The University of the Ryukyus

Some things I really recommend if you are visiting Japan are:

• A two prong to three prong (two into the wall socket, allowing three prong plugs) adapter, and a multi outlet power strip
• Getting a data sim card in advance delivered to your hotel - depending upon your smartphone or tablet device - bMobile has a 14 day data sim card for visitors that allows stranglehold access to the internet, or a 1 Gig data sim card also good for 14 days
• The kik app from the Apple Store or elsewhere (have your family/friends download the free app, too) so you can text for free over data
• A sunbrella!  It is a must!  Sunscreen just melts the minute you exit your hotel
• A sun protective shirt
• Your inhaler if you have asthma - people smoke EVERYWHERE
• Using the bidet function of the Japanese toilets.  I thought Annie was crazy when she blogged how wonderful Japanese toilets are, but they are!
• A travel coffee mug and your favorite instant brew or tea (I prefer 100% Hawaiian coffee, freeze dried, by Mulvadi)
• An aluminum water bottle (LARGE SIZE) because it gets hot - you can, of course, get water or other cool drinks at dispensers on the street, but that creates waste
• Making sure that on your reservations you insist on smoke free accommodations and car
• Have a basic understanding of the important Japanese phrases - I really wish I had taken the time to do a rudimentary course
• If you’re a diver, bring that C-card with
• A sense of humor, especially if you’re tall

This morning was a panic session at the beginning - the hearing to amend the Findings of Fact/Conclusions of Law is being held tomorrow at 8:30 am.  Our lawyer didn’t find out about it until today.  I spent a good 3 hours finishing up my initial input into the findings of facts with which the Program has issues and sending them in to the program, our current lawyer and our previous lawyer.  This is fast not becoming a vacation, especially when you figure in treatise editing for my research assistant position.  I am not as far into that as I would like to be.

This morning’s walk took us through the pottery district of Naha, Tsuboya Odori.  I could go broke in there.  If Wayne is smart, he will only take me here when the shops are not open.  There is beautiful pottery, shisa statues, and glassware, the price tags on which are a little shocking.  But what do you expect?  It’s a city.  The sign below marks not just the entryway, but also the old water pump, which is still working.  We were headed north though, to pick up Eliot and go to Kadena, so we decided to stop in on the gift shop.  

We left the hotel at about 10:30, after I spent probably a little over 3 hours working on my second “assignment.”  We plotted on Google maps, but it was questionable.  When we realized that the app was trying to get us to drive through someone’s home, I took over from the iPhone (HA!) and re-routed us to the University, where we picked up Eliot.

First stop was the Seaside Ristorante at the Kadena harbor, where we had a very nice lunch, and then visited the dive shop.  They have DIN tanks for rent!  Yay!  We plan on getting in at least two.  The dive shop on Torii Station was closed today, but will be open tomorrow.  They have a dive program where you can dive where there may be whale sharks.  No snorkeling.  Just diving.  Just send me to heaven if it works.  We will call them tomorrow and see if they are running the program in the next few days.

                                                                The view from the restaurant definitely didn’t suck

Then we visited the resort where we will stay our last two days to ensure that we had a non-smoking room, and just to feel it out.  All in all, it looks like a nice, quiet diversion from the last several days in the noisy, crowded city.

Then it was back to Kadena, where we went to the Officer’s Wives gift shop (CLOSED!), and then a specialty store inside the Exchange - SCORE!  Everyone gets Shisa dogs from this trip…even our soccer gnomes.  We then went to the commissary, picking up two family packs of steaks for Eliot, as that is an expensive commodity, and the boy is seriously skinny now!  The post office was open, so we were fortunate enough to be able to mail two boxes of souvenirs back home rather than try to buy and check a new suitcase.

We then proceeded back to the University, where Eliot showed us his dorm room, and took us around campus.  All day today, we have been seeing signs about poisonous snakes, and the University is no exception.

