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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Today was a great day. Making it to Antartica was an ok first step. Making it to my first mountain top in Antarctica is well... "That's what I am talking about!" I went up to fix a repeater. Mt. Coates is about 6000 ft. It is a shear cliff on most sides and flat enough up top to land the Bell 212. Actually, some of the sides are overhangs and the rock is quite brittle. I found the experience to be quite amazing. I don't know how else to describe it. I was up there for about 4 hours. The helo came back and we went home. There is always two of us together for these missions with a survival bag our ECW and radio contact to the helo (and other channels) with handheld radios. The weather was perfect. The pilot commented on the weather several times. I have hundreds of photos and the ones I have posted are not the best ones I am sure, since I have not looked through them yet.

It looks like I will be out in the field each day for a few days to different places.

Here is a very small sample of the science we support with our communications infrastucture in the dry valleys. There are hundreds of scientific projects this season, all of which need communications for science and safety. We have science lectures twice a week on station. Last night's was regarding penguins. My co-worker got some nice close ups of some penguins on Monday.

http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/ajus/nsf9828/9828html/h10.htm

http://www.astrobiology.com/lter/

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