Kannonzaki Slide

One of our favorite local spots on a clear day is Kannonzaki Koen (Park). The park is located down the coastal route, Route 16, from base, probably about 10km away or so. The park itself is mostly a large hill covered in walking trails, children play areas, flower fields, and panoramic view points. One of our favorite areas in the park is a playground with a long roller-slide. Since we recently purchased a Sony Handycam DVD video recorder, we thought we'd give it a test shot today.

Check out the video below or click through to the Google Video direct link. Warning, it's about 6 minutes long so after you hit play it might take a bit of time for it to load up. Enjoy!

Pattaya in Pictures

Pictures of our trip to Pattaya Beach, Thailand, and the surrounding areas are now in our Gallery, dated 02/20/2008. Here's a few to get you started:

View from Pattaya Beach, Thailand

Pond and Pools at Dusit Resort Pattaya

Elephant Ride at a Local Elephant Village

Koh Larn, a Relatively Uninhabited Beach Accessible only by Boat

Josh Enjoying the Water at Koh Lard

Daddy & Son Day

I came home from Okinawa on Friday in the late afternoon after a 9-day business trip. Before you get jealous with thoughts of mid-winter business trips to semi-tropical destinations in the Pacific, I should let you know that I saw the sun twice while I was there and both times were for just a few hours at a time. The rest of the trip was spent in cloudy weather mixed with scattered showers. And man was it cold... I mean, not mainland Japan cold, but too cold to be Okinawa.

One thing I really appreciate about Japan is the public transportation. It's such an obvious, but often overlooked, advantage of being over here. In the States, if you don't get a ride to the airport for a long trip, you'd likely park in "long term" parking and at the end of the trip you'd face a rather expense parking bill for the daily parking rate at the airport. For my trip to Okinawa, I simply hopped on a train nearby base, took it directly to Haneda Airport, where I exited in the basement of my correct terminal. On the way back from Okinawa, I took the same path in reverse. No need to drive... no need to park.

Since I was gone for longer than Josh is used to, he got a little bit of daddy fever while I was away. So Nicki and he came up with an idea to have a daddy and son day on Saturday. So after waking up Saturday morning (after sleeping in) and going through the morning eat, drink, and brush routine, Josh and I headed out the door. We started at a terrific kaitan-zushi (sushi served in mass quantities on a conveyor belt) restaurant, which is located south of base at the corner of Route 16 and Route 134. It was a regular spot for us when we were living in Maborikaigan and Josh loves the "fishies and rice" there. After several plates of sashimi each, we headed down to Spasso.

Nicki has mentioned Spasso several times in previous posts, but in short it's a local Japanese bath house along the coast about 10 kilometers from base. It's probably something I would have never tried in the States, but I have to admit that after getting past the initial cultural hurdle of being comfortable in a hot bath filled with a bunch of other naked dudes, I've really taken to the idea of bath houses. It can be really relaxing to just sit in a hot tub and let a tired or aching body soak.

Josh got a kick out of the different tubs at Spasso. He kept wanting to move from the indoor pools to the outdoor pools. I tried to take him into the cooling sauna, a small room that is set to below freezing to help people cool off after soaking in the tubs, but I couldn't warm him up to the idea (pun intended). We spent about two hours at the spa and then met back up with Nicki later in the afternoon.

Yesterday (Sunday), we did some shopping at D-2 to help us get ready for gardening season. Now that we're on base, we have a wonderfully large back yard and plan to fill it up with an assortment of herbs and vegetable plants. More on that when we actually get things rolling. We may even try our hands at composting, a good way to reduce residential waste from entering the traditional solid waste stream. The EPA has a great little website dedicated to composting and the do's and don'ts of how to get going with it and to keep it from stinking up the neighborhood.

Today, we spent most of our day at Ikea. It's been quite a while since my last trip up there and I impressed myself with my driving skills, since the last time we drove up there I was a nervous wreck. We got quite a few new things to add to our furniture collection in the house, though most of it was bought for functionality over aesthetics, but I think we came away with quite a lot of cool stuff.

I've been pretty busy at work and home since the holidays... some of y'all have been asking about Thailand pictures... they're still in progress. Also, we're planning to post some pics of the new house but it's still in progress too. In the meantime, Happy Presidents' Day!

Going Underground

Descending the damp concrete steps, I slowly traveled over 60 years back in time, to a dark, cold, and windy corridor of death. You see, my footprints were etching the same dusty ground that was traversed by officers of the Japanese navy during the Battle of Okinawa. As I moved deeper through the maze, my mind constantly recalled the over 200,000 people that perished during the three month long battle, from April to June 1945. Then my mind moved to the hundreds who had died within the same walled corridors that I was currently walking. How could I not think these thoughs? Many a Japanese sailor took his own life within the caves of the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters. In one room, a small sign on the wall explained the extensive series of small holes along the walls and low ceiling, which were created by a suicidal sailor's hand grenade. In another room dangled a sign indicating the location where Vice Admiral Minoru Ota transcribed a final telegram to the Japanese 32nd Army Headquarters, a day before taking his own life within the underground maze.

After exiting the cavernous tunnels, I visisted the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Park, which is a beautiful and somber tribute to all who died during the 3-month battle, including the Japanese and American troops and the local Okinawan civilians. In the Peace Park museum is a cronological listing of the events the lead up to the Battle of Okinawa, the battle itself, and then the post-war reconstruction on the island. It's an interesting story, considering the controversy that continues (even today) regarding the details of the war.

What an opportunity for me, as an American currently living in Japan, to be able to see such things. By numbers comparison, the Americans definitely won the battle, as only 12,000 or so US troops died during the battle. The Japanese military lost around 66,000. But the ultimate victims were the Okinawan civilians, whose casualties amounted into six figures. It's estimated that nearly 140,000 Okinawans were killed during the battle, which is estimated to be between a quarter and a third of the population on the island at that time. There's an old saying about history being written by the winners. The Peace Museum on Okinawa, however, appears to be a case where history was written by the victims, as a reminder to all about the impact of war and the people that it can affect.