Not the happiest sign in the world for me!  During our tour around campus, we ran into one of Eliot’s brother students from UH, who is part of the transfer program as well. This program offers courses in various subjects conducted in English, as well as basic level Japanese courses. The credits given by the University of the Ryukyus can be transferred back to the student's home university. However, the student’s home university reserves the right to determine whether earned credits are valid and count towards the student’s graduation.

The University of the Ryukyus was established in 1950 with the support of the United States Military Government, on the site of the ancient Shuri Castle. At that time, it consisted of 6 faculties: English, Education, Social Sciences, Science, Agriculture, and Applied Liberal Arts. After its establishment, the university received guidance from Michigan State University, a land-grant university, with the aim of creating a university that contributed to the local community by extending academic results to the community. In 1966, administration of the University of the Ryukyus was transferred to the Government of the Ryukyu Islands. In 1972, when control of Okinawa reverted to Japan, the University of the Ryukyus fell under Japanese Government administration and became a national university. In 1979, the university became a comprehensive university with six faculties: Education, Law and Letters, Science, Engineering, Agriculture, and Medicine. In 2004, all national universities including the University of the Ryukyus were transformed into so-called National University Corporations. That same year, the Graduate School of Law was established, and the Faculty of Tourism Sciences and Industrial Management was established in 2008. Now the university consists of seven faculties and the Graduate School of Law.Under the auspices of the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands, the University of the Ryukyus was founded, as a territorial university, on the site of the historic Shuri Castle in Naha on May 22, 1950. It was placed under the jurisdiction of the Government of the Ryukyu Islands in 1966. Since 1988, Ryudai and the University of Hawaii have had a "sister-university" relationship, and have opened up centers for Okinawan studies at both universities.

Dinner was a treat from Eliot, from a place called King Taco.  We had chicken taco rice, which I thought would be shredded chicken, seasoned, with lettuce, tomato and cheese.  What we got was chunk chicken, ground beef seasoned with taco spices, and a metric buttload of cheese and rice.  TOO MUCH FOOD!  Eliot has a lot of leftovers thanks to me tonight.  He was afraid I didn’t enjoy my food, but the truth is, it was just too much. :)  We ate it at a park near the restaurant (take out only), and watched the little kids practice soccer as the sun set.

From there, we dropped Eliot back off at his dorm, and I took over the driving, Wayne the navigation.  He finally learned how much of a pain it is to use the google map app in Okinawa to navigate, that is certain!

My asthma continues to act up, so when we got back home (fully a half hour later than initially predicted), we went to DQ to look for cough drops.  I wound up with Vicks medicated drops and Precol time release capsule for coughs.  Here’s hoping it kicks in by tomorrow morning.

Time to fade to never, never land.  

Oyasuminasai!

Visiting Eliot in Okinawa - in the Ryukyus

I normally start the blog out a day or two in advance, giving some background information on where we are going, and what we hope to do while there.  Not so this time.  This past week has been very hectic, working 8-10 hours per day split between Professor Conway’s research, and doing work on a brief for an appeal going before the Intermediate Court of Appeals here in Hawaiʻi.  It’s an important case, hopefully it will be used to get further clarification on permanency placements here in Hawaiʻi, and further explain “the best interest of the child.”  Itʻs a tricky situation, and one that is fraught with poor outcomes at the Supreme Court of the United States.

But I digress.

Yesterday we spent fifteen hours traversing the Pacific Ocean, stopping first in Narita for a four hour layover, and then travelling another 3 hours to Naha, Okinawa.  The first leg was on a refurbished 747 - so old that it still had ashtrays in the restrooms.  The cabins’ seats had been upgraded to the new variety, but you could feel the shabbiness of the plane as a whole.  8 hours took a long time.  The bonus was that there was internet (for a price) and wifi based entertainment on your iPad/tablet (more available for the iPad than for the tablets, they haven’t upgraded the system to support Android or Windows just yet).  I ran into a number of folks on the plane from my contractor past, interesting how small the world really is.

