Author: travel67

Osprey Protests

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These are a few images from a local protest against the arrival of Osprey helicopters. US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey helicopters are now based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in central Okinawa. Locals were protesting against the poor safety record of the Osprey and the close location of Futenma to residential areas. It was one of the hottest days of the summer and the protest took place just after noon. I was actually  surprised I didn’t hear of anyone suffering from heatstroke or worse.  Reports from the organizers put the crowd at 100,000 people. To me this was far too high ( the number of protesters seemed  smaller than the audience in front of the green stage at Fuji Rock which was about 25,000) but it was still an impressive turnout. The Okinawan people didn’t get their wish to keep the Osprey’s out of Okinawa. The helicopters will be based here so that the US military have the latest technology to train with, but it’s a bit of a gamble for the US and …

Back on line eventually.

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NTT finally came and fixed the broken phone line outside my home. The engineer said that he and about 1000 others had been sent down from mainland Japan to fix all the problems. They are clearly swamped by the scale of the job, and I wonder if it’s time for Okinawa to consider putting all those cables underground. Typhoon Jelawat created far more havoc than expected. The main damage seemed to be to power cables, telephone lines, trees, and vehicles. A fisherman was killed at Zampa point, the typhoon had passed, but large waves still swept him off the rocks. I was impressed by how fast the Okinawa clean up crews were able to remove debris from the roads. On Sunday afternoon there were trees strewn all over the 58 heading up through Onna Village, but by Monday morning things were clear. Typhoon season is coming to a end, but there still seem to be several typhoons loitering around. Hopefully we’ll get through the next few weeks without any more death and destruction.

Technical difficulties…

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Typhoon Jelawat took out the power. Three days later, when the electricity began to flow again, it instantly fried a wet plug socket. Able to turn the power back on to the rest of the house by leaving the kitchen and office in the dark. No Internet and rotting food. 2 days later the electrician comes, checks the lines and replaces the plug socket. Power back again to the office and an empty fridge. Computer works but no Internet. Call NTT, they say they will send someone over ASAP. Which means around mid October. Updating blog on iPhone

Matsuri Exhibition – Half-time Report

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It’s Sunday morning in Tokyo and the exhibition is going great. First I need to say a huge thanks to the team that helped set up the exhibition. We were meant to set up on Monday night but due to the typhoon I arrived more than 36 hours late. Tuesday, should have been a day off for the Pentax staff, but at 10AM on Tuesday morning Pentax staff, the crew from Frame-man who mounted the prints, and the man from Horiuchi Color Ltd who produced the giant B0 prints all came to help. It was such a wonderful group effort, with everyone really excited to make this exhibition special. A steady stream of visitors have seen the exhibit, including staff from various division of Pentax, pro photographers and several friends who were able to stop by. For all those of you who can’t make it I made a couple of 360 panoramas on my iPhone which you can check out. If you look at the links with your iPhone or iPad you can even use …

Mushama Festival, Hateruma Island (Part 3 -The Gods)

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Festivals in Okinawa’s southern islands (collectively know as the Yaeyama Islands) are similar but not identical to those on the main island of Okinawa. Shishi lions and ryukyu dancers are common to both, while it seems only the Yaeyama festivals include the god Miroku (white mask) and the rain god Fusamarah (red mask). The images of the man dressed as the rain god Fusamarah show how the presence of the American military has slowly made it’s way into the everyday lives of Okinawans even on the most remote islands. Local farmers are particularly fond of army surplus uniforms, they must be particularly rugged, cheap, and ubiquitous to have become almost standard equipment for Okinawans working out in their fields.

Matsuri Exhibition – Like, Tweet, Share, Blog, Thumbs up and +

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Only a few days to go until my solo exhibition in Tokyo! I will be at the Pentax Forum everyday, 10.30 to 18.30, from September 19th to September 26th (unfortunately I’ll miss the last few days as I’ll be back in Okinawa).  Please come along, check out my photographs, and say hello. Above is the map to Pentax square from Shinjuku Station. You can also copy and paste this address into google maps: 東京都新宿区西新宿1-25-1 There will be 29 big prints and 5 huge prints on display. It’s a really exciting adventure putting on a big exhibition, and I hope as many people as possible can stop by. It’s free to see the show, you won’t even be forced to buy any camera equipment by the Pentax staff. What I need now is for friends to spread the news, so as it says in the title, please Like, Tweet, Share, Blog, Thumbs up and + this post. Actually, what I really need now is for Typhoon Sanba to change course so my flight isn’t cancelled, but …