Amami Ochina, a Japanese Island

Amami Ochina Island climate was like Hawaii.  The weather was mild, and the sea was turquoise.  

The biggest attraction on this island was a museum of a watercolorist who was not famous in his lifetime, but the public/critics have come around.  His professional name is Tanaka Isson.  An artist being famous in his/her lifetime is very rare.  It's difficult to achieve any kind of recognition in any in the creative arts.  Actors take classes and audition endlessly for twenty years with no result.  Writers who are never published.  Painters and sculptors can't find buyers, much less a name for themselves in the art world.  Isson was an artist on the edge of recognition his entire lifetime. 

Isson, the man with the noble mind

He was born in 1908 and died in 1977.  He won a watercolor award at the age of 7, so he showed talent very early.  He briefly attended a prestigious art school, but had to drop out because of financial considerations.  He never stopped painting in the Nihonga style as opposed to the Yoga style.  The Nihonga style can be loosely translated as the Japanese style using ink and mineral pigments on silk or paper.  The Yoga style is the Western style using oil paints.

During his life Isson, lived away from the main art scene in Japan.  He worked odd jobs to stay alive while painting on the side.  In 1958 he moved to Amani Oshima (the island pictured above) and used the plants and wildlife as his inspiration.  He was very prolific during the 1960's and 1970's.  It wasn't until after his death that he was compared to Paul Gauguin during an art program on Japanese TV that interest sparked in the art world.  He was only displayed outside of Japan in 2018.  

The museum established on Amami is stupendous.  However, you will have to take my word for it because they wouldn't let me take pictures.  [This is an example of short sidedness.  This museum is getting 'cruise excursion attendance', and lack of pictures will insure they are forgotten by their visitors.]  I resorted to buying postcards and greeting cards to show you some of his work.

These are a pair of closet doors

There are changing seasons here

Native birds of Amami

Nihonga style of painting by Isson

The Isson museum is located in the Amani Park which includes an observation tower, a forest walk, and other attractions.  I loved the observation tower especially since it was a relatively clear day.  

direction away from the ocean

toward the ocean

Inside the education building, there was an interesting model of the Amami Islands on a global scale.  These are outsized.  We are at the tip of the topmost island.

This model should make more sense after seeing all the islands laid out.

This is just a portion of this model - all the signs are in Japanese - which makes it hard to figure out which island is which.  I do like the topography representation, and the little signs of 'attractions'.  

We caught the bus back to town.  The downtown area didn't look promising for shopping which Drake hates anyway.  One of my cruise friends found a second hand thrift store and bought all kinds of souvenirs - small pieces of pottery mainly.  She was kind enough to give me two, and I turned around and gave one away to another Australian friend, telling her I was only the intermediary.

I'll end with more photos via a link (that really works!) and Drake in front of the Volendam - our ship.

Drake in his Okinawa hat with my souvenirs of Amani Ochina Island

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gTVc9TPYyiHZrNtc6

Naha (Okinawa), Japan

 Here we are in Japan.  I can see this fantastic trip coming to an end.  Naha was marred by the weather.  This was the first day of constant rain, and I wasn’t well prepared for it.  I did have my rain jacket, but I needed a hat to keep the rain off my face.

We took another excursion which was very informative and included a World Heritage Site:  The SHURIJO Castle Park.  The castle we saw is a reproduction of the castle reconstructed from the 18th century one.  This place has burned down more than once since it was build in the 13th century.  Okinawa was the center of the Ryukyu Kingdom.  This kingdom was only on the island Okinawa and the people spoke their own language (which is now almost extinct).  The guide who is Ryukuan describes the people in this corner of Okinawa more in line with the Bali way of thinking:  Kind, considerate, and very mindful of the instant repercussions of poor behavior toward other people and toward the land.  These people definitely believe in bad karma.  

The castle was the home of the royal family as well as the seat of Ryukyu government.  The royal family offered tribute to the Japanese government, but stayed an independent kingdom until 1879 when Japan consolidated all the islands surrounding it into the country.  Okinawa became a Japanese prefecture at that point.  Japan discouraged the speaking of the Ryukyu language and customs.  

The castle has burned down three times:  1709, 1945, and 2019.  The first two fires destroyed it entirely, while the third was a partial fire.  Reconstruction began in 2020 and is still ongoing.

