When we were in the northern part of the island, we also decided to go to Hiji Falls with Colleen & TJ. Joe and I had heard mixed reviews about going up here -- but thought we'd give it a try anyways.
I always enjoy starting a hike with a sign like this......The start of the hike has this beautiful little waterfall/dam.
Not only were there signs about no bathrooms, there were also many warnings about the habu. This immediately became a very alert hike!
This hike is not for the faint of heart -- lots of stairs and overlooks.
The halfway point was a suspension bridge, which overlooked the jungle that we were in.
At this point in the trip, I began to feel like Gus-Gus from Cinderella. At the end, when he and Jack are rushing up to Cinderella's tower with the key?
Again, very amusing, if not alarming, signs along the way.
Here, the water began to pick up speed -- so I knew we had to be getting close!
We made it to Hiji Falls! It really was beautiful -- and I was glad I made the trip.
On the way back, Joe and TJ were very excited to have spotted this little fellow. Colleen & I had no desire to see him up close. (Apparently, this photo makes the snake look much larger than it was).
It was only as I was getting this post together, that I noticed how many pictures Joe took of all the bugs on this hike. He can post about that by himself one day!!!
One of my (and Joe's) favorite parts of Colleen & TJ's visit was the time we spent at Ocean Expo Park. You've seen pictures of part of the park before -- when we visited the Aquarium. However, Ocean Expo Park is more than (just) a fantastic Aquarium!
With Colleen & TJ we decided to explore a bit more -- which is how we ended up at the Ryukyu Village. Here you can see some of the traditional Ryukyu housing: We were allowed to enter the homes, but had to take our shoes off. The floor inside was tatami.
I think this was for green tea brewing.
Of course, Joe became easily distracted by this set of sanshin. The sanshin is a traditional Ryukyu instrument. It's a little like a guitar, but only has 3 strings.
When the women in the house noticed us pointing and looking at the sanshin, they invited all of us to lesson! Joe was quite taken!
We were even served green tea during the lesson.
I don't even recall this woman's name, but she was wonderful! She taught us Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and two Okinawan songs (those were my favorite!)
As you can tell, someone had to take some pictures of this cool sanshin lesson! Not only that, but here's a portion of the lesson on video.
Next, the women invited us to learn a Ryukyu dance! Colleen & I participated in this (TJ a little too) while Joe took the video.
I thought it was great! As you can probably guess -- we both want to bring a sanshin home with us!
We just had another wonderful two weeks with visitors from the States! My cousin Colleen & her husband TJ were just here for a visit. Thanks for making the trip out to Okinawa Colleen & TJ!
Joe and I actually experienced a few new places with them on Okinawa. I'll make some separate posts during the week to share our adventures at Hiji Falls, Bios on the Hill, Ryukyu Village and the Tropical Dream Center at Ocean Expo Park.
Lindsay has been waiting for me to post about Tsukiji Fish Market, the large and famous Tokyo market that sells huge bluefin tuna for around $10,000 and as much as $100,000 each (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28503702/). Lindsay wasn't able to go with me, I went with several fellow dentists at 4:30AM to catch the first train there and make it back before our first session of the day. Lindsay's presentation was that afternoon, and she needed her beauty sleep!
Tsukiji is a frenetically huge operation. Their website (http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm) details a little bit of their history and the very limited terms upon which you can visit. If you think about it, there's a whole lot of reason for these workers to absolutely hate tourists! And believe me, it shows when you go. Time is money at this place with fish so fresh, especially at their high price. If you ever go to Tokyo and want to do this, I would highly recommend it. But be polite! Respect their rules! Don't even think about taking small children! The little tuna-hauling forklift-like things they zip around with inside this massive warehouse almost flattened a fellow dentist's foot, no apologies. Go, but don't nose around the booths if you're not buying, and definitely don't take pictures of the sellers and their wares who are not interested in such theatrics. Stereotypes do exist everywhere - don't reinforce the rude American tourist one! You can YouTube search for clips of rude Tsukiji tourists and see what I mean.
On to the pictures I do have. As you can see from the website above, they allow visitors from 5AM to 6:15AM only in the tuna wholesale area.
Tourists are allowed only within a closely restricted section of the room. Photos are allowed, but only without flash.
The first round of fresh tuna have just been laid out, stored on ice during their boatride in and already gutted.
Prospective buyers are taking stock of the fish before the auction begins.
A small portion of the tail is cut away, allowing inspection of fat content and color. You can see buyers chipping away small fragments, thawing the meat in their hands, and tasting it.
At about 5:30 the auctions begin! I apologize for not having a video editor, I'm not sure how to cut this down. So skip to about 1:30 on this clip, that whole first section is just the auctioneer ringing his bell. When he actually starts in, he's quite entertaining. You can also see the officer walking around with a "NO FLASH" sign.
Afterwards we stopped to get some VERY fresh sushi right outside the warehouse in one of the little shops. Delicious!
So some of you are probably wondering "Why weren't Joe and Lindsay sight-seeing more?!" Actually, this was a working trip for both of us! Joe had his dental conference and I was doing some prospect research.
At the beginning of March, I received a message from a Japanese colleague of mine - Ayumi. She studied fundraising/philanthropy at Indiana University and had an internship at the United Way of Central Indiana while I was still working there. She spent nine months in the US, then returned with all of her new knowledge to Tokyo.
She works for a Japanese non profit that helps create non profit legislation. (If you want to know more about her organization, type http://www.npoweb.jp/ into Google Search. Then you can see the website link, but click on "Translate this page"!) She asked me to write an article about Prospect Research from my perspective. I did that, but when I asked if we might meet in Tokyo, she asked if I would give a presentation on Prospect Research.
Well, some things I just can't say no to. So, here's the flyer for my presentation! I'm not quite sure what it says, other than 'Lindsay Platt', the date and that it cost 2000 yen to hear me! Her office was located in the ASK building in Shinjuku. Joe was nice enough to come with me this day, so he's the official photographer.
Their offices were on the 9th floor.
Here we are in the conference room. It was a small crowd, but a very interested one! Most of the attendees spoke or understand some level of English. Ayumi did translate everything however!
When we first got to the conference room and were setting up, as usual, I knocked something over! In the states, there is so much room and people (or rather, me) tend to use their hands to speak. Joe thought this was very funny and decided to take numerous pictures of my hand gestures.
There's Ayumi, translating for me.
It was a lot of fun to talk about fundraising and prospect research again. The Japanese were a very kind audience. I didn't realize that non profits are a fairly new addition to the Japanese -- they have only been around for about 25 years. They asked interesting and insightful questions and shared some funny stories. My favorite was a woman who approached me afterwards; she liked that I used to require a "research request" form from staff at UWCI. She said she is always asked for information and projects (as she was in charge of the database) and it was hard for her to actually do her job! I hope she is able to come up with some sort of request form!
I'm not sure when my article will be published on the website (they are still translating it into Japanese), but I'll let you know when it is!
The start of the hike has this beautiful little waterfall/dam. 
This hike is not for the faint of heart -- lots of stairs and overlooks.
The halfway point was a suspension bridge, which overlooked the jungle that we were in.
Again, very amusing, if not alarming, signs along the way.
It was only as I was getting this post together, that I noticed how many pictures Joe took of all the bugs on this hike. He can post about that by himself one day!!!
It was only as I was getting this post together, that I noticed how many pictures Joe took of all the bugs on this hike. He can post about that by himself one day!!!