As you can see, we had some very interesting questions as we were filling ou tthe customs forms for coming into Japan - my personal favorite was number three.  I never realized that carrying a sword was the equivalent of narcotics trade!  I guess it pays not to carry a Hittori Hansu with you wherever you go.  :)

When we arrived at the airport, I fired up the iPhone and Boingo (let me tell you that Boingo is a really nice investment if you are travelling overseas and don’t want to use your SIM card).  There are a number of networks out there where, if you launch Boingo (and there’s usually a notation under the network SSID that tells you to “Use this with Boingo!”), you are able to log in wtihout paying a fee.  We’ve been getting on to wifi with ease all around Naha so far.  We will see how it goes as we head north in a day or two.  Of course, I didn’t leave it to chance, I had two b-mobile 1 Gig data SIM cards delivered to the Best Western for Wayne and I to use in our iPhones.  We can tether our iPads and the MacBook Air, and cruise the web on 3G.  The cards are good for 2 weeks from the date of activation (which is the date of delivery).  We typically use less than 2 Gig per month, so I figured 1 Gig high speed would be good enough.  Plus, secondary redunancy with global roaming for the month (we are also headed to BVI in 2 weeks, so that function will come in hand).

The layover in Narita was pleasant, we were at the ANA arrival lounge (free for Star Alliance Gold), enjoying high speed wifi, a few beers, and pupus.  Of course, I was working on the appeal, going through the records on appeal, and finishing up the statement of facts.  

During the flight to OKA, we both fell asleep.  I could tell we were descending even in my sleep, because my ears told me so!

We were greeted at the baggage claim by what appeared to either be Shisas (click on the word to get a wikipedia description), or perhaps lions.  I have no idea!

Margaret was waiting in the parking lot for us, having graciously offered to pick us up and transport us to our hotel, which is the Best Western Naha Inn.  

She dropped us off, gave us lots of coins, and then headed back to Kadena.  It is so nice to have friends in all different parts of the world.

We were checked in, and then I asked if our room was non-smoking.  No, was the answer.  The desk manager asked if I would come up with him to the room, maybe stay in it overnight, and then get a non smoking room the next day.  Didn’t work.  He asked Wayne and me to wait for him in the room while he found us another room.  After about 8-10 minutes, we couldn’t take the smoke any more and we went back downstairs.  That apparently inspired the manager to really get us a new room, which is on a non smoking floor.  The elevator and the lobby reek of cigarettes, but this floor does not.  Blessedly, we had our home for the next five nights. It’s a typical Japanese sized room (read as small), but larger than our cabin on the Aggressor.  It’s lacking a second bunk where we can stow luggage, but that’s about it.  You would have to be either Wayne or me in the bathroom, with a sink that comes up to just over the kneecap!

This morning I was a soccer widow.  We didn’t get to sleep until about 12:30 am this morning, and Wayne was up and bouncing at 4 am for the World cup.  3 1/2 hours of sleep is just not enough!  Wayne, I think, was rooting for Argentina, but I had a suspicion that it would be the Germans.  And, in the second extra period, right near the end, it was.  I know many who are sad, but I’m pretty sure that a stoic German nation was ecstatic.  I vaguely remember something like that in 1992, when the recently unified Germany won their semi-final match in the UEFA cup.  There were fireworks and dancing in the streets, even in quiet Graben-Neudorf.

We picked up our rental car early this morning, taking off at around 9 am on the monorail.  I was struck once again by how quiet people are, but they are constantly texting on their phones, or maybe even surfing the internet.  There was one exception to the quiet, a toddler was crying and fussing, and his mother reacted by redirecting in a way not usually seen in most of the US (in my experience).  She was kind, and soothing.  I think that because of my work, I see a lot of the worst of parenting.  This was very pleasant to observe.

Wayne drove us back to the hotel.  I’m not quite ready to drive left hand side of the road just yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  As we left the hotel, I was thoroughly amazed at the decibel level of the cicadas right here in Naha city, under a monorail station stop.  I at first felt nostalgic, since we don’t have them in Hawaiʻi, but was glad to be on our way to the car rental agency.  Buzz marketing - we got a compact car at Hertz (the largest of their small cars) which is a five seater that actually fits our dive gear and suitcases.  Much better than expected!

