On holidays - glad you're not here!

[CDNSushi]

I'd sure love to send everyone a "wish you were here" postcard from my vacation in Okinawa, but I'd be lying. I'm sitting in a hotel room with my UMPC typing this when I SHOULD be deep underwater. It was supposed to be a scuba diving vacation -- my wife and I saved and scraped coin for MONTHS to come out here to scuba dive and so far it's been a complete disaster. We've had to abandon any and all hope of doing ANYTHING but some stinkin' sightseeing on dry land the whole week. The seas are just too rough to go out. Waves are about 9ft -- too high to do any kind of scuba.

We leave the day after tomorrow, which means that even if the weather improved tomorrow we'd stil be up the creek because there's a 24hr no-fly period after you dive to ensure you don't get decompression sickness.

So, since I've got nothing better to do than to watch my wife nap the day away, I may as well share a couple piccies...

The first one is me (kilted of course) wearing my Stewart Hunting in a most casual manner. It's not a great picture -- but strangely enough, it's the only one of me kilted on this trip that I have... The picture was taken at the Pineapple Park -- a tourist trap where they give you the ins and outs of pineapple growing, then try to get you to drop a gazillion yen on tacky souvenirs. My father-in-law is in the picture there with me. He came from Canada to go diving with us. It was his first time seeing me in a kilt because I wasn't yet wearing them the last time we saw them almost three years ago. Much to my surprise, he barely said a word about it good or bad... But that could be interpreted a number of ways. I trust my in-laws about as far as I can chuck 'em... I'm just as likely to get a letter in two weeks saying he had an awesome visit as much as I am to get a tirade on how embarrassed he was to be seen with a son-in-law wearing a skirt. It's a real crapshoot.

On the more interesting side of it all, I got the biggest grin and friendly hello from some fellow who happened to be from London -- was rather shocked to say the least, finding someone kilted all the way out here. He insisted on having a picture taken wit me, but it turned out that his digital camera was broken (after they had given it to a passer-by the day before to take a picture of him and his family and the woman carelessly dropped the camera, smashing it) and they had no film left in the dispos-o-matics they bought to have at least something to remember the trip by.

Otherwise, I got my first, "So, what does a man wearing a kilt wear UNDERNEATH?" asked to me by a female, Japanese park employee, (in Japanese no less) so I answered her (in Japanese) that whatever she IMAGINED kilted men wore under a kilt was likely the correct answer. She chuckled but turned about 15 shades of red. Quite a feat for a Japanese person, actually.

Later on, back at the hotel, the cleaning staff just kept staring and giggling but had the courage to come up and tell me they thought I looked awesome... I actually got random positive comments throughout the day, even that evening when a group of Japanese men, staggering out of a pub, so completely smashed they could hardly walk, stopped to chat. The one guy tilted his head to the side, stared hard at my attire, and in a mix of slurred Japanese and pidgin English mustered up enough coherence to say that my kilt belt was "the best" which he punctuated with a very enthusiastic thumbs-up. We told them good night, but they said that it wasn't "good night" for them yet, as they were still headed to the next bar for more carousing.

The second picture is just an idea of some of the local landscape where we were yesterday. It's pretty enough, and the weather is warm enough -- but I just wish I could be under that clear, blue water instead of staring at it from a distance. (The water looks very calm in that picture -- but it was taken only about 30m before the waves really started up)...

Anyway, that's it from me. I'd better go wake the wife so we can do a bit more (ugh) sightseeing. :-)



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[McMurdo]

Great pics I hope you can make the best of it.

[Dirk Skene]

Nice pictures. Too bad about the dive trip. That stinks

[SteveB]

Nice pics, glad to see you out and about.

[Fougasse]

Sorry to hear your trip was a washout. My wife and I only left Okinawa last August, after 15 months living there, and miss it tremendously, especially the diving! I hate to tell you that you've missed a great experience but...

At the very least, don't miss going to Churaumi Aquarium, it's definitely worth a visit if you havn't already done so; and if you're staying in the Motubu peninsula look out Pizza Kaijinho (Gaijin call it Pizza-in-the-sky), it's a delightful Okinawan pizza restaurant in the hills with a stunning view over the bay. It's a bit hard to find, give them a call first: 098 0475537

Once again, commiserations about the diving, I know what you're missing.

[Chas]

Well, you're a braver man than I, even to contemplate going scuba diving. I think its an old RAF thing 'What goes up must come down - but what goes down might never come back up again!'

Regards

Chas

[JolyStNicholas]

Been to many years sense I was there, and I didn't get to do much sight seeing on the first trip. U.S.M.C. days and in route to VietNam.

Glad you did salvage some of your vacation and got out to see some of the beauty of the island.

[kiltedsawyer]

Sorry to hear your trip was such a wash-out, as far as the diving part. I've been diving in five foot seas, but never nine, makes getting on and off the boat a real adventure. Have a safe journey back.
David

[The Barry]

I've had the exact opposite problem on surfing trips. The waves are high, clean and regular until your plane lands. Then it's nothing but glass all the way to Asia.

I hope that you end up enjoying your visit, and hopefully the water will calm down and allow you do get underwater.

[cessna152towser]

Good pics, pity about the diving but there is always another time.