Hotel Sansuikan Beppu

... the one hand, this is a very beautiful place with friendly people and very nice, warm weather. The culture here is indeed more laid-back and is noticeably different from the mainland. People just act different here yet it is still Japan. On the other hand, this is a somewhat sad place where the weight of history and the hideous events of nearly a century ago still linger in the hearts and minds of the inhabitants. In addition, the resentment over the continued U.S ...

Today we decided to do something that I don't normally like to do -- go on a guided tour with a bunch of other people and get caught up on a commercial racket. Given that neither of us have ever been to Okinawa and don't know our way around, we decided to go on a bus tour and are we ever glad that we did.

The tour took us to a number of historical and interesting spots, most notable of which was the old Imperial Navy Underground Headquarters that served as ...

Today we arrived at Naha City in Okinawa. We flew from Tokyo in an ANA 747. It has bee a really long time since I've flown in a 747 and (other than landing which I hate with a passion) it was a pleasure. The service on ANA is impeccable and the 747 (despite Airbus' development of the A380) is still the granddaddy of all airplanes. It was a pleasure to once again be on a 747.

Upon disembarking from the ...

... a walk to the playground in her extreme stroller. She and another very little girl played on the slides as we and the girl's parents raced around trying to keep them from falling. It was actually not a very toddler-friendly playground, as we had to scale a hill to get up there and navigate the stroller down a staircase to leave. Back at the house, we packed up everything, getting ready to say goodbye to Okinawa in the morning.

... other fish was definitely a favorite. There was a diver in scuba gear cleaning the inside of the glass, so that was funny. Riley did not particularly care for the exhibits, but she did like running around.

Outside, we visited the turtle pools and the manatees, which were interesting because they were spacious and had cartoon character mascots (like most Japanese advertisements!) Our next stop was the native Okinawan village ...

... that. But she still let us shop for a nice long time, during which I got to experience the Japanese toy section (full of bizarre toys such as Anpanman, the superhero with bread for a head, Mameshiba, the puppy-faced edamame bean, and various other sad-faced adorable animals). I also perused the candy section but was disappointed- isn't it supposed to be shiny and colorful? There wasn't even a good selection of Haribo- not even fizzy colas! There weren't a whole lot of exciting ...

... restaurant). We sat on low benches with our shoes off. I had chicken yakatori with rice, and I tried edamame. You will be shocked to know that I enjoyed it and would potentially order it again.

After dinner we headed back to Julia and Stu's house on the base, which is very nice. I more or less collapsed onto my bed (the couch). It was very nice knowing that my fast-paced travel schedule would be slowing down a bit in Okinawa.

... train one stop to Beppudiagaku to try the popular Shonin-ga-hama sand bath by the beach. After dropping my pants on a unsuspecting lady (Offensive Item No 2.) I ducked outside in my yukata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata to lay on a pit of black sand. A lady with a lacrosse scoop then covered me in the warm sand. "I'll be back in 15 minutes," she said. Half an hour later I was still lying there. The sand is heavy on the chest, it was a little ...

... and a World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO. The garden had some Okinawan tastes and it was more like Japanese garden than Chinese one. There were twin limestone bridges on the pond: one bridge on the pond was interestingly rock-made and the other bridge was beautifully stone-made, which may have some meaning I don't know. Finally, I encountered Deigo, the Okinawan prefectural flower blowing in the spring. Usually I am not ...

... moving as well. With the fish we drank sake, cold sake as it should be apparently, and after the fish with the meat we drank shuchu. We had a selection of chicken cooked in different ways on barbecue skewers, as well as an assortment of small dishes and snacks. After the meal we went to a bar, a different bar than the one on Thursday, but still a bar with hostesses. We had two hostesses looking after us, I can't ...