a Royal haunted Hotel

Two ghosts were spotted haunting the deserted remains of the Royal Hotel, near Nakagusuku-jo site late in the afternoon on Sunday. These two apparitions were described by witnesses as strangely alien and definitely non-Okinawan in appearance. The female wearing a flowing skirt kept eluding the camera, but the male who seemed to be wearing a brown corduroy jacket, was caught in a few pictures.

Witness Nancy O. Drew, was in shock and unable to narrate the events of the afternoon, but another witness, Jamie W. Oliver bravely ventured into the haunted hotel and later on even concocted a spell using her keitai to wrench the spirits out of the haunted domain.

The Royal Hotel is said to have been deserted mid-construction around 30 years ago due to the eerie deaths of constructions workers and other unnameable unearthly events. The wealthy builder of this hotel is said to have invested a large amount of money, yet with little consideration of the people who constantly warned him of building on consecrated ground and in such close proximity to tombs of the dead.

This obstinate refusal led to grave consequence, the death of his son, bankruptcy and insanity that ended with his death.

The unplanned sprawling construction appears more like a collection of buildings haphazardly connected to each other. Devil stars on the roof and graffiti on the walls accompanied by disturbing human artifacts: tatami mats, beds, mattress, charred wood and even the rusted frame of a car, can be found within.

The heavy contrast between the ruins of a castle built 700 hundred years ago and the ruins of this modern building side by side makes the place even more haunting. While one is being restructured to its former glory, the other has been left abandoned to the ravages of time, nature and man.

Above: Part of the Haunted Hotel.

Left:Nakagusuku Castle and numbered stones.

Vegetarian Japanese Spaghetti...

At Maru Cafe - a great place, where lunch was a treat! Being vegetarian in Japan is tough, but there are pleasant surprises like the Herb Vegetarian Restaurants in Nakijin, run by seventh day Adventists; and this dish at Maru....

It was mushroom spaghetti, but with a Japanese touch. Don't ask me what that green stuff is on the toast, and don't ask me what nori (seaweed) is doing on top of the spaghetti :)

Reminiscing

A previously unposted, unknown picture I got sometime ago from Liz; of that exhausting day at the Haneda Airport in Tokyo where we (Group B JETs) heading to Okinawa were stuck for nearly 10 hrs due to a typhoon striking Okinawa. Even when we had taken off from Haneda, the captain kept announcing in Japanese that we will return to Tokyo if the plane is unable to land in Naha. When the plane finally did land, everyone clapped as the uncertainty dissolved in a happy conclusion.


Here we are whiling away time, playing cards - which I had handy, at the corner where we all piled our luggage and made shifts to keep guard. Its these hours spent together that forged a strange companionship amongst us, playing the name game to learn everyones name and discovering that apart from a few nearly all of us had names beginning with "J" me, Joyce, Jon W., Jon D., Jenny, Jenna, Joe, Jose, Jeff, Julie, Jason... and so forth. Best was playing Mafia and being made a mafia at my first game ever! And watching "50 First dates" on various Laptops, switching the DVD from one comp to the other as the batteries died... Ah! that was a day etched in my mind never will it be erased...

shyokawa

Resolution # 12:

to taste and judge the saltiness of Shyo-kawa

~~~~ ACCOMPLISHED!~~~~~

on:

Saturday, February 17, 2007, 1:49 pm.

location:

Shyo-kawa, Motobu, Okinawa, Japan.

witnesses:

David Crennen (who had experiemented the same prior to me) and Paul Collins.

observation:

River (more or less a stream), sprouting from under rocks, further source unfound. salty water but did not seem to be due to backwaters even though presence of said river was in close proximity to the East China Sea, 16 meters (approx.)

conclusion:

Interesting place to waste 15-30 minutes of life.

V-Day

posting this post, post Valentine Blues....

don't get me wrong, the blues weren't due to my single status, only that my dreaded enemy poured down from the heavens; yes, rain. It was a bleak rainy cold day in the middle of nice "koharu" sunny days... and I won't even bother to say anything more. The only *valentine-y* thing that occured that day was this heart-shaped sweet potato cutlet we had for school lunch.


and just for time-pass I did this test from Rachel's blog. It's slightly uncanny, but this is quite me:

Your Candy Heart Says "First Kiss"

You're a true romantic who brings an innocent hope to each new relationship. You see the good in every person you date, and you relish each step of falling in love. Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a romantic dinner your sweetie cooks for you Your flirting style: friendly and sweet What turns you off: cynics who don't believe in romance Why you're hot: you always keep the romance alive

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

small achievement

Today I went to the bank. So? you ask, what's so great in that? well, give me a chance here, what I wanted to say, was that I went to the bank by myself! I usually dragged dear, dear Ayumi. You would imagine that after having been here for more than six months I'd have learned banking by now. But you cannot imagine what terror would strike me numb and make me start babbling like a baboon when that dreaded bill would arrive in the post. (Question - do baboons really babble?) Anyway, petrified of wiring all my moolah to a Mr Yamamoto san somewhere in the dark recesses of the Tokyo Concrete jungle, I decided that being thought a moronic dumbass fool was a far better option.

So, scared of pulling a disappearing act on my money, I never braved attempting the banking daredevilry. Until today! : ) I sucessfully took out money from the ATM, paid my telephone bill, wired rent money to my landlord and updated my passbook! And I am very proud of my small achievement!

The rest of this blog I shall dedicate toward describing some aspects of the banking system here for friends back home...

Usually, when you enter through the door there is a chorus of "irrashai" -or something of the sort- one after the other the bank tellers greet customers without looking up from their work. Of course when leaving, there would be a corresponding string of sing-song arigato gozaimases. Or in Tokyo greeting customers would be the job of the security guard. One can't but feel sympathy for the guards, this is the job they have to do, stand and shout a greeting to each and every customer entering the facility who in turn obviously ignored the greeting. And with the almost non-existent crime scene one can imagine what the guards have to suffer.

Such is civilization. And the level of courtesy is unbelievable. Back home its nearly an attempt at suicide if you spent a little more time at the ATM than the next person's patience demands. But here people give in the papers/money/whatever to the teller in little orange trays, sit down at the waiting sofas and then wait til the teller would call the name ever so politely; poof! in 2 mins your work is done and you are out of the bank with arigato gozaimases trialling behind you. Efficiency. That's the name of the game that lacking in India.

I shall now return to my perpetual day dream...

Orchid Show

Sudden inspiration struck me last lazy sunday morning, making me get up, get ready and head off to see the great Okinawa Orchid show at the Tropical Dream Center. My house being 5 mins away from the famed Ocean Expo Park afforded me no excuse to miss out on this event.

Even with such proximity, I had never been to the Tropical Dream Center. Its conical tower is one of the most strikingly visible landmark of Motobu. (If you go to my earlier post of the photos of my town you will surely find it. )

Orchids Galore:

More Sakura!

Sorry! am obsessed with cherry blossoms! here are more pictures:

Another Fun Evening

Ah! Another fun filled Friday...

there was FOOD.........Dinner: @ Sharaku, in Motobu

And Interesting Talk

Singing (Obviously! It was a plan to Karaoke from its inception)

and Dancing

And We took we PICTURES

But first we Posed

and then sang a song:

and Sang again:

Basically, there was a lot of singing and having fun!

And then.........

But still, there were many happy memories...