The Hiroshima Airport is an hour from Hiroshima City but serves the whole Hiroshima prefecture, which has other large cities. I suspect available flat land was also an issue. Even so, I would swear I saw a part of the runway that was cantilevered and supported with tall towers. Google cannot confirm this weird thing I saw from the airport limousine bus.
I got to the airport too early. There were only four gates. I called my mother on my US SIM. Hi Mom!
The flight was perfect. There was CNN in English on the ANA seatback screen. Glory be! My hotel rooms have had TV but with all but one exception, it has been in Japanese. They seem to like these panel talk shows and watching videos and having someone rate them. The exception was in Tokyo where they had BBC. Sounds good, right? Except that they let each story begin in English, then they started translating in a voiceover the English soundtrack. So I heard something like, “In Ukraine today, forces….(sound now switches to Japanese”.)
Back on the ANA flight to Naha, Okinawa, there was a countdown running when we got going on the top left corner of the screen, and damned if we didn’t land at minute zero. I gotta say this is a country of transportation nappers. I have never seen so many people fall asleep so quickly on trains and airplanes. They are champion nappers.
Flying into the Okinawan Islands was fascinating. There were so many tiny islands out there. All along a fault, so that makes sense geologically.
Okinawa used to be its own country, so folks are a bit different here. There’s a bit of Polynesia here and not just in the way people look. I’m talking about Spam and Elephant print pants too. When and where will the elephant pants trend end? I’ve been seeing it for at least 10 years. See photos.
If you’re not reading the captions to my photos, you’re missing out on my best comedy. I can’t explain it all so it goes in the captions.
I’m diving tomorrow so I have to get a move on with my evening. But note the good food I bought along with sunscreen and nausea meds for $80.
Okinawa seems bawdy, tacky, more laid-back, and full of tourists from everywhere. I saluted our jets flying overhead. Lots more people speak English here. Or should I say American?
Can I just talk about trains in Japan for a second? You can be standing at a platform at 5:08 waiting for a train that is supposed to leave at 5:09, but there’s no train as of yet. You think, “Ha! This train is going to be late!” But you are mistaken because the moment the clock strikes 5:09:59, the train has arrived, 500 people got off, 500 people got on, and it is away. It’s an unbelievable work of engineering.
