On Thursday night my sister and I went to a dinner theater in Okinawa.  We got to eat little bits of really good food (small portions of a lot of dishes equal a full multi-course meal) while the performers did traditional dance to entertain us.  My sister and I know very little Japanese so we couldn’t understand the singing and never did figure out what the story they performed was.  However, as my sister reminded me we had learned at the kabuki play last year, the Japanese theater pays less attention to the story and more attention to the image.  The imagery of the dancers in Japanese traditional outfit dancing around the stage in time with the strong or soft spots in the music, singing along occasionally, was definitely striking.
The night started out with us being late so this is what awaited us when we showed up.  Most of the other patrons were already on their second helping but there were also two other sets of people that came in after us, so we didn’t feel too bad.  My sister said that Okinawans are not known for being early, or even on time all the time.  The dinner theater seemed to have taken that into consideration because the meal started at 6:30 while the performance started at 7:00 pm.  The meal was rather good with sushi, a few different types of salads, a very good chunk of meat (in the covered bowl), and tempura fish.  My sister didn’t much like the idea of eating a full fish, scales, head, fin and all.  Since I ate mine (stopping at the fin) she gave me hers to eat and thought it was hilarious that I actually ate the fish.  Hers was a little more salty than mine had been but otherwise it was fine, as long as I didn’t see the face as I ate it.  Somethings are just better to not think about while. or after, you do them.
Not long after the fish incident, the lights dimmed and the stage lights started to dance around the stage in alternating colors.  Then two ladies came out and knelt with their backs to us.  As they started to dance on the darkened stage, they clicked together two wooden blocks in each hand, adding a nearly cymbal-like sound to the music playing through the hidden speakers.  After they walked off stage two male eisu dancers walked on and started their dance.  Eisa dancers are people, often men, who dance with drums, hitting them in tone with the music in a traditional Okinawan dance.  One of the dancers broke his drumstick in half.  The broken half he kicked to the back wall and the half he held, with the tassel, he used to hit the drum.  It probably wasn’t as loud or perfect to hit the drum with the tassel end but it still worked for the show.
Soon the two lady dancers came out again, this time in peasant outfits and the eisa dancers went backstage.  The ladies danced with flower branches and finished with scrolls that said something in Japanese.  They left and the shisa dog came out to prance about the stage.  It was rather impressive when you think of how perfectly in time they were to have the person at the head of the body snapping the wooden jaws shut with the dance and the two people able to coordinate enough to roll around on the ground like a real dog would.  Shisa dogs are popular in Okinawa due to the belief that the mix of dog and lion creatures are protective wards that protect houses.    After a little while the shisa dog turned on glowing eyes and walked down the steps to walk among the tables.  Yes, it did try to eat my sister.Next the ladies came out for a brief dance before the older one left the younger one to dance alone.  After a short dance with the clappers, the other lady came out to dance alone as a warrior.  Soon the other girl came out in warrior outfit and they danced a short dance together.  Soon they were replaced by the two male eisa dancers and a female eisa dancer.  This time the men had the big drums and the girl had the small drum.  They danced around the stage in their high stepping drum dance until the two men left the lady warrior to dance alone.  Then the two ladies came back on to dance with her.  The two lady  dancers then went into the crowd and brought people on stage.  My sister went up while I stayed put to take pictures.  Soon others joined my sister on stage and they all danced.  Then the shisa dog joined them  for a minute before going out among the tables again to see what trouble it could cause.  The dog went back on stage and the show was over.  The cast bowed (yes, the male eisa dancers were the two parts of the dog) and we got to take pictures with the cast.  After picture time, the “dog” stood up, shook itself off, and trotted off stage.  Show complete.
The night was not complete for us though.  On the walk back to the car we found these cuties.  The baby “animals” are permanently attached to the bench while the dogs are stuffed animals advertising the doggie shirts sold at the store behind the camera.  If you look closely you can see the babies are  bigger versions of the old dolls that were popular in the US years ago (as in they were going out of popularity when I was a kid) but they have maintained their popularity in Japan and are a popular souvenir item in various outfits and a popular craft seems to be to create outfits for these small baby dolls.
We also passed a store that sold souvenirs and was decorated by super heroes and other popular icons.  You can see Hello Kitty coming out of the roof, various superheros in the window below, and you can’t see Tweety Bird comfortable in a shark’s mouth ( or was it a whale?) in the store along with many other favorites.  I’m not sure what the life size dolls had to do with the merchandise since the store seemed like it was merely a normal Okinawan souvenier store, but it was eye catching.  It was later at night than I like to be out so we didn’t stop to investigate the store.  We took a picture and got in her car, soon we were home and getting ready for bed. hmm, bed…  A late day should mean a late morning but no such luck.  High tide was 5 am and we were going snorkeling the next day so no sleeping in for us.  (Okay, just a little)