While  Wayne went exploring along the Kokusai Dori (International Street), and had a nap, I spent the majority of today working on the Statement of Facts, with a break for lunch at a little hole in the wall that had tasty food, and another for dinner with Eliot at Sam’s Sailor Inn, a teppanyaki place.  We all had the sirloin, and we split prawns and a lobster.  Yummy.  We also went into Don Quijote (It’s in a 9 story building, and it occupies maybe six or seven of the floors).  They have two fish tanks outside near the pedestrian area of Kokusai Dori, and another tank inside the ground floor store area.  There are two gigantic eels (one, accurately enough, is called a giant moray; the other, white with black spots, is cleverly named a blackspotted moray).

Wayne and Eliot watched a little Men in Blazers before Eliot headed back up to school on the bus.  Wayne crashed and burned at 10 pm, and I finished up and emailed in the draft statement to our CASA lawyer and the CASA program manager, and I am now about to crash and burn.  

Oyasuminasai!

Wrapping up well

First and foremost, I must tip my hat to Tova and her staff at Fish ’n Fins.  The service (and the bentos!) was excellent, and the dive guides treated us with respect and courtesy.  They made us feel welcome and very comfortable.

Tova returned today from a dive show in California, and was excited for us to come and visit Ocean Hunter I and III on Saturday.  We are looking forward to the visit.  If it is anything at all like the website shows, I think both would be very comfortable dive platforms.  We have provided supplies for both during the course of the week (our dive guides brought items out to the liveaboards), and the staff on the liveaboards rewarded us with chocolate.  :)

Our first dive returned us to Blue Holes.  Our diving companions wanted to dive the Temple of Doom (a cave at the bottom of the Holes).  I have not yet overcome claustrophobia to the point of being able to be in a dark, covered room where I cannot see the exit, so Wayne joined me in an extended surveyal of the Holes.  I finally got a good disco clam shot!  When the boys returned from the Temple, we drifted out in the blue towards Blue Corner.  We were joined by my BF the Napoleon wrasse, and we then got to fly across the top of the Corner.  The divers hooked in below seemed to look at us with awe.  At least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

The last dive of the trip for us was a return to Ulong Channel.  We were pleasantly surprised with a huge school of Jacks, but there were really no sharks to be seen at the mouth.  After a long 40 minutes waiting for something to happen, we took off down the channel.  It was slow go drifting until we reached the lettuce coral, and then the rocket ride commenced.  At about an hour of bottom time, Wayne deployed the sausage and we were up after a safety stop.  What a wonderful way to end the trip.  Thank you Antonio for suggesting that we do a channel as our last dive!

We got back, cleaned our gear (mirazyme rocks!), and indulged in a plate of tuna sashimi and some beer.  I cannot wait to come back to this dive shop, regardless of whether it is on one of the Ocean Hunters, or it is land based.  They were wonderful here, and they truly understand what it is to be a service agency.  I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Dinner was at the Taj, alas no Mog Mog this trip.  Maybe next time.  Because you KNOW we are eating there again tomorrow night.

Land cruising

A day with nothing planned.  That never happens with us, so why break tradition now?  We first walked to FnF (well, almost walked, we were picked up halfway there during a heavy rainfall) to tour the Ocean Hunters I and III.  The III is more comfortable if you have a lot of couples, but if you have about 6 singles and one couple, the I is the way to go.  Both provide nitrox, and the I is now in drydock getting retrofitted with a nitrox membrane system.  Both very pleasant, and both on our list of “to do” in the some time future.  :)

We found a great little Italian place for lunch (owned by Tova (FnF co owner) surprisingly) where we had a great lunch before heading to the Etphison museum.  We haven’t been there in a long time, so the visit was welcome.  They now have a downstairs exhibit, focusing on canoeing.  At $10 per head, it’s not the greatest bargain, but not too terrible.  It was a decent walk.  On the way to lunch and the museum, we stopped at the sports store in WCTC to get me a new pair of sandals.  It turned out they had a sale pair of Tevas ($20!) that helped me walk a little bit better (actually a lot better).  The slippers I brought to Palau had seen better days, and I strained my foot trying not to slip on pavement or on the dive shop floors.  Yay Tevas!

