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. From what I understand, at the end of WW2 the inhabitants were encouraged to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans and get tortured and eaten. Besides other types of suicide, they jumped off the cliffs at the Southern end of the main island. If you have seen the original color footage taken at the time, I am sure you ...
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Today we went up to a NASA building to peak the antennas for the Erebus Volcano cam. We squeaked about 4 additional dB out of the signal. The golfball is the radome for satellite tracking. You will see the web cam is not functional at this time. I am not sure if they are going to feed the video I worked on today to the web or not. There are alot of good movies and what not at this site though. http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/mevo/mevo.html

The other pic is of my boss and a rigger who did the hard part up the tower. All I had to do was setup the Spectrum Analyzer and give adjustment instructions over the handheld radio to the riggers at our site and atop the volcano.

Next week looks exciting. I will be going to a large penguin rookery Monday and the the summit of Mt. Terror Tuesday (weather permitting).

I have volunteered in the galley Sunday morning. That will be different and fun. I told myself I was going to pitch in as I always like to do.. so I am.

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Honshu and Okinawa

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Image
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. From what I understand, at the end of WW2 the inhabitants were encouraged to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans and get tortured and eaten. Besides other types of suicide, they jumped off the cliffs at the Southern end of the main island. If you have seen the original color footage taken at the time, I am sure you ...
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