Holiday

Another holiday, and this time I ventured further than the area around Tokyo. I booked a last minute flight last week to Naha on the main island of Okinawa, around 1,000 miles south of Tokyo.

Following a few days of frantic buying - shorts, sun cream, sandals that don't fit and give me blisters - I arrived in Naha on Monday after a 3 hour or so flight. A few other people I've met had mentioned that Naha wasn't up to much and I'd be better heading to a nearby island. I hadn't booked anywhere to stay in attempt to wean myself off planning travelling too much but the woman at tourist info at the airport convinced me that not many people speak English on the island and I might have some problems finding accommodation - lies! well, my basic Japanese and other people's basic English was enough to communicate throughout my whole trip, and there is lots of accommodation on the island which is easy to find. To be fair though she only dealt with the main island and didn't know much about Zamami which is where I went. I found the details of a guesthouse on the Internet at the airport and booked 2 nights there but still had an element of flexibility in my plans.

I can sum up my holiday in a few words really - walking, beaches, books - that's all I did! There are a few touristy things around Okinawa main island including a rebuilt temple that's a UNESCO World Heritage site (not quite sure how that happens when it's been rebuilt fairly recently), some underground tunnels and cliffs where a lot of Japanese soldiers and civilians committed suicide towards the end of WWII and a big aquarium - but I didn't go and see any of it! Didn't look too thrilling and the temptation of 3 days doing absolutely nothing was too big. Okinawa trivia - It's subtropical with a temperature of around 20C for most of the year, Zamami itself is small (I'd guess at about 30 miles squared but cant find the figures anywhere), and the group of islands has the highest life expectancy in the world at an average of 90.1 years for men and 93.2 years for women.

The fruits of my relaxation can be seen in my expanding book list! >>

More pics - http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Okinawa/

Sumo

Long gap again, but you should be getting used to it by now. Busy as ever plus I've had a nasty cold for a while and just coming out of the other side of it. Also had my boss observe one of my lessons which is never a nice experience. Parents can watch their kids lessons in the next couple of weeks too which should be interesting!

This month I've spent a large amount of money. It was Akane's birthday, I watched Sumo, I got a new passport, and I bought a Nintendo D.S.

Akanes birthday - surprise party with 8-9 friends, I being the only 外人 (foreigner) was strangely given the task of taking her to the venue under false pretenses. Finding somewhere new in Tokyo is not an easy task even for Japanese people, asking me to do it with only a roughly drawn map and a name written in katakana is not the best plan of action. Consequently I told Akane I was taking her to a bar I'd seen in a magazine but this meant I had to look vague every time she asked what it looked like and 'is this it?' as I had no idea. Finally found it 'auru' apparently was 'owl'.

D.S. - nice little handheld games machine with a touchscreen for those who don't know. I've been drawing kanji on it, like 子、雨、犬、母、父、(child, rain, dog, mother, father) and getting marks out of 100. My writing has improved somewhat but my memory is still bad. In a vain attempt to improve this I got a 'brain training' game which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Sumo - Pretty interesting but far too short for my liking, each individual fight is about 3-4 seconds! Watched for about 4 hours and saw the big fellas grapple a bit then went and saw them in the town outside getting food from the local convenience store! Got my picture taken with one of them, not a famous fella though. More pics below and should get some others online too maybe a video as well.

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Sumo/