Honshu and Okinawa

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I am back. I spent 10 days in Japan, 5 days for work on the main island of Honshu and 5 days of solo adventure in Okinawa. Travel is so invigorating dispite the uncomfortableness. Jetlag, anxiety, crowds, and other discomforts aside, it is mind-expanding and rewarding. Work went well. I flew a new airline (Skymark) from Tokyo to Naha. I am always wary of strange discount airlines and all the traps they set. However, I had a great expereince with "Sky". I was actually shocked. Super easy checkin at the airport, no extra fees even with extra luggage. The primary mission in Okinawa was to visit the Peace Park and the Suicide cliffs of Okinawa. At the end of WW2 the inhabitants were encouraged to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans and get tortured and eaten. They jumped off the cliffs at the souther end of the main island. If you have seen theoriginal color footage taken at the time. I am sure you were moved with mothers holding their babies jumping to th...
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I wish I could upload more photos. I have so many photos and videos all in higher resolution. I was on top of Mt. 1882 today for about 4 hours. We were successful getting everything optimized to make internet access available to the scientists at Lake Bonney. The photos here show some penguins on Monday taken by a co-worker, me on top of Mt 1882 today, a gargoyal rock on top of 1882 today and a picture that my coworker took of the helo letting me out on top of 1882 with a 12x zoom (also today). It was a long way down. The equipment is right next to the lip so we can get a clear shot on 900 Mhz. We bent the yagi antenna down a little bit to help the path. You can see Mt. Coates in the background when you know which mountain is called Coates. After tomorrow we should be done with the dry valleys region of Antarctica for a while (until something breaks again). We will be moving on to the Penguin rookeries and the deep field camps.

I took a short video of my coworker talking on the phone on top of the mountain. I have been laughing just thinking about it.

I have an early launch tomorrow in the A-Star to get back up to Mt Coates. It should be a quick trip.

I believe you cannot drink enough water in Antarctica. With the activities I am doing staying hydrated is a challenge even if your weren't on the driest continent. Antarctica is the highest, dryest coldest continent on earth. I drink a minimum of 4 liters of water a day + other fluids. I worked out last night and the sweat just boils off you even when it is below zero F. It is a dry, dry place.

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