Good diving, bad air, and sad news
I finally have something to report, and so have a relatively meaningful entry in my blog for the first time in quite a while. And it’s diving related - something I need to get back to after plenty of stories about all things Japan in the past few months.
On Saturday, I and 9 other people got onto a boat at Ginowan for a dive trip out in the Kerama islands. I arranged this trip for everyone myself (the first dive trip I’ve tried to arrange) and out of the 12 people who said yes originally, I was quite pleased to find that 9 of them turned up. 2 people cancelled on me for no reason (24 and 48 hours before the trip respectively) and one person said they would come but never got back to me. The latter might have had to go out of the country on business at very short notice though so they will be excused. But everyone else turned up bright and early on a gorgeous looking day. I met up with Brian a little earlier than everyone else, just to chat about the week, get my intake of caffeine for the day and talk about what we’d be doing today.
Once we’d got everyone and all the equipment and tanks onto the boat, we headed out to the Kerama islands. For those of you that don’t know, the Keramas is a group of 22 islands lying around 20 miles west of Naha. Only 4 of these islands (Zamami, Tokashiki, Aka and Geruma) are inhabited. Around the Keramas is some of the best snorkelling and diving you can find anywhere in Asia, and I truly believe that. Visibility of at least 30m/100ft is the norm, as well as the chances to see sharks, eels, turtles and many more marine life. By boat, the trip is around 1 hour, and you’re crossing a bit of open ocean so the wind and waves can play a part. On our trip there was northeasterly winds resulting in a bit of swell coming across us as we travelled west. When we’d got to the dive site, a couple of the people were feeling a little seasick. I must remember next time to remind everyone to take seasickness medication. It’s one of those things that you learn to tell people after the first time. Won’t make that mistake again.
An Okinawan look at the Evo X
I found out on Tuesday that Okinawa had one of the new Lancer Evolution X’s in the Mitsubishi garage in the prefectural capital. Having the original Lancer Evolution, As soon as I heard this news I knew I had to head up there and take a look. So, with my friend in his immaculate Evo VI TME we went up there after work today. My thoughts were quite mixed on it. It’s certainly a meaty car, but almost too big IMO and in silver it looked very much like a Lexus or Audi. Black or Red would have been much better. Saying that though, I wouldn’t turn one down if I was offered one!
I also got the basic pamphlet brochure that is freely available, and also a more detailed 51-page brochure on it. I think some info like this has been posted before, but if you want me to scan the brochure into a PDF and post it, let me know.
Hope you like the pics of my first sighting of the Evo X. The pics are clickable to take you to a larger version:)
Some small updates
Well, I’ve not a huge amount to report, but for those that are interested in what is happening in my life, here is a bit of an update.
Last weekend started off disappointingly, with Wigan losing to Leeds in the Final Eliminator of rugby league’s Superleague. After 3 excellent victories against St Helens, Bradford and then Hull (the latter 2 away from home), playing at Headingley against a full-strength Leeds team was just too much for them. The team had nothing left in the tank and it was showing after the first 5-10 minutes. So it will be a Leeds-St Helens final on Saturday at Old Trafford in the Grand Final. Will be hoping for a Leeds win (although don’t really want them to win either!), although family loyalties still hope that a certain Saints player has a good game.
Okinawa protests; government response
On Saturday, one of the biggest protests I’ve ever seen took place in Ginowan City in the centre of Okinawa. Over 110,000 people attended the gathering at the Ginowan Convention Center, to protest to the government and particularly the Ministry of Education, against their plans to change the history textbooks related to the Battle of Okinawa during WWII. I have written about this issue before, but this is the biggest action people in Okinawa have taken against it. Members from all political parties (including the ruling LDP) too part, alongside, citizens, teachers & students from schools throughout Okinawa. On outlying islands there were also similar, albeit smaller, protests. A photo (but not a great one) showing the crowds is below, coming from http://english.donga.com.
Will this protest have any real affect to the government’s plans? Somehow I doubt it. Okinawa has always been the least favoured, “black sheep” of Japan’s prefectural family, and their thoughts and needs are rarely taken into account. News is coming out today though that the government is seeking, “Ways to soothe the outrage of people in Okinawa”. I don’t think soothing is what’s needed. What is needed is for the history books to actually state what happened, instead of trying to modify history so that it will only be the Okinawan people who, in a generation, know about the actions of some members of the Imperial Japanese Army on Okinawa during WWII.