Business Hotel Yakata Miyazaki

... the snake-like journey up to the northern part of the island. This could have been a boring experience but it turned out to be quite an enlightening one as the tour guide provided a lot of commentary that provided context on all of the places that we were about to visit. Of interest during the journey was passing by (and through) the large U.S. military bases that still cover the landscape of Okinawa. I could comment on this in a politically sensitive manner but I will not ...

... of the Japanese Navy's main command posts during World War 2. What an interesting and spooky place this turned out to be. Two things really struck us. First of all, these tunnels were dug from the rock by hand using pick axes -- there are thousands of metres of tunnels here. Secondly, many military officers committed suicide here after it became apparent that the battle with the U.S. was lost. The scars from exploding hand grenades can still be seen in some of ...

... next couple of days as we go on two guided tours. One will be up to the north end of the island to an aquarium and a pineapple farm. I am sure that once we get outside of Naha City that we will see the true tropical paradise aspects of this island. We will also be spending some time outside of the city on the south of the island. There is a lot of World War Two history here as this south end of the island is ...

... did all of our shopping in fast forward. On our way home, we stopped at the military exchange, the small American-style mall on base. My mom and I went inside to buy silk robes, like the one Julia gave me for Christmas. We also got books for our respective plane rides, and then went to dinner at Macaroni Grill nearby. It was absolutely delicious, and Riley was very funny. While Julia packed at home, my mom and I took Riley ...

... handled this very gracefully and eventually ended up running back and forth through it in her diaper screaming. If only we'd just skipped all the museum stuff and brought her right to the fountain!

FOr dinner we tried Obbligato, a Mexican restaurant as imagined by the Japanese. It was pretty good; I got chimichangas for the first time and they reminded me of eggrolls. We also had a pitcher of margaritas, so a good time was had.

... of my still-tender toe, but I just pointed to it and tried to explain, and so the lady doing my feet avoided it except to paint it. It was extremely relaxing- the little girl across from us completely conked out. I chose jasmine oil to help me recover from my fatigue, and opted for some nail art to try to blend in more in Asia.

Unfortunately when we left the nail salon, it was pouring, so we slipped along the road in our massage oil-covered flip flops. Then when we ...

... with about one hour to go before my flight was set to depart, let alone board. I sprinted to the check-in gate, which was empty because everyone else had gone through. Yikes! But for some reason the airport was deserted, and I was sitting at the gate, bored, within 15 minutes of arriving. I've had really good luck with being on time so far this trip (knock on wood).

One thing I did not turn out to be lucky with for this ...

... pictures during the performance, because of a lot of troubles in the past, but they allowed us to take some picture in the end of the show. After the show, we had lunch in the restaurant next to the stage, where I had green caviar for the first time, although it is an Okinawan specialty. It was not especially good, but the bowl with green cavier and some seafood was very good.

Then we headed for Shikinaen Garden which was our last ...

... the days in Japan have a nasty hook to them, and suddenly it's 3:30pm, which doesn't sound late, but sunset is by 5:30, which, when densely cloudy, means dark by 5:45. The map has contours, but not very good detail, so we find too late that the last 20km is not a cruise, but an uphill grind, at 8-10 kph, and suddenly bang, it's going to be dark before we get where we're going. Of course, the other catch is we seldom know exactly where we are going as we're simply looking ...

... urimar" which means something like warm and beautiful heart. So in 1879 Okinawa got taken over by Japan. Up until this point The Ryukyu Kingdom had some really close ties to China, and some guy from Japan came and tried to take over I think, but the Ryukyu kingdom had remained independent. When it became a part of Japan it was the poorest area in Japan. The Japanese government didn`t really care about it, or want Okinawa to be a part ...