Because of the independent kingdom, the architecture of SHURIJO Castle incorporates both Chinese and Japanese influences.  It was the largest structure in the Ryukyu kingdom.  

Here are some pictures:

We managed to avoid these steps, taking the winding path up to the castle 

Drake is modeling the entrance to the castle - notice how much taller he is than the entrance.

I captured the camouflaged bird in this picture

The entrance to the castle

Restoration of a column with a ‘head’

I managed to capture a feeding butterfly

This lion/dog is capturing 'luck' with the open mouth.  His female counterpart has a closed mouth to hold in all the luck

One of the keepers of the castle

You find gargoyles everywhere in the world

The Welcome Center; formerly the house of the Ladies of the Court.

The castle is being reconstructed, so we couldn’t go inside.  Big disappointment.

It’s a massive structure, so this is going to take awhile.  

Naha was a beautiful island.  It was somewhat mountainous, and it's still the home of an American Airforce base.  Most of this island was destroyed in the battle for Okinawa in 1945.  It was this bloody, bloody battle that convinced President Truman to authorize dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Here are the pictures of Naha.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fGAzQkwRUAdqt3FQ7  

Taiwan - Day Two

 Just as I’m ready to go all bah, humbug on the Holland America excursions, one pops up that is delightful.  The sites are excellent, and fairly close to the ship.  The tour guide doesn’t talk continually, and is able to not have a hissy fit if someone (like us) does’t adhere to the ‘plan’.

Here I am in the Hot Springs Resort in Taiwan, close to Taipei.  Wow!  Seven or eight pools, milky white with sulfur, the ingredient for ‘health’.  The hottest was up to 110 - way, way too hot.  Drake and I skipped the buffet lunch and headed directly to the hot springs - not the plan, but we got a head start on the pools.  Mainly, we hung out at the 104 degree pool.

Boy, talk about an unflattering photograph.  Anyway, you can see how red my cheeks are.  I’ve just left the hot pool and plunged into the 65 degree pool.  The flattering head piece was a requirement of the hot springs spa, so everyone wore one of these.  

I did not take my camera to the pools since I didn’t have a waterproof cover for it.  These pictures are courtesy of another person on the trip who did take her camera to the pools.

Taiwan is really a beautiful island.  Taking a bus gives me an opportunity to take pix out the window.  Here are a few:

It’s surprising how very green Taiwan is

Don’t know what it says, but it makes a nice pic

Red roofs are good luck all over Asia

Rice growing 

Taiwan is actually mountainous - and today (spa day) it was overcast and cool all day long - perfect weather

This is some crop - not rice - no fences

No clue what it says - just liked the look of it

These pictures were from the bus on the way to the ‘next’ attraction.  It’s called a ‘Geo Park’.  It’s an area of Taiwan which has unusual rock formations (on a small nameable scale) close to the ocean

The Queen’s Head

This is the top attraction in the park.  People sat down and created this park.  I can just imagine them coming up with ‘names’ for everything.  The name for the entire park is “YehLiu Park”.  This place also has tidal pools.

You can see some of the tidal pools in this pic

Looking out to see - some HaLong type boulders here

Seashore line covered in mossy rocks

Different types of formations

Pictures of formations

The numbers in the above picture link up with the typed list of formations above it.  The numbers are in the lower right hand corner.

There is a lovely walkway about two-thirds of the way to the rock formations.  

Walkway to the rock formations

Jungle to the side of the walkway

This picture shows the erosion of the Queen’s Head from 1980 to 2025

I made it from the ticketed entry booth to the bleachers overlooking the ocean.  It was a very pleasant place to wait for Drake who braved the crowds to take these pictures.  The path through the rocks was steep with steps, and unfortunately, that is now not for me.

The Queen’s Head

I was really happy hanging with the feral dogs and enjoying the view.

We headed back to the ship.  It was a long day - didn’t return until 7:00pm.  We did make dinner at 7:30!  

I will load photos into the blog when I get back to. Virginia, and I’ll notify everyone.

Taiwan - Day One

 

Meet Koxinga, a medieval ruler of Taiwan Island who is revered by the Taiwanese.  This is the third shrine built to worship his heroism and contribution to Taiwanese society.  Flanking Koxinga is his right hand man - whose function is given away by the sword in this hand.  No clue why he isn’t holding the hilt.  Anyway, he’s called the “Sword General”, and he’s credited with uniting various factions.  I have a sneaky suspicion it was either “join us” or “die”.  