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I’m no history buff when it comes to World War 2 so I was relatively surprised to learn that Okinawa was the site of a huge battle, the Battle of Okinawa.  When my sister suggested that we visit the tunnels of the former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters, I jumped at the chance.  To show you where we arethis is the view from the visitor’s entrance on top of the tunnelsand this is the stairs we went down to get to the headquarters.

The 450 meter tunnels were cut by hand with pickaxes by hand to hold the 4000 men they would hide.  Earlier in the battle the sailors had built and fortified these tunnels as the headquarters of their navy.  When they were ordered north to another position, they had destroyed the weapons that were hard to carry, like cannons and other big guns.  When they arrived to their new headquarters, they found barely any protection and begged their leaderRear Admiral Minoru Ota to return to the tunnels for a final stand against the Americans.  Finally he agreed and the Navy sailors that could still move went back to the underground headquarters.

The tunnels were powered by 3 generators kept in spaces like this one.

Space was so tight the petty officers, at least a few hundred men, had to sleep standing up, leaning against poles.The petty officers had two rooms this sizeand this is a recreation of what they had to sleep on.  Their motto by this time in the war was “Do Without Until We Win” and this headquarters is a good example of that ideal.  Even the Rear Admiral went with that ideal.This is his office/dinningroom/sleeping quarters.  Although he was the only person in the complex to have his own room, he got much less than most officers would demand now a days.  There medical area was merely a cave in the wall where supplies were kept and there might be enough room for a new patient to be laid on the floor to be treated.The code room was the biggest room in the complex and where the Japanese codebreakers would work for hours trying to break the American code or communicating with their own forces.My sister is pointing at these in the ceiling beam.  She thought they might be some sort of code, I thought they may have been counting the days they were in the tunnels, similar to a calender.  Then we realized that the room had been redone and the supports were merely a form of plastic made to look like wood.  The marks are probably a recreation of how they bent the wood or something to do with building.This is one of the main exits where the sailors  ran out poorly armed to fight the incoming Americans.  The Battle of Okinawa is known for its kamikaze attacks.  Although used throughout the Pacific war, kamikaze attacks were a huge part of the Japanese defense strategy.  With few planes and barely any weapons remaining, kamikazes,both on plane, on land and when possible by water on small speed boats were used.  It was common for sailors to be sent from the tunnels with a few grenades, a sword attached to a stick as muskets were scarce, and orders of where to attack.  A lot of Americans died due to these attacks but so did a lot of Japanese.  They also used the local populations who mostly willingly fought for the Japanese.  (The Wikipedia article says they were sent out at gunpoint to attack the Americans but the Rear Admiral sent a message back to Tokyo saying how willingly the civilians helped the war effort, even as they lost their homes and lives.  He was requesting that the government look kindly on the Okinawans in the future.)

This s one of the few tombs on the site for all those who died in the tunnels.  In the middle of June the highest ranking Japanese sailors, including Rear Admiral Ota, shot themselves in an honorable suicide inside the tunnels.  When the tunnel was finally excavated years after the war, they found 2,400 people dead inside of the 5,000 men the rear admiral had brought back from the other position.

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Today my sister and I created a project using the Okinawan technique called bingata.  Look here to see my experience with bingata and here to learn about the art.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!

