We were able to squeeze one last trip in this weekend before baby comes! Saturday evening we drove down to Fukuoka for our flight on Peach airlines (it felt kind of like Japanese Allegiant Air), then arrived in Okinawa about 10pm. We were able to find our rental car after a very tortured phone conversation in Japanese with the rental car company (I need to practice speaking and listening!), then drove to our airbnb house that was right outside the main gate of Kadena AFB. It was nice, once we got the AC on. Okinawa is humid! The kids were dead asleep when we got there, so we were able to pile them on the top bunk of the bunk bed, bring all our stuff in, then crash.
In the morning we got up and made quick work of some pop tarts and milk our host had provided. Here are the kids in front of our little pink Nissan Moco. Drew hated it--whenever we would stop at a stoplight, the engine would turn off, then it would start automatically again once he stepped on the gas to go. It was perturbing!
After breakfast we hurried over to the community center on Kadena to catch the bus for our Battle of Okinawa tour (I was stressed about being late, so I was unpleasant to everyone, mostly Drew. Thanks for sticking with me through thick and thin, honey!). They handed us a timeline of the battle, then played a documentary on the video screens as we drove. It was hard to watch, and the rest of the day didn't really get any easier to handle.
Our first stop was the Okinawa Peace Memorial Museum. Vivien quickly found a tree that had blown over in the typhoon (that we only missed by about 12 hours) and started climbing. I was relieved to have evidence that the documentary hadn't scarred her for life and she could still be a normal, happy child.
Outside the museum is a monument for . . . you know what? I don't even know what it's for. Something to do with Koreans. Our tour guide was an Okinawan woman who was rescued by marines as a baby from a cave during the Battle of Okinawa, so that was amazing, but she was kind of hard to understand and we were always behind the main tour group herding children, so we missed a lot of the learning! But something sad happened to some Koreans, so here is their monument.
Then we went into the museum. The tour guide went slowly through each section explaining everything, but we sufficed ourselves with the English translations posted by the exhibits and tried to keep track of our kids. The permanent exhibit was separated into a pre-battle area where they talked briefly about the history of Okinawa and the events leading up to the battle, then there was a section on the actual battle, then the rest of the exhibit was the aftermath.
In the battle area they had piles and piles of rusting helmets, canteens, and guns that had been collected from all over the island. They also had a diorama you could walk into that gave you a taste of what it was like for the Okinawans hiding in caves on the island during the fighting. There was a soundtrack of tanks thundering by overhead and occasional bombs that was really creepy inside the cave. The civilians and soldiers often ended up in the caves together trying to find cover from the constant land and sea assaults from the US, and if the civilians didn't keep quiet, the soldiers would kill them. And if it looked like they were going to be captured, the soldiers would often press them all into mass suicide. There was a family depicted in the diorama, huddled with all their possessions in the middle of a meager dinner, a Japanese soldier standing menacingly above them with a bayonet. The mother was holding a baby and had her hand over its mouth, trying to keep it from crying, and there was a toddler clinging to her neck too. The kids kept wanting to go into the cave again to listen to the rumbling sounds, but it was a little too overwhelming for me to revisit.
There was also a room full of survivor's stories. They were mostly in Japanese, but there were 1 or 2 in English and Korean as well. I made it halfway through one account, then had to be done. "And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!"
One part of the museum ("something not . . . awful") I really liked was this display of clothing the Okinawans made from old military uniforms after the war, since most of their homes and belongings had been destroyed.
The exhibit ended in a beautiful room overlooking the coast. It was a nice reset.
After the museum we wandered outside to look at the Cornerstone of Peace.
Purpose of the Cornerstone of Peace
"We the people of Okinawa, in marking the 50th anniversary since the end of the Pacific War, announce the construction of 'The Cornerstone of Peace.' We feel the strong need to console the precious souls of all who were lost in the war and to pass the lessons learned from the tragic war on to future generations. Furthermore, we hope that 'The Cornerstone of Peace' will help spread the peaceful spirit of Okinawa and will contribute to everlasting world peace."