There are massive decorations in this temple, and people kept arriving to pay their respects to Koxinga.  Here is a longer view of what surrounds Koxinga.

I have no clue who the two dudes are in front of Koxinga, but one looks suspiciously like the Sword General.  All the flowers and incense were people arriving to leave them.  

The grounds of this temple were particularly beautiful.  Here are some pix of the outside including a beautiful cherry tree in bloom as well as lotus blossoms.  And, yes, it’s raining for the first time during an excursion.

As we moved from attraction to attraction, I took pictures of places on the street that interested me.

These are street scenes from Kaohsiung, Taiwan which is on the southern end of the island.  Unfortunately, we had another tour operator who insisted on talking to us continually.  My impression was the Taiwanese are fooling themselves about the possibly of the Chinese coming to reclaim their island.  We saw numerous Taiwanese war ships and more military presence than I’ve seen elsewhere.  The prevailing Taiwanese idea is because they make computer chips, the United States, ie “Trump” will not allow China to reclaim the island.  Boy, are they deluded.  I’m afraid the current unilateral war the US is engaged in is going to embolden other countries to also unilaterally take whatever they want.  We’ll see, but I think Taiwan is ripe to finally be plucked back into the Chinese fold.  It was apparent in Hong Kong that China was exerting major controls over information and what is ‘allowed’.  

Our next Kaohsiung attraction was another temple named the Chihkan Tower.  I suppose because it was two stories it could be construed as a tower.  As in the previous temple to venerate Koxinga, the Chihkan Tower was highly decorated in the Chinese style.

The grounds also had a koi pond with koi large enough to feed a family of four.  Koi are a type of carp, so they probably aren’t good eating for several reasons:  a pierced gallbladder can poison the meat; they are bottom feeders and taste ‘muddy’ unless specially washed, and they have tons of tiny bones.  Typically, these orange/patterned fish are considered ‘ornamental pets’ and are very expensive to buy - too expensive to eat.  

(Personally, I find these fish creepy.)

This tower was beautifully decorated and included the equivalent of gargoyles which tend to be stylized dogs or lions on top of the roofs.  The red tile on temple roofs are a way of keeping good luck inside a house and repelling evil spirits.  It also helps there’s a lot of red clay in this region to use for handy building material.  

Originally, the Chihkan Tower was used as a fort.  It’s pretty easy to see that function from the way the interior is designed.  Here are a slew of pictures:

The final stop on this excursion day was a temple commemorating Confucius.  It was also red - a lucky color in Taiwan, and all of China.  Right across the street was the ubiquitous 7-11 which is more than just a convenience store in Asia - it’s a drug store, a fast food store, and so much more.  Plus, they are everywhere, and they always have an ATM which ares they ideal for getting the local currency.  So here are  pictures of the Confucian temple as well as some street scenes.

A decoration set into the sidewalk

A rock garden

An old gate into a neighborhood

The red plant is ginger

Gate of Righteousness

A garden inside the temple grounds

Some of us are into rocks

I never learned the purpose of this slab

The Confucius Temple

Didn’t realize I was wearing my earbuds - which I put in to drown out the tour leader

Interior of temple

I

An example of a Presidential plaque

Temple Dragons and other animals 

Is it a dog or is it a lion?

Confucius 

While I enjoyed seeing all the temples, the final attraction was to visit lotus lake.  This was something like an amusement park.  There were temples set all around the lake.  The tour went to one.  You enter through the dragon’s mouth and exit through the tiger’s mouth.  By this time, I was so tired I couldn’t contemplate climbing up and down the five steep stairs to get in/out of the bus, so I sent Drake!

Dragon’s body

Highly decorated

You ca see both the dragon and the tiger

Go in via the dragon; come out of the tiger’s mouth

The dragon

More decorations

These tower temples actually sit in Lotus Lake

Lotus Lake

After the first day in Taiwan, I’d had it with mouthy tour guides.  I was pretty disgruntled thinking about day two in Taiwan on another bus with someone talking at me non-stop.  Just goes to show not to anticipate, the second day in Taiwan turned out to be the best excursion we’ve taken.  

I’ve tried to incorporate more pictures because I can’t seem to get a link to all my pictures.  When I get home, I will update the blogs and include links to my thousands of pictures.