FSOT, OKINAWA & the spiral of life

I am at my visit school today and have to go to my base school afterwards for - what else - ESS. Actually really excited about Bunkasai on Wednesday (and how much hard work all the English Club kids have put into our project), but we're down to the last hours of prep now and it's definitely "girigiri" as we say in Japanese :-P Luckily for me, a friend that lives down the block from school is hosting a dinner party at her place tonight so all I have to do is scoot over there for dinner and some unwinding with friends. TACOs ala Emi (one of my favorite cooks...and foods...cheeeya!).

I was just outside and feel the need to remark that it seems like this weekend was also the official time for the-planting-of-the-rice. All the rice fields are proudly displaying fresh little rows of green sprouts that weren't there last week. It's rather beautiful. I've taken the rice season for granted for a while, but I love the cycle and am happy to see it one more time. I guess my neighbor Miwa even paid $30 to watch people plant rice at a famous temple in Osaka this weekend... so I'm not the only one :-p

SO, the weekend. Wow, where do I start? I took vacation time on Friday morning and headed into Osaka around 6am for ... surprise... the US Foreign Service Test! Most people don't pass it their first time, and I don't know if I will (some of the questions in the JOB KNOWLEDGE section - about stuff like Jazz?! - were tough), but I'm really glad I sat it and found the whole experience kind of fun and exciting. I could definitely see myself in the foreign service, which is funny because it feels like a bit of a step back from where I've been going (back to old thoughts)... but we'll see. Definitely excited about doing more policy and education stuff, though. But yeah, that's another topic. One to save for later :-p

The Foreign Service Exam & Science Museum in Osaka

Overall, Friday was definitely a long day. My test was actually scheduled for 12, but there was a mistake in the scheduling process (that apparently happened to a few people) where the organizer forgot to change the drop-down box telling the examinee (me) what time to arrive. Because of this, I got to the consulate at 8am (my report time) - in time for the 12 PM appointment - not knowing I didn't need ot be there until about 4 hours later. It was OK in the end because I taking the test early in the morning (with about 3 other people) probably helped for focus, but it would have been nice to get up at 10am on a day off... instead of 5am :-p

After the test, I realized I was basically on the man-made island near Umeda, so I decided to walk down the street to finally check out the Osaka Science Museum. LOVED it! One of the guides spoke excellent English and walked around the space and physics floor with me, explaining the exhibits and even doing some of the experiments with me. We talked a bit about the solar eclipse happening next month (July 22nd) and he showed me some pictures that he'd recently taken of Saturn from the Himeji-area. We're apparently in a position so that you can't see the rings right now - something that happens every 15 years.

Nerdy, but I got a huge kick out of the museum and had a really relaxing afternoon walking around in the sun and also seeing a show at the Science Museum's IMAX theater.

OoOoOoOoOOOOOO- kiiiiiii- nawa Ahoy!

In the evening, I headed out to the airport to meet David for our flight to OKINAWA, one of the tropical islands of Japan (the southernmost island in Okinawa Prefecture is actually only 100km from Taipei... pretty far from the mainland!).

In one word, I would have to say the trip to Okinawa was EXCELLENT. Japan can kill any budget and many travelers are afraid to come here because of it, but if you know what you're doing (or can read Japanese and book tours online), it's amazing what travel deals you can find. Everyone is getting their economic stimulus checks now, for example, so there are some wicked Shinkansen - bullet train - deals (4 legs in Western Japan for $120 - unbelievably cheap) to try to get people to spend it on travel. The tour package we got came via a recommended Japanese travel agent. Three days, two nights with hotel and car rental for about $350. Dave was joking about how you usually take the pictures of the hotel from the internet and cut your expectations in half to get a realistic idea of what the place will be like, but the reality of this package was extroidinary. Beautiful, luxury hotels, nice car, tropical beaches. Extroidinary. Also, the islands are pretty cheap (at least compared to the mainland), so you don't spend much on food. You can try the local specialities as part of the huge breakfast/brunch buffets if you want, too. Ok, I am going to stop going on about how happy I was with this tour, but I have to mention that we flew down on JAL and back on ANA (nice airlines) and that this trip was seriously cheaper than going to Tokyo... and did I mention it's tropical?!

On the whole, I found Okinawa itself to be rather interesting. People say it's really different from the rest of Japan, and it's true. Even without seeing or experiencing much of the massive US military bases I know are there (beyond military goods for sale and American products being available all over the place), Naha island did feel like another country... but then - at the same time - there are so many familiarities from "my Japan" that it still felt comfortable.

The road signs were the thing that struck me first. Naha isn't a huge city, but it reminded me a lot of Kobe, some of the street scenes (at least from a car) could even be confused for Kobe streets. We tried to see as much as we could while we were there, but also did a pretty good job of not pushing it too much and enjoying the time. The first night was basically just getting settled in, the second day was visiting Kokusai (International) Street in downtown Naha, seeing the famous Shuri Castle, experiencing Okinawan dance and trying Okinawan soba noodles (which were more like ramen than soba...), driving along the coast in the pouring rain!, stopping at the amazing Aquarium to see the exhibits about architecture, a fun dolphin show 

and the aquarium itself (which houses the world's largest tank and has 3 whale sharks), and a stop at an old fashioned A&W drive-in. The next day, we also visited the site of the last big 

battle in Okinawa, which is now a war memorial, Okinawa world (with an amazing, giant cave) and cultural explanations from the region, and at the Himeyuri museum, detailing the story of the students of a female girl's school near Naha who's students were forced to become heavily involved in the war during WWII. 

This last experience was more rushed than I would have hoped it would be and was very sombering. If you don't know, Okinawa was very heavily bombed during WWII; many of it's inhabitants still have bitter resentment for the fact that they took the brunt of the brut force used again Japan in the war, yet do not receive equal treatment as Japanese citizens or recognition for this.  I could write a whole post about that issue, but this is long, so I'll leave you to Wikipedia to explore that subject more.  Of additional historical significance, the islands were also the base for Commedor Perry when he "negotiated" with Japan to open it's borders.  It's also one of the biggest breeding grounds for humpback whale migration (high season is in February) and, in addition to the Japanese influence abound, you will also find almost more Chinese influence so it's definitely a visual treat (a lot of bright, strong colors).

Luckily the biggest hitch in the whole trip was honestly just when my Ofoto account (the one with all the pictures on the side of this page... and pics from Norway, China, Minnesota, Japan...) was going to expire (with little warning) unless I bought x dollars worth of goods and I couldn't get to the internet to order prints. Or I found internet, but it took an HOUR (and about $7 in internet fees) to order the 15 prints that would save my thousands of photographic memories. Anyways, looks like I'll be continuing to upload to Facebook albums and not so much here from now on... and glad there was a beautiful distraction out the door to take my mind off of Ofoto :-p

I should get back to real life (whatever that means) -- have to get some stuff done before I head out -- but, in short, definitely check out Okinawa if you have the chance. Great time. Great place.