Japanese Naval Underground

We are making our way around the island, checking off our list of things to do. People have told us to slow down on our exploring, that we'll run out of things to do! I think we'll be visiting our favorite places regularly! We can explore this island and then venture out to the surrounding islands and Asia! My aim is to have seen China by the time we leave here. We visited the Naval Underground museum. I hope to do the actual battle sights tour with an American tour guide, but for this trip we explored with some pretty good guess work! Once again, we're reminded that we're in a foreign country, it's not as fun to go to museums when you can't even read half the stuff! Now I know how little kids and foreigners feel when going to museums! So the pictures below are just guess work until I go on the actual guided tour!

The entrance to the cave of Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters

I'm not quite sure what these folded paper chains are to represent. My guess is that they represent the good luck and well wishes for those who died, or maybe prayers that are said for those who gave their lives in battle? We saw these at the Peace Memorial Park and I've seen them hung like a lei over tombs and memorials.

The first room we came to was the signal room, hence the sign! There was limited signage, but thankfully it was in English too!

I think the boys would've loved to have made this their "fort" or hideout! They had fun going in and out of the rooms. We had fun trying to guess what things were! Though it was pretty well lit in there, I got quite turned around! It's a maze! You can't get lost, all the wings empty out somewhere along the way into the main corridor.

This was evidently an escape or entrance route, as seen in the picture. The Japanese have blocked off the entrances, so no homeless people can take up residence, or Americans get free admission to the caves! It looked as if they're still uncovering parts of the cave. These caves were originally inhabited by the Okinawan civilian refugees when the Japanese army forced them out of their homes and farms. When the Americans started closing in on the Japanese in the Battle for Okinawa, the Japanese deserted the Okinawan homes and once again pushed the Okinawans out of their cave dwellings. If a baby or child living in the caves got too noisy or cried too loudly, the soldiers would kick the family out on the street. The Japanese army fed the Okinawans lies about the Americans, causing them to obey them and even commit suicide for fear of being captured and tortured by the Americans.

These are tools, utentsils and medical supplies that were found in the caves. There wasn't much on display here. After visiting several Japanese historic sites, I am beginning to wonder if the Japanese take much pride in preserving their history! I know in the states, there would've been a setting to resemble what had once existed with life like dummies!

I thought this paper chain artwork to be quite interesting. Looks like Shuri Castle.

Cameron studies the wall. This was one of the inner chambers where the high ranking officers lived and planned out their missions. When the Japanese knew that they had lost the battle, they opted for suicide over surrendering to the American forces. The splattering on the wall are actually imbedded shrapnel from the granades used in their suicides!

As you can see, a lot of the passages are narrow with low ceilings and the stairways steep.

One of the views from the top of the hill where the Japanese Naval Underground is.

Okinawa Comprehensive Park

We try to make the most of our weekends as a family here in Okinawa. We've found another favorite spot, the Comprehensive Park. It's the largest park in Okinawa that offers a lot of family activities. The park has three or four playground, all different and fun. You can rent bikes or bring your own for the biking trails.

You can also rent paddle boats to float around the pond in. Kids can feed the carp in the ponds or the birds on the shore. The park is also on the water, (imagine that for island living) so people can comb the beach while visiting the park.

I've noticed tent spots and people with tents set up over a weekend, I'm guessing you can rent a spot for overnight stays. The park is so large that you could get lost! I believe it even has a little history/children's museum? It's hard to tell what certain buildings are due to everything being in Japanese! You can also buy snacks and drinks from a little shop. There are several ballfields as well as a circular bike track that looks more like a centrifuge or funnel?! I guess they have races here.

It has a large water park that we hope to visit in the summer once it opens. The park is pretty packed on Sunday afternoons, but a fun place to visit. We'll be frequenting this place.

One of our many trips to the Okinawan Aquarium

Welcome to the Aquarium!

Girls in their traditional kimono greeted everyone to the aquarium. I snuck pictures of them because I wasn't sure if they would charge you to take a picture of them with your own camera! That's how a few places have been!

The handling pools were great fun for the kids. The workers would push the drifters (runaway starfish) to the kids to be able to handle. The starfish look slimy or squishy, but they are as hard as rocks!

The boys operate the underwater camera, zooming in on different fish. I think they had more fun turning the camera on themselves through the glass and zooming in on themselves and other onlookers! Don't you just love kids?!

Now that's a big ole puffer!

Waiting for the dolphin show! It's Sea World style!

They were fun to watch! This is my favorite part of the aquarium visit!

Uh....SQUID anyone? It was almost as long as Cameron is tall!


I love sea turtles!

