Okinawa

Our guide Sunny talks to us about Okinawa

We like to consider ourselves amateur WWII buffs, and we were excited to finally dock on the Island of Okinawa, just south of Japan.  Some of the bloodiest fighting and war atrocities occurred here on Okinawa, where many thousands were killed during the final days of the war. Although Okinawa is an island of Japan, it has a different cultural history and somehow seems apart from the other major islands of the Rising Sun.

Unique Shusa statue on rooftop
wards off evil all over Okinawa

The Volendam docked late in the afternoon at Okinawa’s Wakasa Berth. The ship had “beaucoup de paperwork problems” with the Japanese officials, so our first day on Okinawa was obviously shortened quite a bit. But not everything was a total bust. Towards the end of the day, we managed to get past the delays of customs, and grabbed a cab into the capital city of Naha for an evening look-around and maybe even some local chow, and of course, some unusual shopping.

Walking the streets of Naha, Okinawa

A delightful English-speaking, 50-ish Okinawan cabbie named “Angel,” who was the epitome of spit-and-polish (tall, erect postured, well-spoken, courteous, wearing white gloves and military-like uniform) picked us up at the dock and took us into Naha City on the main shopping street (Kokusai Dori). There, he shut his cab meter off and gave us an unauthorized courtesy tour just so we tourists could get our bearings, then let us out to adventure on our own. With jaws dropped at this unexpected welcome, we thanked him profusely and went on our way!!  And, he wouldn’t even take a tip on our $8 fare.  Lovely person!

We walked some of the busy shopping streets of this neon-blinking district, still somewhat dazed, but thankful for our cabby’s welcome to us on Okinawa. We found a quiet restaurant for some local vittles, and one that had a free internet to boot. We hadn’t seen or used internet in days, and we just wanted to get our next blog on its way. This is the way we have to do it sometimes, especially when we are traveling on a cruise ship, grabbing that internet access whenever/however we can!

War time pictures of Okinawan
devastation

Fortunately, we had two days on Okinawa, so we would return tomorrow for the real WWII experience. Although you could see no remnants of the war having affected Naha, the truth is that it was basically burned and leveled during the war. Now, it is a modern built-up new city, totally replacing the city that existed prior to the war. The memories of the war seemed distant, as we strolled these streets of Naha.  It was a vibrant young city now, and the well-dressed locals and shoppers seemed divorced from any thoughts of former devastation.

The following day on Okinawa, we took a tour of the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters, with our tour guide “Sunny” showing us some of the highlights. We descended deep into the earth thru tunnels that were hand dug with pickaxes by Japanese soldiers during the war. Wow, what a feat of determination because much of the digging is thru shear rock. But the Japanese were not kind to the Okinawans who they treated as second-class citizens. The Okinawans were forced to fight for the Japanese during the war or be killed. Sometimes whole families were forced to commit suicide. Many unthinkable atrocities were perpetrated by the Japanese Command here and documented by the writings of other Japanese soldiers.

Typhoon of Steel pulverizes the Japanese war machine

Okinawa was the last big battle in the push to invade Japan proper. In fact, this was the only ground battle fought on Japanese soil in WWII. The Japanese knew they had to stop the Americans here, so they fought fiercely to save the motherland. But, the Japanese were severely outgunned, outnumbered, and outclassed against an invasion force they called “The Typhoon of Steel.” 

Sign in Japanese Staff Officer's Room
where they blew themselves up

Most of them were either killed, forced to surrender, or committed suicide. In fact, the walls of some of the Staff Officer’s Rooms down in the tunnels are pockmarked with shrapnel blast scars from the grenades the officers used to blow themselves up. Most were killed or committed suicide because surrender was not an option in their bushido code. Consequently, many thousands died here in the Battle of Okinawa, and in the war in general.  The actual statistics are sketchy, but as best known, 75,000 allied forces were killed, 84,000 to 117,000 Japanese were killed, and 149,000 Okinawans were killed, performed Hari Kari, or just went missing.

Marine examines horrors of Battle of Okinawa

We also toured thru the War Museum which had many detailed posters and photographs showing the horrors of the war in Okinawa. War is what it is, but many graphic pix and dioramas of the innocent victims of the war were displayed here enabling non-combatants like ourselves to gain insight into the severity of the collateral casualties involved.