Behind the purpose stone were concentric walls inscribed with the names of all the civilians and soldiers, regardless of nationality, who died there. They are called the "Everlasting Waves of Peace." There was also apparently supposed to be an eternal flame of peace in the fountain in the middle, but we suspect the typhoon snuffed it and they were waiting for another to be brought from the one in Hiroshima.
We found a Forbes on one of the US walls.
And then to pass the time until our tour bus was schedule to leave, we took a long loop through the rest of the grounds. It wasn't really that long, but it was so oppressively hot that it felt like miles. Drew ended up carrying both kids, because I was working too hard hefting myself around.
There were lots of different monuments on the grounds with Google Translate worthy English explanations.
The next stop was the old Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters. In the entrance they had a mural of one of the famous temples in Okinawa made out of strings of paper cranes. It was impressive.
We walked through another little exhibit about the war where they had some of the tools on display that had been used to dig the tunnels, then we descended the 150 steps into the caves.
The texture of the walls made it really easy to imagine them digging the tunnels by hand.
Rafe kept saying "CHEESE!" whenever I'd try to take a picture in this horribly cheery voice that made me kind of wince, we were in such an awful place. They were unfazed by their surroundings. We didn't try to explain anything to them.
There were all these rooms marked off, like the code room and the command room, but there were no barracks or anything of the sort. I had just asked aloud, "I wonder where they all slept" when we passed an illustration of them all sleeping on the wet floor, or crowded into a corner sleeping standing up. It looked pretty miserable. Then Rafe peed his pants, so we made a hasty exit to the bathroom on the surface.
Next we went to Sugar Loaf Hill, where one of the last Japanese lines of defenses took a stand. Thousands died on both sides in a matter of days. This is what it looked like then:
And this is now.
We visited one other site that I also failed to catch the significance of. But we got a great view of the city from the top of the ridge. And we walked past a big hall where a group of people were practicing sanshins (an Okinawan 3-stringed instrument) and stayed to listen for a minute or two.
Well, Vivi and I did. Rafe snoozed on the bus with his Daddy.
That night we had dinner at Chili's (which is a special treat for us since we don't have one close by), then we went to Sunabebaba Park near our airbnb house to enjoy the sunset.
There was an awesome dolphin themed playground. I sat and chatted with a friendly Air Force wife who was there with her 2 year old.
Here were our sleeping arrangements. Vivien spent most of the night up on the top bunk with Rafe, but she just can't pass up a good early morning snuggle with her Daddy.
Rafe had not gone to sleep very well the night before and had arisen early, as is his wont, so he fell asleep very quickly on our way to the aquarium.
Churaumi Aquarium is the 3rd largest aquarium in the world. It was amazing! The very first tank you come to is full of all these fish that are about 3 times bigger than you're expecting them to be.
It was crowded, but Rafe and Vivi got good at squeezing between legs to look at the smaller exhibits. And once the Japanese people got a glimpse of their blonde hair, they usually let them through to the fish so they could admire both wonders at once. I want a tank of these amethyst anthias. I thought Mom might like them too.
Vivi took a picture of the funny sand eels. This tank looked like Ursula's garden.
And at the very end of the aquarium was the HUGE whale shark tank. It was worth the entire trip to Okinawa just to sit and watch them swimming by. There were tons of other cool things in the tank with them (like huge manta rays and shiny tuna) but you really couldn't look at anything else.
We stepped away from the whale sharks for a minute to go watch a dolphin show in one of the outside theaters. They had mist coming out of vents along the sidewalk along the way so we didn't overheat. It was still hot.
The show was awesome! It was so awesome, Vivien threw a huge, hangry fit when it was over. So, we went back to the whale sharks and ate at a cafe that took up one side of the tank's windows. There were some divers in there while we were waiting for our food. It was fun to watch them interacting with the animals inside.
Walking past the tank for the last time . . . SO COOL!! Also Rafe playing with every retractable belt barrier he sees. He can't help himself. Even when there are whale sharks.
We walked through a few exhibits in the "main rest house," whatever that means. This one was a favorite of the kids. When you spin the crank it makes the animals spin around the middle, but they spin at their relative swimming speeds. Dolphins are quick! Whale sharks are not.
Then we went to the Pacific Culture Museum, which is part of the Ocean Expo Park that the aquarium is in. We watched a presentation on navigating by the stars on the open seas. We were impressed.