A view of the aquarium grounds, it's the third largest aquarium in the world! You can take the four or five flights of stairs for exercise, or ride the escalator to the top!

Okay, why have water fountains if you can't even drink from them?! Who gargles for kicks?!

This was a welcome sight for all the hot tourists in the summer, though the mist hardly even gets one wet! I didn't even get condensation on my camera~! The kids enjoyed it though!

On our way out of the Aquarium

The McGuires at yet another tourist attraction! We get around!

Family picture with the Pineapple! The McGuires were here, again!!!

We rode these little carts around the pineapple park with a little voice recorded tour guide. I guess the carts go by magnets on the road or something, there were not tracks or rails and we weren't driving it!
Taylor, Daniel, and Jonah take the back seat!

Pineapple Park

Yes, another trip to the Pineapple Park!

The best part of the whole park is the sampling! You can go through the sampling line as many times as you want! You know me and my sampling escapades! These are real samples!!! Not everything in life is free, so I say, take advantage of what is!!! It was filling time for Cameron!

There's samples of everything! You can sample pineapple wine, pineapple juice, pineapple vinegar, pineapple cookies, pineapple cake, pineapple chocolate, pineapple pie, pineapple, pineapple sushi, pineapple-pickeled peppers, cow tongue, and pig face and ears, pineapple caviar, pineapple perfume, pineapple lotion, pineapple/charcoal soap..... anything pineapple!

"Dr. Fish"

My friend and I went out for a girls day out as a reward for "allowing" our husbands to go snorkeling all day. She's new to the island, so I showed her around some of the places that we've been shopping. We ate soba and yaki soba at one of my favorite little restaurants in American Village and then perused the mini mall. We came upon this little makeshift pool where some women were relaxing with their feet in the water, allowing these little fish to nibble at their feet! It's just a weird thought to have a fish nibble at your feet and it be therapeutic?! My friend and I were up for anything, so.... we gave it a whirl!

At first, I had to block out the fact that I was actually going to allow these fish to bite me! Yes it was a little weird. As soon as we put our feet in, the fish "whooshed" over to us and began their nibbling! We 'stole' the fish from the people who had been sitting there! Guess we had more goodies on our feet! It tickled at first, but then it felt like a buzzing or vibrating on my feet. It felt like those feet vibrators that we'd use at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, only I didn't get the lightheaded feeling that I got from the ones at the zoo. It actually felt good! We came home and told the guys about it, so they had to try it too. Jason, who is much more ticklish than me, was having a hard time keeping his feet in the water and not squashing the little fishies! Cameron also gave it a whirl.....it was cute watching him giggle!

According to Wikepedia:

"Doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish: Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, little dermatologists and doctorfishen; in non-medical contexts, Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker. They live and breed in the outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects."

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Ya'll!

We had our annual watchnight service at the church for New Years. We ate tons of junk food, yes, we had to stay within the norm. You know, the average person gains 15lbs over the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving-New Years? That's according to the polls the mysterious "they" took! Don't you ever wonder who the "they" is? I catch myself saying that a lot! Whoever the "they" is, they sure get a lot of credit!

Anyway, so we ate lots of good food, aka junkfood, then had a message from our Pastor, a talent show, a movie "Sheffey" and then brought in the new year commemorating the Last Supper with communion. It was a good night! The kids were given silly string to celebrate after it was all over. We adults were just glad to get us home safely and in our beds!

We were excited to have Mrs. Johnson with us! She's such a trooper and an inspiration! I couldn't believe she stayed the whole time. I told her that she 'set the bar' too high, now no one can complain about anything!! For those of you who don't already know, Mrs. Johnson is our pastor's wife, a wonderful lady, a person you feel you've known all your life in just a short time of knowing her. I feel privileged to know her and to be her friend, ....um, I think?! She has recently been diagnosed with cancer and the coming of this new year brings on a new challenge in the battle of treating this cancer. Please keep her and her family in your prayers!

Our friends, the Routons, a very talented couple! We may just get our bluegrass band started!

The kids got to show off some talent too. Jonathan signed while Emily sang. He signs while Jonah plays the harmonica and Nicholas sings.

"Sheffey"

Yes we had fun, but I was also thinking about what this new year will bring and the fact that we're in 'the last times' as the Bible says. This new year comes as a sobering one for me. Just a few questions for you, these have been drumming through my head. How are you redeeming the time? What are your goals? Will you strive to live this year as if it were your last? What legacy will you leave behind, should it be your last? We all know that so far, the mortality rate has been 100%, life is not eternal unless you have trusted Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour. Death is just a pause, a bridge to the next life, which IS eternal.

What have you done for Christ?

Remember:

"What's done for self will pass, but what's done for Christ will last."