Peaceful Peace Park by the ocean side

Finally, we visited the Peace Park dedicated to all who had died here on Okinawa during WWII.  Lots of symbology, an eternal flame, and the names of all who died on Okinawa regardless of nationality or gender. A peaceful non-war-like site now, it’s located high on a promontory alongside a serene ocean setting.

A last interesting fact about Okinawa.  It is claimed that the average lifespan here on Okinawa is the longest of anywhere else in the world. There are more centenarians on Okinawa than anywhere else in the world. 








More pics:

American soldier befriends Okinawan children

Anne checks out the underground tunnels

One of the original pickaxes used to hone the
Japanese tunnels

View of Naha, Okinawa from overlook

Frank explores Japanese war tunnels

Taiwan

Beautiful skyline of Kaohsiung

We visited two ports in Taiwan: Kaohsiung on the south side and Keelung, nearest port to the capitol city of Taipei. The city of Kaohsiung has a restored waterfront area that is a work of art. The day was cool but sunny which really showed off the eclectic architecture of this modern city. The colorful buildings reminded us a bit of the unique cityscapes of Shanghai, only on a much lesser scale.

Our tour guide, Helen was well-informed and
kept us laughing

The highlight of our Taiwan visit was a bus tour to the mountain hot springs in the north of the country. We have visited Taipei and explored the city before, so we were looking for something different this time. Anne has always wanted to soak in an Asian hot spring since this activity is an important part of the culture. Which is how we found ourselves outside of Taipei on a cold rainy day being driven up into the mountains.

Getting ready for a hot swim in the cold rain
at Tien Lai Hot Spring Resort

Hot spring resorts are common throughout the Pacific Rim area, especially along a chain of volcanic formations known as “The Ring of Fire.”  Taiwan’s volcanoes are basically extinct now, but a huge reservoir of hot magma beneath the surface continues to push up heat, creating hot springs at the surface. Many believe these hot springs have healing powers, and we were anxious to test the theory.

We arrived at the Tien Lai Hot Springs Resort just in time for a major deluge from the sky. Our guide Helen tried to cheer us up with her vocal rendition of “Singing in the Rain” (with a distinct Taiwanese accent), but everyone looked as skeptical as we felt.

The resort was rather luxurious with nice changing rooms and large, individual lockers. We changed into swimsuits and wrapped ourselves in our towels. They also provided required shower caps and lumpy rubber sandals which had to be the most uncomfortable undersized footwear ever constructed! Altho it was a distance to walk to the hot pools on the cold concrete surface, these footwear handouts were agonizing to wear.  So we ditched them almost immediately and did without.

Taking a soak in the hot sulphur spring
with mandatory bath caps!

It wasn’t easy stepping out into the rain and the chilly air, but once we were soaking in a hot spring it was all worth it! The water contained lots of sulphur, which was quite soothing to the touch, and made the skin feel buttery smooth. The garden area was simple and Zen-like, surrounded by eerie misty-covered mountains. On a better day, it would have been spectacular.

Cooling off in the rain after our hot spa dips

We had thirteen hot pools to choose from, all with slightly different water temperatures and various features like powerful shower heads to direct the spray for a massage effect. They even had a fish pool with little fish to chew on your feet (we had experienced this in Athens, Greece a few years ago). Of course, Anne had to let them chomp on her. After a couple hours dipping in and out of the pools, we showered, changed, and enjoyed a generous buffet lunch featuring local cuisine at the hotel.

Anne with the Nefertiti formation

Our last stop was Yehliu Geo Park, a very commercialized park with various and strange coral-like formations carved by wind and ocean spray. Many of the formations looked like mushrooms although some were supposed to look like famous figures (such as the head of Nefertiti).

Mad Dog Waves crashing all around us

The best sights were the crashing waves. Our guide Helen had warned us to look out for the “Mad Dog Waves” of Taiwan. These rogue waves can drag you down into the sea and drown you in just seconds if you are not careful.  We think we saw a couple of these waves but stayed well behind the painted red line drawn by the park management!

Despite the rain, we appreciated the relaxing day (and our super soft skin!)

More pics:

Suburbs of Kaohsiung

Soooo relaxing!