The video followed an animated family sailing from Poluwat to Guam to visit their grandpa. Here is a ship that was made for the museum that actually did the same route without modern tools. It's a 500 mile journey over open seas. We were impressed again!
They had lots of model boats you were not allowed to touch, then one at the end that you
could touch, to reward you for your good behavior and cooperation.
There were also exhibits on ornaments, traditional dress, tools, and instruments of the Pacific. The kids really liked this room where you could try playing a slit drum.
After the aquarium we drove over to Camp Courtney to visit some Iwakuni friends (the Brennans) that are now stationed there. We didn't stay very long because they were in the middle of dinner and our kids were WILD, but it was very good to see them. Then, because we wanted some traditional Okinawan noodles, we typed "soba" into Google maps and went to the closest restaurant that came up, which actually turned out to be a cool place!
My Japanese teacher told me you are NOT supposed to "drink up" the broth when you have noodle soup, because it is very high in fat and salt and will give you hypertension, diabetes, and seizures. I will happily take advice from a 72 year old man in his physical condition. Even if he does love beer.
That night we stayed at a different airbnb house owned by the same guy who owned the other one. This one was in a tiny village way off on an island on the east side of Okinawa, and he actually lives in this house, so we just had a bedroom to ourselves and shared the bathroom. It looked very American . . .
. . . inside and out.
But the old buildings around it were super cool. Every house had at least one pair of shisa dogs. These multi-colored ceramic ones are really popular in Okinawa.
But there was quite a variety as we walked through the neighborhood.
In the morning we hopped in the car to explore the area a bit and find a beach. Along the way we passed one of the many tombs that are scattered around the island. In Bali, there were very few graveyards, because they're Hindu and burn their dead and spread their ashes into the sea so they can be reincarnated (unless they're poor, in which case they bury their dead until there's a big group burning, then they dig up the body and have them cremated then. It's a lot less expensive that way). In mainland Japan, there are graveyards, but they're very cramped compared to ours because they usually cremate the bodies and then inter the ashes in a family crypt. And in Okinawa they have these family turtleback tombs that are an example of the Chinese influence on their culture.
We found a beautiful beach not 5 minutes from the house. Because of the typhoon, the water was really cloudy, but it was still that gorgeous light blue color.
We wandered down the beach to a secluded area between the big rocks that were on a lot of the beaches in Okinawa.
There were tons of crabs all over the sand. When they would see us coming they would either make a break for it to the ocean, or dive into the sand and start digging. Rafe and I tried to dig up one of their holes, but it was surprising deep, and I kept worrying that I would actually be able to dig down to where the crab was and get pinched. So, we let them rest in peace and bothered the hermit crabs instead!
Drew was very good at finding the cute little guys.
And they were not shy. 
We spent a good hour just floating together out past the breaking waves. I am so buoyant in salt water right now, it is kind of amazing. If I make myself into a pencil, my body just bobs up and down in the water like a buoy, my head never going under. Vivi was very comfortable kicking around on her own with a noodle. Rafe clung to the closest person for dear life and whimpered to go back to the shore nearly the entire time. Good thing he's cute.
After the beach we went back to the airbnb house to clean up, then drove back to Kadena to turn in a vehicle pass we'd picked up the first day. We wandered through their commissary and their exchange, feeling sulky about how many options they have at theirs compared to ours, and then it was time to go back to the airport. Vivi made fast friends with this woman on the shuttle bus between terminals.
While we waited to board, I had to have one last taste of my favorite Okinawan food from the trip: purple sweet potato ice cream! Vivien had vanilla. She's my daughter :)
Rafe mostly rested on his Daddy. I had assumed he was just worn out from our trip and a day at the beach, but it quickly became apparent on the flight home that he was developing a fever. On the drive home from Fukuoka he kept muttering deliriously in his sleep. I was very relieved to get back to my medicine cabinet and get some Tylenol into him.
Aaaaand, that was it! Drew and I decided we are kind of excited to have a few months at home. The two quotes I shall use to describe my feelings are: "Who knew so much work was required for nothing but play?" and also "A cookie is a sometime food."