Dinner tonight was the Tandoori Mixed Grill at the Taj.  Ok, we really didn’t change much this trip, but you just can’t beat the Taj in Palau.  We stopped by their new bar (opened last year) before getting our supper.  Although you couldn’t taste the alcohol, the drinks were quite strong.  Thankfully we generally walk, or, as in this instance, we get a ride back to the hotel.

A very lovely visit to Palau, and we cannot wait to come back.  It will unfortunately be a year from now, but we hope to bring more friends with us.

A hui ho!

A four-star four-tank day!

It was a wonderful day today!

We started out at Turtle Cove, despite not having Peleliu dive permits.  Blessedly it is off season, so they are not too strict.  We didn’t get Peleliu permits this time because of how devastated the reef appeared on our last visit.  It will likely be several years before we go back there again.

That being said, we had a new divemaster today, Antonio, who has been leading dives for the past 8 years.  Tova (FnF owner) employs only Palauan dive guides, making for a culturally aware dive shop that can provide more information than might be expected (i.e. turtle shell cleaning with soft coral).  The DM reminded me a little bit of Mr. Keo - especially his startle response.  It is funny to watch him, he gets entranced by the dive, and then suddenly realizes he has divers behind him.  Four out of five of us are instructors, though, so not too much to worry about.  As long as he keeps the newbie at his side!  We saw a turtle cleaning its shell against the coral (with two remoras on board), a wire coral with up to 10 gobies on it, and a black snapper school.  Unfortunately, the eel we saw last time was not in residence today.

We next went to New Drop Off hoping for another Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, but no luck - there was almost no current, definitely  pretty slow for a full moon.  We did see three turtles, lots of ta’ape, a couple of barracuda, and a juvenile bumphead parrotfish.  Being hooked in really did nothing for us, none of the big critters were having anything to do with us on this dive.  When we got on board, I was concerned that I had air trapped in my BCD.  Turns out I did not.  Instead, I had oodles of water in it!  The tear is getting bigger.  I may need to get new wings when we get home (although Wayne mentions that they are now making a woman’s BCD, so I may wind up getting a whole new rigging).

Then we were off to German Channel.  To be honest with you, I don’t have to dive German Channel ever again.  Last year’s five for five sightings of manta rays was unbelieveable.  Astounding.  I just don’t know that we could ever manage that again.  That being said, our companions wanted to do the channel, so we went along.  I simply hoped for some grey reef sharks.  But our luck held (thank you Jodi!), and we saw a lone manta ray at the second cleaning station.  Lovely.  And the same Napoleon wrasse was present, along with dozens and dozens of groupers.  An amazing dive, and I’m glad we didn’t miss it!

We headed in to the shop to get new tanks for our fourth dive, and to wait for the sun to get lower in the sky.  We tried to figure out which wreck we wanted to do as the night dive.  I had voted for Jake Seaplane, but it apparently has been severely damaged (as had the surrounding reef) by Bopha, so the choice swung to Chuyo Maru.  This was the first time diving the Chuyo for me, the second for Wayne.  So I have now hit two new dive sites!  The Hollis finally let me back in, and I descended with it.  I did use my backup compyuter for the first three dives of the day, so please do not fear!  There were lots of interesting shrimp, gunwhales, and lots to explore.  I did not penetrate the wreck, though, as I had never dived it before in daylight, much less the night.  While we were doing our gradual ascent (reminiscent, as Wayne reminds me, of Chuuk) we finally found a longnose hawkfish.  Woo hoo, they are not gone!

After we got back and rinsed gear, we walked (horrors gasped the FnF staff) to Sushi Bar Mito for dinner.  I had hoped to go to Mog Mog tonight, but Wayne was in the mood for Japanese, so we went.  I have to admit, it was quite good.  I had the grilled squid and minute seared fish of some sort, Wayne a sushi combo.  A good find, and we will be able to report positively.  Yummy!