake.
Do you see it?
How about now? Small or large spider, they all give me the creeps.
Here is a picture of the castle on top of the hill (just above and to the left of the hill).
After the castle, we drove across town to the Garlic House, a local favorite of an old friend and his family. It was really good to see Jessica and Kirk Middleton again and their kids Harper and Jude. Our kids loved them and it was great to catch up.
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