Garden of mushrooms at Yehliu

Frank in mushroom park

Geo Park seascape

The Philippines

Our friends at the Hotel Stage in Hong Kong

Leaving Hong Kong and Boarding the Volendam

We loved our stay in frenetic HK at the Hong Kong Stage Hotel, but it was time to head for the next phase of our adventure, the cruise ship Volendam.  We had made so many friends here, and it was hard to say goodbye. 

Pic of MS Volendam

But, we had another friend down at the port.  The Holland Cruise Ship MS Volendam was an old friend too; we had sailed on her just about 4 years ago and were ready to do it again.  

A process that some ships are doing now is taking random temperature readings of people boarding the cruise ship.  The Volendam was no exception. A gun-like medical device is pointed at the person’s forehead, and body temp is read and processed for boarding purposes.  We saw no one thrown overboard, but we didn’t really hang around long enough to see if there were any consequences.

Our first port of call would be in the archipelago of the Philippines.  The Philippines are a group of over 7100 islands in the South China Sea, with a population of 103 million people!!  In terms of population size, that’s almost 1/3 the size of the United States!  This is one very densely populated bunch of islands.  There are 3 large islands – North Island (Luzon), Middle Island (Vizayas), and South Island (Mindanao).  Manila is the capital, located on Luzon, and we found it not to be very impressive; it’s where most of the people live, making Manila extremely dense in population. Manila seemed to have very little charm, but then the city has the reputation of being the 2^nd most bombed out place in the world.  Malta still ranks as number 1.

Tour Guide Carlos from the Phillipines

The Island of Corregidor

We elected to take a ship excursion to visit the famous WWII site of Corregidor. Carlos, our very apt Filipino tour guide had nothing but praise for the Americans and their occupation of the Philippines.  He claims, as do most other Filipinos that the USA unified his country by insisting on education and teaching the English language for all since 1904.  “After all,” said Carlos, “the Spanish occupied us for 300 years and gave us nothing but enslavement.”  

Back in high school, we’ve all studied about the Philippines, but putting all the pieces in perspective anymore is mentally dizzying, unless you are a professional historian.  Corregidor?  Bataan?  Luzon? Battle of Leyte? I shall return?  I’ll be back?? (whoops, sorry, that last one was Arnold Schwarzenegger – heh, heh).  We remember studying all these things, but it was so great to actually see these words and places come alive today!

The Island of Corregidor looks like a tadpole!!

We’re headed for Corregidor, which is a small bastion of an island (often referred to as “The Rock”) just off Luzon Island at the mouth of Manila Harbor; this was the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur during WWII.  It took almost 2 hours by ferry for us to navigate the 25 miles across the harbor to Corregidor from Manila.

It has been commented by many that the island of Corregidor is shaped like a tadpole, as shown. 

On 6 May 1942, Corregidor fell to the Japanese, and MacArthur had to vacate his residence here.  Of course, his now infamous words “I shall return” were spoken to his men and the Filipino people as he exited the island for the safety of Australia.

Typical cave dug by Japanese in hillside on Corregidor

When the Japanese took Corregidor, they built nothing there. No houses, no defensive buildings, no operations buildings.  They merely burrowed into the many caves they’d dug, and did guerilla fighting against their enemies. They stayed there until they were killed or kicked out by the Americans at the end of the war (2 March 1945) when MacArthur made goodn his promise to return. 

The Geery Battery where a major catastrophe occurred

Our bus meandered around the island amongst the decaying barracks, batteries, BOQ’s (Bachelor Officer’s Quarters), operations centers, recreation areas, etc.  We passed by the Geery Battery and were sobered to learn about the poor souls there who were blown to bits when their munitions stockpile took a direct hit by a Japanese bomb.  You can still see major pieces of large shrapnel strewn all around the battery grounds.

One of many barracks in decay made with
Bethlehem Steel rebar

Prior to the war, duty in the Philippines was considered a desirable place to put in your service time.  A mere buck private could have a pleasant stay, with servants to clean his clothes and barracks, cook for him, and do other household duties, all for a pittance.  All the young enlistees wanted to put their time in, in the Philippines. 

Bethlehem Steel made some of these cannons

We found it interesting that all of the steel rebar used to make the concrete buildings here on Corregidor were made with Bethlehem steel from good ol’ Bethlehem, Pennsylvania!!  Also, the steel for some of the artillery parts (turrets, breeches, etc.) and some of the cannons too were also made and shipped from Bethlehem. 

