More Okinawan Stuff

As my time on the island of Okinawa goes by, I have to force myself to remember that the quirky little things that I see every day are considered oddities by the folks back home.  Here's a few items from a trip to "American Village," in the Chatan/Hamby area.  


The cars here all seem to have odd names.  Even some models that we have in The States have different names here.  For example, what we know as a Toyota 4Runner in America is a Hilux Surf over here.  What on earth is a Voxy?  

Here's part of my dinner from an Okinawan buffet.  Have you ever had corn on your pizza?  It was good, but it's not like the pizza we grow accustomed to in America.  The meat on a stick is called Yakitori. The little dumpling-like thing is called gyoza.  The salad dressing was a soy-based affair and it was pretty good.

This is part of American Village.  The name is a bit of a misnomer, since there were far more locals in this area than Gaijin.  There are a bunch of little shops, restaurants, and the Dragon Palace (games, slot machines, and other entertainment).

Island Hopping Campaign

I went on a leisurely drive to a couple of the nearby islands today.  My wife and kids joined me on an afternoon trip to Henza Island, Hamahiga Island, and Ikei Island (pronounced eee-kay).  I was three for five on geocaches today, and that's just fine; I had fun searching. You can click on any of the pictures below for larger versions.

We crossed the bridge to Henza Island, and stopped at a park on the causeway, where I did not find (DNF'd) the cache there.  I have been to this geocache three times now, and just can't seem to come up with it.  Some caches are easy, and some are not.  Next, we continued across the causeway to Henza Island, and made the turnoff toward Hamahiga Island.


There's a memorial on Hamahiga Island to Colonel K.H. Shelly, and I never would have found it without the hobby of Geocaching to guide me there.  My daughter and I made the quick find, I picked up a geocoin, and off we went on our tour of these outlying islands.

Next, we crossed back to Henza Island, and stopped at a marina and park there.  This was a neat little park, and appeared to be a bit under-used.  The cache container was a pelican case, which I think are perfect for this hobby (water-tight year 'round), and it was an easy find.  Off to Ikei Island!

We wound our way through the cliffs and ravines of the islands and stopped just after Ikei Beach.  We walked a jungle trail to a small, secluded beach that seems to be frequented by mostly locals.  I made quick work of the cache there, and then joined my wife and kids for a walk along the beach.  We picked up a few shells and "sea glass," and then got back in our van for to head toward an obscure little park.


In the middle of a farmer's field is a little grove that shelters an ancient (300 B.C.) ruin of an Okinawan village.  Some of the huts have been renovated, and the site would be overlooked by most Gaijin if it were not for Geocaching.  I have been to this site once before, and I had a repeat of that visit today.  I enjoyed going to the little park, but I couldn't find the geocache.  I think it may have been swiped, since there isn't much at the published coordinates to search through.  There's also a string of DNFs before my logged visit.  Bummer; this was a great spot for a cache. 


Overall, today was a fun day, and I'm glad I got to share it with my family. 

Trackable Items Are Not Swag

I've mentioned before that geocaching in Okinawa seems to have a uniqueness that may cause this hobby to appear dull when Stateside.  I consider myself a bit spoiled here; we have trackable items in most of the caches here, the core group of cachers is very friendly, and almost all of the caches here are placed at real points of interest.


One thing that I have noticed when it comes to trackables (geocoins and travel bugs), is that they should not, but sometimes are counted as swag.  Let me back the truck up here--Swag is the goodies that people place in a geocache, and the premise is that you should leave something in trade if you take something.  For example, if I see a keychain flashlight in a cache, I should leave something equally nifty if I pick it up. Trackable items, however, are NOT swag; the owner of a trackable item wants it to move, almost without exception.  Imagine, if you will, a trinket that you can track around the globe, and you find out that it just sits in one spot because nobody feels like they have something of equal "value" to trade for it.  


Trackable items do not need to be traded for, but some cache owners think that they do.  I've seen some experienced cachers place bulletins on their caches that state something along the lines of, "Don't take the last geocoin out of this cache; remember to trade up or trade even!"  If my geocoin were the last/sole trackable item in a cache, I would still want it to get moved; I wouldn't really care if a cacher left something in its place.


I can understand the desire to treat trackable items like swag, since trackables often draw cachers to a geocache, but that should not be a policy, nor the nucleus of geocaching.  I suppose that, since we all play this game in our own way, one could simply ignore the desires of a cache owner and grab the last trackable out of a cache, but would that be in keeping with the spirit of the game?  


What say you about trackable items?  Do you always grab them, or just "discover" them if you don't feel like you can move it quickly?  Do you feel like you should leave a trackable if you pick one up?

Okuma, and Points North on Okinawa

I just spent a week at the Okuma Resort here on Okinawa; what a treat this was!  Over the span of seven days, I only found one geocache, and that was just fine.  I looked for a couple of others, but they just weren't doing it for me while I was in vacation mode.


Here's a shot of the area near one of the caches that I DNFd; it's an old tunnel entrance that is now used for the long-term storage of Awamori. 

Later, we drove to the very northern tip of Okinawa.  The view was impressive:

We then headed to the cliffs that can be seen in the background of the above picture:

The view from here was amazing.  We could clearly see the tip of the island, where we had just been earlier:

We had a great time, and I spent more time relaxing than anything else; you can't beat that with a stick.

Like a Breath of Fresh Air

It has been a little while since I've last posted on here; forgive me?  I have no excuses to offer.  I simply haven't been caching or blogging as much as I'd like to.  

I did go geocaching today with a friend of mine, and I was able to accompany him on three of his first four finds!  It's always good to introduce someone to the hobby of Geocaching.  He's got the bug, and he even ordered a new GPSr on one of those extremely popular shopping websites.


The weather has been a challenge lately; when it's not raining, it's hotter than fevered snot.  This makes geocaching in short bursts the idea of the day.


Here's to hoping that you all have a great Independence Day, and that you don't forget what this upcoming holiday is all about.  



Cheers.

Joshua Tree National Park

After my business in California was completed, I was able to spend a few days with family. We took a day to drive through the Joshua Tree National Park, and we had a great time. There were plenty of wildflowers blooming, and some of the cholla cacti were blooming as well.

A couple of days later, I was able to hit a few geocaches in the Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree area; most seemed to be placed simply to place a cache, but one was at the Joshua Tree Inn, which has a bit of interesting history to go with it (click here).

A day before departing to come back to Okinawa, I had the pleasure of accompanying my father on his first geocaching experience. He found his first cache after a brief search, and he's now a genuine geocacher.

Here's a few pictures from the Park:

Ocotillo plant in bloom

Overlooking the cholla cactus garden in JT National Park

Cholla in bloom

Beaver tail cactus in bloom

Ramble On

My job, by design, keeps me somewhat on the move. My wife and I are pretty skilled at packing up and moving to a new place. I've also had the opportunity to travel on a few short trips in between moves.

I get to head out tomorrow on another such trip, this time to California. Time to do a pocket query, and load the 500 caches that are closest to Camp Pendleton into my GPS.

I love the scenery of the SoCal coast, and I hope to grab some great pictures while I'm there. More importantly, I'll get to see my parents, my sister, and even a friend or two.

Updates to follow...