Pension Snoopy Aso

... into that here. I will say though that, although the bases no doubt serve an important purpose for U.S. interests in the Far East, they are a contemporary expression of the military tragedies of the past that have befallen this beautiful island. If you want to get a more graphic and political view of the impact of these bases, read "Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson.

Our first stop was at a re-creation of a traditional Ryukyu village. Ryukyu (if I didn't ...

... any pictures to upload of this eerie and fascinating place as my camera battery was drawn down and I was forced to use an old-fashioned disposable film camera. I've been in caves before but the stalactites and stalagmites and the underground stream that runs through this one are just beautiful. This cave was well worth the visit.

One of the most sobering places that we visited was the Himeyuri Monument. This was an area in which Okinawan school girls that ...

... this though, I probably would not have noticed this at all -- the signs that this prefecture is a bit behind others are subtle. A shabby building here, some litter in a river there -- things that one tends not to see to such a degree in other parts of the country. Nonetheless, this is quite a nice place and definitely a sub-tropical paradise.

We will definitely see a lot more of rural Okinawa over ...

... a stunningly hot day and the indoor area was air conditioned. After Shuri Castle, we went to Kokusai street in Naha City. This is a palm-lined street with tons of small souvenir shops, with a surfer atmosphere. I picked up quite a few gifts here! My favorite purchase was a red coral necklace for myself. The store's owner was so happy to see me for some reason that she gave me free shisa keychain. Riley was getting restless, so ...

... we saw how Okinawans lived in the past (obviously). The Okinawans lived in squat wooden houses on shelly lawns. What's interesting about this island is that it was not always a part of Japan- that only happened in the last century. It had its own special Ryukuan culture, as evidenced by many things around the island that are different from Japan's other islands. One of Okinawa's most special features is the shisa dog. Shisa dogs are ...

On Friday, I woke up on the couch at around 6 am when Riley woke up, but was way too tired to get up, so I went back to sleep. My mom tried to rouse me to watch Riley's last swim lesson, and later to go work out, but it was impossible. When I finally did wake up, the sky had turned ominous, but it didn't matter because our only scheduled event was pedicures. Julia had booked us appointments at Cocok's (pronounced Coco's), where we were to get foot massages as well. I was nervous ...

Thursday morning marked my third location change of the trip. My 1:30 PM flight meant that there was not a whole lot we'd be able to do before I had to go, so Natalie and I decided to check out the Harbor City Mall again. After a repeat of breakfast at Starbucks, we headed over to the entrance from yesterday. Or so we thought. Apparently this mall is so huge that we were able to wander for an hour, through a luxury brand ...

... 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 ...

... konzerve vyliezt na kopcek pesi. Ta hora na nim a planina pod nim vypadala uplne ako krajina vo filmoch, co tociali na Hawaii. Asi by si niekto mohol mysliet, ze sa mi to len zdalo, ale ten pocit bol v tej chvili velmi silny. V kazdom pripade v tych filmoch nebehali japonski skolaci v uniformach... To bola posledna zastavka na Ase. Uz nasledovala iba cesta dolu okolo krateru Komezuka. Ukazali sme slnku chrbat a vyrazili na vychod do onsenoveho raja.

... might not have made the steep ascent up to Taka-dake (1592m), but using the old addage of "safety in numbers" as inspiration, we decided to go for it, and we were rewarded halfway up with an out-of-this-world view of the steaming crater...it was simply amazing. I always claim to be "naturally fit" having played a lot of sport as a youngster, a statement that is probably a load of codswallop, but despite my unhealthy diet, I`m always able to cope with hikes with relative ...