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The time finally came for me to take time off work and go travel.  My first stop is Okinawa, Japan to see my sister.  To get there I needed  to take the train from my town to Narita International Airport outside of Tokyo.  I left my place an hour before my train was scheduled to leave.  My schedule was to get the 9:57 train to Tutsuka, a stop one beyond Ofuna.  (Keep that in mind, it will come in handy later.)  I knew the schedule had the train to Narita leaving Ofuna at 10:15 to get to Tutsuka at 10:18 to continue it’s ride to Narita.  I knew Ofuna was a huge train station so I decided to catch the train at the assumed would be the smaller station.

I got on the 9:44 train and thought to find my track and wait for my train.  I followed the sign to Narita Express, waited for the train, and got on the spiffy Narita Express…to Ofuna.  Yep, I got on the wrong train.  Luckily I had time to grab my backpack and my suitcase and hush to the other track.  I managed to get on the correct train right before it left the Ofuna train station and sat down to wait.  The train was supposed to pull into Narita at 11:58, it puled in at 12:45.  From what I could tell a bullet train had thrown off all the trains in the system by breaking down.  That slowed my train down but I had planned for that.  Thanks to previous experiences nearly missing a plane at Narita due to assuming the schedule,I had gotten the schedule for a train route arriving at Narita over two hours before I needed to board so being nearly an hour late arriving at the airport didn’t bother me.  As I hurried through the airport to find the domestic flights I passes a Japanese who had decided to cause a scene.  He was screaming (in Japanese) and swinging a large metal something to keep the airport cops away.  I walked around the attendants keeping us away from the scene and saw as I went up the elevator that about four cops had finally gotten the man on the ground and they were restraining him.

I finally found the check-in place for my plane and realized they were already checking baggage and all for the flight.  I got through the line (had to check my suitcase since it was too heavy to be in the car) and looked at my clock.  I had an hour before the flight started to board and I was hungry.  Having been to Narita before, I headed for the shopping area above the international departures terminal for lunch.  I walked around the area and saw mostly sit down restaurants.  Since I couldn’t be sure I would get my food in time to enjoy it, I settled for McDonalds.  I couldn’t read the menu and pointed at a fried burger.  Turned out their fish fillet was a shrimp fillet.  Not bad for lunch and I had a half hour to wait.  I tried to call my sister but she was busy so I went through the security checkpoint.  I didn’t realize that I could bring an open bottle of water through the check point so I threw out my half empty bottle, only to have them ask if I could take out my water for the x-ray machine.  After informing them I had no water in my bag, I got through and my sistercalled me back just as I walked through the checkpoint.

I called her back after I’d put all my stuff back in my bag and gotten out of the loud area.  We talked as I walked to the gate and we hung up after I told her it looked like my plane would be on time.  We were supposed to start boarding at 2:25.  At 2:45 a lady came down and put a note up, all in Japanese but the numbers 1600.  The plane would take off at 4:00 pm.  Um, okay.  Boarding started a little after 3:30.  I was told to come back at 3:50.  They wanted to board the back of the plane first and I was near the front of the plane.  I got back in line a little before their assigned time and we got on buses.

The bus took us to the plane and this what I saw:Yep, they were just finishing loading the luggage and the meals were still being loaded.  We sat on the bus for about twenty minutes before they let us on the plane. I got to my seat at 4:21, yes, that is after the plane was supposed to have taken off.  We all got in our seats and I started to dose on and off.  The plane finally took off at 5:30.  Yay.  After some turbulence and some awesome views of the sunset over Japan   Unfortunately our altitude and the fact that the window reflected the image of me inside the plane after dark kept me from getting any really awesome pictures.  It was fun watching the clouds go by because they reminded me of ghosts: just wisps of white floating in the air outside my window.  I ate a bento box and got a bottle of water as my meal and finally got to Okinawa at 8:05 pm.  After picking up my checked bag I headed to the arrivals area to hug my sister and we were off to her house and her two cats.  (Her husband is away on emergency business for now so he probably won’t be here for my visit.)  Ah, travel time wth family.

