JasonKimball.org

The Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum is located at 614-1 Mabuni, Itoman City, Okinawa which is near the southern end of the island. The museum itself is located at Peace Memorial Park, which is the largest war memorial located on Okinawa.

The Battle of Okinawa was such a significant battle because it claimed more than 200,000 lives and is said to be one of the largest-scale campaigns of the Asia-Pacific War. In addition, the Battle of Okinawa had an enormous impact on the countless Okinawan civilians that lost their lives.

Here you will have the opportunity to learn all about Okinawa before WWII, during the Battle of Okinawa, and also post-war Okinawa after United States occupation. The museum offers exhibition rooms ranging from Road to the Battle of Okinawa, Children’s room, Testimonies of eyewitnesses, Battleground of Hell, The Typhoon of Steel, and the Keystone of the Pacific. The first floor offers a library, information room, audiovisual booths, and a quiz corner.

The Peace Memorial Museum is a great place to learn about Okinawa before, during, and after the Battle of Okinawa. Most importantly, I believe it is crucial to learn about our history and remember those who tragically lost their lives.

Admission Fees

Hours

How to get there/Directions

Contact

If you are visiting Okinawa and have limited time, then I would highly suggest checking out Okinawa World (Gyokusendo Kingdom Village ). Okinawa World is the perfect place to learn and experience the Okinawan culture, history, and nature first hand. Located at Maekawa Tamagusuku Village near the southernmost part of Okinawa, it is truly worth the drive.

The main attraction at Okinawa World is the 5 kilometer Gyokusendo Cave that was formed over 300,000 years ago. However, an impressive 890 meter spectacle of the 5 kilometer cave is available to the public. Gyokusendo Cave is Japan’s second largest cave which also lays claim to have the best stalactites and stalagmites throughout Asia.

In addition to Gyokusendo Cave, Okinawa World offers Tropical Orchards, Ryukyu Glass Blowing, Pottery Kiln, Traditional Crafts Village, Brewery, Performance Plaza, Kingdom Village Restaurant, Shopping Center, Ryukyuan Trade Vessels exhibit, and a Habu snake museum. Some of the most interesting sights in my opinion were the Habu snake show, Eisa performance, Habu sake and beer tasting, and the chance to watch and even blow your own Ryukyu glass. There are also plenty of great gifts and Okinawan style food to purchase within their shopping center if you feel like taking something home.

Okinawa World is one of the most worth while trips to take if you are living or visiting Okinawa. It offers a full day of fun and also a chance to learn and experience the things that make Okinawa so great. So get out there and experience Okinawa at its finest.

Admission Fees

Hours

How to get there/Directions

Contact

Firefox 3 — available for download at 10am PDT Tuesday — is the culmination of a two-year quest to build the best browser ever. And while it’s not perfect, it comes pretty close.

read more | digg story

If you live on Okinawa and have not seen Ocean Expo Park and their famous attractions, then what are you doing?

Churaumi Aquarium or Ocean Expo Park is full of fun and great things to do. Some of the attractions include a theater, Dolphin studio, Sea Turtle pool, Manatee house, Dolphin Lagoon, museum, native Okinawan village, Emerald beach, restaurants, and the massive indoor aquarium.

I would suggest planning a full day trip if you want to enjoy everything the park has to offer. It is very easy to spend a couple hours in just one location without knowing it. It is hard not to be amazed by the size of their tank. One tank holds three whale sharks and other various marine life.

Because Ocean Expo Park is so large, they offer an electric tour car to take you around the sites.

• Electric Tour Cars provide you a comfortable ride in the Ocean Expo Park.
• The carfare is 200 Yen/day (one day excursion ticket). You can choose one-way ticket, 100 Yen/ride, also.

Information

Open Hours

Entrance fee

• Japanese yen & U.S. dollars in cash only
• Japanese yen & U.S. dollars converted at today’s rate

How to get there/Directions

424 Ishikawa, Motobu-cho, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa Japan 905-0206
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Contact:

Tel: 0980-48-3748

Fax : 0980-48-4444

So, if you are living or visiting Okinawa, I would highly recommend taking a trip to see one of the worlds greatest aquariums.

Some of you out there may recall an earlier post regarding me buying a new Nikon D40x camera. Well, it has been roughly two months and my wife decided it was time for a new lens. Going with the entry-level photographer theme I decided to purchase the Nikkor 55-200mm VR f/4-5.6 zoom lens .

This was a great choice for me because I was not looking to spend a lot of money on a lens, but I did not want to sacrifice quality. In addition, with my 18-55mm kit lens, I now have the entire 18-200mm focal range covered.

This lens is great for nature and wildlife, sports, family, and portraiture photography. Also, this lens comes equipped with Nikon’s Vibration Reduction. With Vibration Reduction on, a user is able to shoot up to 3 shutter speeds slower than normal, creating dramatically sharper images.

If you are not sure or what some other opinions, you can check out reviews by Kenrockwell.com and dpreview.com . They offer some great insight about the lens.

Here is a shot I took my first day using the lens

What impressed me the most about this lens was the price…I purchased mine for under $200. For me, this is a lens that provides everything that I need.

I just recently started getting another tattoo and found this link. It’s really funny to see what people are willing to get on their body.
From the Book: “NO REGRETS: The Best, Worst, & Most #$%*ing Ridiculous Tattoos Ever.” ABC News highlights some of the worst ones they have seen.

read more | digg story

Nice collection of incredible Japanese Sushi Art.

read more | digg story