Fortress known as the Malinta Tunnel

MacArthur did his operations from inside a stronghold known as the “Malinta Tunnel,” a 900-foot tunnel that had many bomb-proof alcoves (called “literals”) for different operations.  The Malinta Tunnel sat beneath several hundred feet of cliff rock; bombs were of no value in destroying this fortress. MacArthur felt well-protected here from any Japanese overhead bombing.

Inside the Malinta Tunnel

Today, Corregidor is, except for tourists, an empty island.  Nobody is allowed to live here, cut firewood, or make changes to the property, as this is now some kind of protected site for military historical purposes.  Tourists can wander anywhere they please, and check out the many vacant barracks, BOQ’s, ordnance buildings, batteries, and other buildings strewn about, some buried under vines, heavy vegetation, and shrubs throughout the wood-covered islands. In 1974, some tourists found a Japanese soldier who had been hiding since the end of WWII. He refused to surrender even after he was told the war had been over for almost 30 years!  Luckily, the Filipinos found a Japanese officer who fought with this fellow in WWII; he flew down from Japan to convince the soldier the war really was over.

Beach area on Corregidor Island

A last remark about the weather here on Corregidor.  No way to euphemize it.  It’s just plain H-O-T.  But on the day we were here on this great historical island (17 March 2018 – Happy 89^th Birthday to Carl Mattes, BTW), it was very humid too.  Our clothing was always damp from body sweat.  Breezes were constantly blowing all day long, and they tended to evaporate the sweat from our bodies and create a cooling effect.  At times, we actually felt chilly from this evaporation effect.  So, in the end, if this was a typical day, we found the heat somewhat tolerable; it was a lazy, balmy, swing-in-a-hammock under the shade trees kind’a climate!! But just remember, this isn’t even summer yet!

More pics:

Frank and his buddy Mac!

Anne peers down the barrel of a cannon that fired many
rounds during the Battle of Corregidor

Corregeidor Island sits at the mouth
of Manila Bay

Frank and his big gun

Hectic Hong Kong

The Supsic Chinese laundry is open!

Since we have been to Hong Kong before, we did some low-key sightseeing concentrating on the culture: people-watching, eating our favorite noodle/rice dishes, and checking out some of the shopping. Also gave us a chance to get caught up on some laundry.

Young Chinese girls sharing a decadent dessert

The people here are endlessly fascinating. Everyone has been so kind, going out of their way to help us find things in stores and taking really good care of us here in the hotel. We’ve only seen a few western faces, so we know we are somewhat of an anomaly. Asians are very respectful of the elderly, so that helps us out too.

People are so considerate. When a person hands you something, a menu or whatever, it is always done with both hands, almost like an offering. Many people wear surgical-type masks out on the street, not because they are afraid of germs, but because they have a cold and want to protect others. These people are a bit germophobic. A man coughed on an elevator and two women near us immediately covered their mouths with their hands and remained like that until the guy got off the elevator. Speaking of elevators, we saw one with a sign “This elevator is cleaned every two hours.” Wonder how often (and how well) our elevators at home are cleaned?  Actually, we’re not sure American elevators are cleaned at all!

Men's room symbol (looks like a cocktail to us!)

For all you potty freaks (you know who you are), one great feature here is the no-touch-required toilet. To flush, all you do is wave your hand over the top of the tank, and voila!  All’s gone in a heartbeat.

Hidden behind pillar in tight eating quarters

We love Asian soups and have been slurping down various varieties of noodle soup every chance we get. We ate at a famous Hong Kong noodle house where no one spoke any English. They seated us behind a tight-fitting pillar which seemed rather odd.  We thought maybe they can’t stand to watch our pathetic attempts at using chopsticks (lol). We had a great time even though we had no idea what the heck we were doing. The menu was all in Chinese although a picture of noodle soup helped us out there. Anne tried to order a cup of tea (how hard could that be?) but ended up with a plastic cup of hot water! We just love this crazy stuff. You never know what to expect.  Few speak English in these very excellent mom & pop noodle houses, menus are seldom translated into English, and if you are not careful, you may be surprised when your food arrives!