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Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.

That is what the sign says that hangs above the walkway into Hong Kong Disneyland.  One of six Disney amusement parks in the world, it was the first one I had gone into and I had looked forward to the day since I had planned it with my friend a few days ahead.  We took the train through Hong Kong and got on the special Disney train  to the Disney station.  Once outside we stopped so my friend could smoke and I could put on sunscreen.  I had to work over the next few days and the last souvenir I wanted from my first trip to Disneyland was a painful and obvious sunburn.

Once we were set, we walked down a sidewalk lined with trees and lamp poles with flags of popular Disney characters rippling in the wind to a water fountain of Mickey Mouse surfing on the air leaving the air hole of a whale.  Other popular characters, like Donald Duck, held various poses in the courtyard.  After a few pictures we moved on to the entrance.  Having already bought our tickets, we skipped that line and went straight to the entrance line.  After the attendant searched my bag for dangerous items, we walked past the Mickey Mouse likeness made of flowers, and entered the park.  The first area we entered was the area designed to look like a town from the early 1900’s.  We passed Mickey and Minnie Mouse posing for pictures in a gazebo and windows of various Disney scenes, like Woody and his toy friends, and went to Tommorrowland.  There we drove a flying saucer (okay, so it circled a giant sculptures of balls designed to look like planets and my friend pushed a button to move us up or down while I took pictures, but it’s the closest I’ll ever get) and helped Buzz Lightyear destroy his enemies on a ride where we shot at Zs among the characters lining the track.

After lunch we walked over to Fantasyland where we spun in teacups at the Mad Hatters Tea Party, traveled the world in the It’s A Small World After All ride, entered a book with Winnie the Pooh, took pictures with Mickey Mouse and Goofy, watched a magically disastrous preparation to a concert when Donald Duck tried to control Mickey Mouse’s magician hat, and saw Cinderella and Tinkerbell through the crowds as well as Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and Pinocchio.  After that we went back to the center of the park to watch the parade.  We saw Mickey Mouse and his gang on a float with a wooden ship that flew, Winnie the Pooh in his honey jar with his friends walking around him, the Disney princesses on a swan followed by a jungle of animals with monkeys playing on bungee lines, and Stitch surfing a massive wave high above our heads.  Then came the toys from Toy Story and TinkerBell.  After the parade was over and the music had stopped, we walked over to the area where little green men kept everyone in line, the area designed around Toy Story.  After watching the green army soldiers drill some visiting children, we went parachuting and rode the Slinky Dog as he tried to catch his tail.

After toy land, we went on a safari around Tarzan’s tree house

A mechanical elephant we saw while on the safari.

before exploring his home where we ran into his tiger nemesis.

After supper we decided it had been a long day already and wandering for three hours before the fireworks didn’t appeal to us.  With that in mind we headed for the train.  On the way we stopped at a gift store and found glass roses as well as a few animals for sale.  All in all, I enjoyed my first trip to a Disney Resort and am looking for when I can get to the two in Tokyo, Japan and all the ones back in the United States.  It was a delightful trip back into my childhood and a fun day with my friend.

Click here to view more of my pictures from Hong Kong Disneyland on my Flickr account.

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Not too long ago I went on a very short trip to Jakarta, Indonesia.  While there I visited the Mall of Indonesia, a huge mall they term an “Entertainment Mall”.  This means I’ve hit three “country malls” in my life so far: Mall of Indonesia, Mall of Asia (in the Philippines), and Mall of America (in Minnesota).  They were built to be the biggest malls in the country, if not the world, but I would be surprised if the Mall of America was still the largest mall in North America since malls keep going up.
Anyway, MOI is a huge mall with an amusement park designed for very small children, a huge movie theater, a large food court of local restaurants, a number of restaurants popular in the United States, as well as stores from all over the place, and a dentist.  Yes, the Mall of Indonesia has a dentist in it, just down the hall from the amusement park.  It also has a bridal store where I saw this beauty.

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