Posts

Showing posts from December 31, 2017

Honshu and Okinawa

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 ...
Image
We are back from Central America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It was a very good trip, most excellent. Overall, we had only pleasant surprises, an excellent hotel in Guatemala City, fantastic experience with Mayans, active volcanoes, boats, islands, and we learned much about the area. We started in San Jose, Costa Rica and took a bus to Managua, Nicaragua. It was 10 hours of riding and a 5 hour delay at the border for immigration and customs. One of the pics shows the "Passport control" process for our bus. In Nicaragua, we spent time on Lake Nicaragua and Ometepe island. We got to peer deep into the earth at bubbling lava in Masaya volcano. We flew from Managua to San Salvador, El Salvador. We visited the Mayan pyramid at Tazumal and the archeological site found at Joya de Ceren. We also went to the city of Granada. Then we flew to Guatemala City. We took a long day trip crossing the Honduran border to visit the Mayan pyramid at Copan. lastly,...