Happy New Year!

A belated Happy New Year from Okinawa! The Okinawans start the new year with a visit to a shrine to request good health and fortune in the upcoming year. Note the picture on the front of the shrine - The Year of the Bull.

At the start of the new year, Okinawans decorate their front dooors with talismans to ward off evil spirits and to welcome good fortune.... Welcoming the New Year complete with entertainment and fireworks at the "American Village" in nearby Chatan.

Finally-Our Household Goods Arrive

Our household goods shipment from the States, originally scheduled to arrive on December 5th, didn't arrive until December 30th. In the interim, we lived with military issued furniture. The beds were so uncomfortable and mushy that we ended up putting the mattresses on the floor for some support. The following sequence of photos documents that period.

Spartan Living

Halleljuh - Our Household Goods Arrive!

Taking Inventory

Where do we begin?

Slowly Sorting Things Out

Finally - Home,Sweet Home!

Shuri-jo Castle Park

One of the many excursions we enjoyed during Nicki's visit was to Shuri-jo (jo is Japanese for castle), which is located on a high hill overlooking Naha City in the southern section of the island. Shuri Castle is believed to have been built at the end of the 14th century. This was the largest castle in Okinawa and measured 400 meters long from east to west, 270 meters long from north to south and 46,167 square kilometers in area. The castle was the headquarters of the Sho dynasty for 450 years - from 1492 (when three kingdoms were unified on Okinawa) through 1879. Commodore Matthew Perry signed the Treaty of Peace and Amity at Shuri Castle in 1854. Shuri Castle was designated a national treasure of Japan in 1928, then was totally destroyed in WWII during the Battle of Okinawa. After six years of planning and hard work, it was reconstructed based on photographs, historical records and memory. Shuri Castle reopened to the public in November of 1992. The "new" castle sweeps you back in time to the days of feudal warlords, emperors and warriors. Each building was painstakingly reconstructed to look as close to the original as possible.

Entrance Gate to Shuri Castle

In case you were wondering....

Main Castle Hall & Courtyard Shuri Castle Ramparts Detail of Main Hall

Traditional Dance Performance at the Castle

The Throne Room with Royalty

Shuri Castle Hosted the G8 Summit Leaders in July 2000

Shuri Castle Hosted These Visiting Dignitaries in December 2008

Lacquerware Tea Service

Exit Gate from Shuri Castle

The 16th Century Kinjo-cho Stone Road Outside the Castle

The 250 Year Old Legendary Giant Aka Tree

Café Lunch & Wait Staff with Naha City in the Backgound

Back by Popular Demand!

As many of you have reminded me, I've been remiss in keeping this blogsite current. In an attempt to catch-up, I've posted a series of photos starting with Christmas we're we last left off. Most of the photos are of random events and activities that occurred during Nicki's holiday visit. Unfortunately, the weather during her visit tended to be cool and overcast, hence, the gray skies in many of the outdoor shots. I'll do my best in trying to bring the blogsite up to date.

A Belated Merry Christmas

Singing in the Rain at the nearby Sunabe Seawall

Sunabe Seawall Artwork

Never Too Far From Home

One of the more humorous aspects of living in Japan is looking for signs with misspelled English words. A local massage studio had a sign out front that read "Let us relive your stress"....

Borrowed from a NASA Cafeteria?

Teenage Japanese girls made their fashion statement this winter by wearing outfits comprised of a t-shirt adorned with some meaningless statement worn under an open plaid flannel shirt. The ensemble was completed with fur-trimmed shorts and knee-high, high-heeled leather boots.....

After much deliberation Joanne & I decided to forgo purchasing these pajama sets. They remind me of Ralphie's bunny outfit in the movie A Christmas Story....

And speaking of A Christmas Story, this treasure was on display in a Tokyo store window....

Mickey & Minnie Wearing Their Holiday Finest

The American occupation of Okinawa after WWII brought with it mountains of discarded soda & beer bottles. The resourceful Okinawans melted the bottles for use in glassblowing and developed a style of glassware that is unique to the Ryukyu Islands. One such glassblowing craftsman is Seikichi Inamine who has his studio here in Yomitan, and is one of Japan's "Living Treaures." On several ocassions we have observed him at the studio supervising his apprentices in the art of glassblowing. The photos below were taken at another glassblowing studio located in the southern part of the island. The mosaics are all made of glass....

Peace Monument at Cape Kyan in Southern Okinawa

Nicki Proudly Displaying Her U.S. Forces Driver's License

The photos below were taken at the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park, a very large park divided into three major sections, The Okinawa Prefecture Peace Memorial Museum, The Cornerstone of Peace, and the Okinawa Peace Hall. The park is located in Mabuni Hill, the site of the last fight of the Battle of Okinawa. The battle of Okinawa took place in 1945 and it is considered to be the fiercest and only ground battle fought on Japanese soil. It was the last battle of the war, and has been called "The Typhoon of Steel". The battle only lasted ninety days and more than 200,000 people died, of which 100,000 were civilians who were caught in the midst of fighting, starvation, malaria, suicide, and thousands killed by the retreating Japanese Army troops. It was after this terrible battle that President Truman, after considering the cost of human life that would have to be paid if an invasion of mainland Japan was to be materialized, ordered the use of the atomic bomb, ending the war at once. President Truman has been quoted to have said "I do not want another battle of Okinawa". A "Prayer for Peace Statue" of the Buddha stands inside the Okinawa Peace Hall. During the day of our visit the Buddha was undergoing a semi-annual cleaning. Nicki was invited to partipate in the cleanup effort, which also included an interview and being filmed by a news crew....

Adjacent to the Okinawa Peace Hall is a butterfly botanical garden. For some reason the butterflies found me irrisistable. I guess I carry the right mix of phremones that drives them wild....

Click on the arrow above to start the video.

A "Beware of Habu" Sign & Two Vicious Vipers