Stop One: Glass blowing factory and Ryukyu lacquer ware factory
The Okinawans (also known as Ryukyuans) are famous for their glass blowing and lacquer ware. The skill of the craftsman in their glassware pieces is pretty evident, and I found these to be more impressive than the lacquer ware art pieces, personally. Hence, no lacquer photos this time.
Stop two: Himeyuri Peace Museum
As we were driving down the road, we came upon a group of tour buses at the entrance of this memorial site. During the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese Army forced students to work in the cave tunnels - running food and water supplies from cave to cave, helping wounded soldiers, and burying the dead. Himeyuri was the nickname given to the Okinawa Women's Normal School and High School, from where these students were drafted. The students were untrained for battle conditions obviously, and when the Japanese soldiers suddenly 'disbanded' them (essentially kicking them out of the caves when the bombing got heavier), the students had nowhere to go under the U.S. firing. Consequently, almost all of them were killed.
Stop three: Cornerstone of Peace Park and Memorial
The Peace Memorial was erected in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa. It's a beautiful memorial site and kinda reminds me of those Forest Lawn cemeteries back home -- wide green lawns, clusters of trees, an enormous and recently re-done museum at the top of the small hill, and rows upon rows of stone monuments on which are inscribed the names of all those who were killed (Okinawans, Americans, Koreans, and Europeans were all included).
I always love the symbolism hidden in these monuments. I know they're aesthetically beautiful and really peaceful on the outside, but it's the underlying subtle references and architectural details that make it even more interesting.
Take this Cornerstone of Peace to the right:
1) the rows of monuments with the inscribed names of the dead are arranged accordion-style, to reflect an image of praying hands
2) all the walkways converge at the Peace Plaza, which holds the Flame of Peace at its center. The flame is composed of flames from three other places: Akajima Island (the first landing of the US forces on the island), Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
3) the main walkway leading to the Flame of Peace is designed to align with the position of the sun as it rises above the horizon on June 23 (Okinawa Memorial Day). Neat fact, huh?
After reading more about this war and all the horrifying events and huge losses, I was slightly expecting an undertone of bitterness, or perhaps even hostility. I mean, over 240,000 people were killed in the battle in this little island, and it was only 50 years ago -- those decades are so very present in our own parents' lifetimes that it can hardly be classified as history. It really was not all that long ago since this battle was fought...
Yet the message was anything but bitter here. It was overwhelmingly a message of peace. The people believed that only through promoting peace would the dead souls receive justice, and repeat of such a tragedy be avoided for future generations.
Stop four: Thai in the Sky
On a less serious note, I have to pause to comment on a) the frustrating driving situation here, and b) one of my best food experiences yet. The roads are well kept and everyone drives an even 40mph, so I can't complain about the driving itself. But for some reason, they've got an issue with roadway signs and maps. Signs and arrows are all over the place - it seems that local authorities like to rename highways at whim. So when you think you're driving along Highway 58 just fine, all of a sudden it turns into a completely different road (without you making any turns at all) and you're left to just navigate yourself to your final destination by North-South coordinates, or land markers that you might recognize from a previous time you drove that road. Funny thing is, the maps don't reflect this change in highway number at all, and the whole experience becomes extremely frustrating when you find out half way through the journey that the road has switched on you.
Example: we were determined to eat at this Thai restaurant Angie had been to a couple months ago, called Thai in the Sky (it's the American translated version, called so because it's a Thai restaurant, and it overlooks the ocean on a cliff so you feel like you're 'in the sky,' so to speak). Our directions as written down by a friend:
Take Highway 331 to the 86...then follow the large brown signs with red half arrows on them...look for a T-Rex dinosaur statue on the side of the road...make the first left turn after the dinosaur...if you've gone past the windmills, then you've gone too far
Doesn't seem too complicated from first glance, right? Only until we realize that the 331 doesn't connect to the 86 after all, and there are tons of brown signs all over the place, and it's kinda easy to miss a dinosaur statue in the middle of sugarcane fields on both sides of the road...So several U-turns and road changes later, we finally made it to the place and the food was hands-down the best Thai food I've ever had.
Food looks goooood!
ReplyDeletei love you trying to be oen with the butterflies! such a cute pic
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