Frank chows down on beef noodle soup

One night, we went looking for a restaurant using a Smartphone provided by the hotel. Well, Google maps got us turned around somehow and we walked many extra miles for nothing!! We decided to circle back in the direction of our hotel and find a place along the way. We found a mall with a whole floor devoted to restaurants – not just a Food Hall but really nice places. One helpful gent recommended a restaurant and it ended up being the very restaurant we had been looking for with the cell phone. It was totally bizarre, similar to the odds of winning a lottery.  Obviously, we were meant to eat there!

Plates of plastic food makes ordering easy

Some other food oddities. Many restaurants use plastic food models to show what’s on the menu. Very helpful when you can’t read Chinese, and they are like little works of art. 

Colorful cakes for dessert

Speaking of food as art, the pastries are out of this world. Haven’t seen such beautiful cakes since we were in Paris.

Crab tries to make an escape at the fish market

We also checked out some of the street markets that are quite common here. The Fa Yuen “wet” market held table after table of live, or fresh-prepared whole fish or fillets. Some of it was still swimming around or trying to leap out of their pools of water.  Some were very strange, unusual, & interesting critters just swimming around in small trays, waiting for a patron to come along and select their evening meal.  

A bag of live toads ready to be eaten for supper

All this along with some nice-looking prawn, crabs, eels, and even a nautical rope-bag of live toads and frogs – yum!  Caution was required as the floors were slippery with the juices of these animals; one false move and you go down, laying in those slimy juices.  A simple walk thru here and the smells of strong fishy odors that will haunt you forever.  We didn’t think we’d last in a job like this and wondered how these people could stay in this job for a lifetime career.  I guess if it pays the bills, it’s worth it.

Frank examines interesting creatures at the Goldfish Market

The Goldfish market is a specialty market with tons of colorful tropical fish along with any aquarium supplies you could need. The fish are displayed in liter plastic bags of water, all tied and hanging from a display rack out on the sidewalks so people can pick what they want. The fish were beautiful, so many different colors. They even sold some fish that looked like somebody had written a message on their sides, in Chinese!  Almost made us wish we could bring a bag home!  

Teeny turtle pets for sale

And itsy-bitsy turtles too.  We haven’t seen turtles like that for sale for many years; wonder if it’s even legal anymore given all the animal rights in our country these days?

Hectic streets of Hong Kong

The sheer chaos on the streets of HK is a sight to behold.  We don’t know the exact statistics, but this city seems way overpopulated beyond its ability to provide the needs of all.  Especially in the space department.  Maybe we are just the proverbial country bumpkins from the USA, and total neophytes to the way of big cities, but just navigating the sidewalks of downtown HK is unimaginable.  You are constantly meandering thru the crowds just to get short distances from A to B. 

Lots of neon on Hong Kong streets

Well, don’t be in a big hurry.  Road traffic is a danger to the unwittingly impatient; almost everyone stands on corners in hoards waiting for lengthy street signals to permit them to cross.  And wow!!  No shock, but everyone here has a fancy schmancy cell phone, and are dangerously involved in using it, eyes downcast as they walk the busy sidewalks, and even more dangerously, as they routinely cross the over-trafficked highways.  We should’a counted the number of times we needed to dodge the unconscious walkers who nonchalantly stroll along, thumbs ablaze, punching text into those things, and creating near-miss situations with approaching walkers – like us!  We had several hits too!

Colorful aisles crowded with
merchandise in grocery store

It’s actually “winter” here in HK, although the temps over the past few days have been in the high 60’s and low 70’s. It’s very strange to watch another culture’s reaction to this weather.  It was not unusual to watch some Hong Kongers saunter along in this outstandingly warm climate, palm trees swaying along the sidewalk, and these people are wearing winter parkas for comfort against the cold!  Frank tried wearing a a thin long-sleeved shirt, but by noon it became so uncomfortable, he shed that layer and went down to short sleeve shirt, while the HK-ers continued to use their parkas!

Tomorrow we board our cruise ship, so you may need to wait awhile for our next update. Cruise ships are very poor (and expensive!) for internet use.  Stay tuned – lots more to come!

More pics:

Slurping the noodle soup

Chinese banyan trees line Nathan Street

Intricate rose-covered cake

More luscious cakes!

Anne's rose tea actually came with tiny rosebuds!

Love these noodle soups!

Although Anne loves HK, she always misses Paris

Painted goldfish

Asians love their skin whitening products

Artistically-presented salad