February 26, 2024

Okinawa, Japan is well known for the bloodiest ground battle of World War II. During this 82-day-long battle, 95,000 Imperial Japanese soldiers and 21,000 American soldiers were killed. The current movie sensation Oppenheimer (Actor Robert Downey, Jr. does a terrific job portraying United States Atomic Energy Commissioner Lewis Strauss) tells the story of the Manhattan Project-the undertaking that developed the first nuclear bomb- and why American military strategists were apprehensive to invade other main islands of Japan because of the very high casualties.

We had previously visited The Cornerstone of Peace at the Peace Memorial Park (similar to the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, DC) that lists 149,193 individuals from Okinawa-approximately one quarter of the population-who were either killed or committed suicide during the Battle of Okinawa. My temperament is such that I only need to visit those type of memorials once to feel their full impact so we embarked on an errand with one mission in mind.

I shared before that I am completely enamored with the cruise ship crew. These young people, primarily from Indonesia, sign a nine-month contract to be away from family to serve the needs of others. If you have ever been to Bali or Jakarta you know that Indonesians are the warmest, kindest people in the world. I am certain that is why all cruise lines recruit there for the peoples natural gift of hospitality. Many of the crew are married with children back home. It is common that most crew members send all their wages home to take care of their family members. If all of the worlds young people had such dedication and commitment.

So we set off for downtown Naha. You will note that many of the germ conscious Japanese are still wearing masks.

The Japanese are very inventive and on the streets of Naha we saw many robotic waiters. We did not try them, but they seem to be a novelty more than anything else. They did not appear to be any quicker in ordering food and as tipping is frowned upon in Japan as rude I don’t see how they were more cost effective.

Of course, if you have been to Japan you can’t help but get a kick out of the translation of some of the Japanese signage. Here are two bathroom signs I passed. One was outside of a woman’s bathroom the other outside a man’s room. The Japanese must think men are Barbarians!

Oh, and our mission. To find spicy ramen noddle soup packets to bring back to the crew. The crew work long hours (7am-7pm) so at night many will gather in the crew dining room and prepare ramen noodle soup and gather to share about their day. We brought back 2 shopping bags filled with different varieties of ramen soup so I am sure we are going to be a hit with the crew tonight.

I can almost smell the noodles steaming below.

Thanks for travelling with us…