Chasing Cherry Blossoms, Old Friends & Uncle Jack

[Jacques Vert]

Next morning it was off to the Umeda Sky building, a short stroll from the IC:







Although just over half the height of Harukas 300, I actually enjoyed the views from the top of this one more.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Then it was another LIMO to KIX where we caught up with another old friend: a B734 for our flight to Okinawa.




The IC provided a complimentary taxi to the Airport Limousine Bus terminal; not that far but greatly appreciated when you have a few bags with you.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Having completed a few JAL SAKITOKU advance purchase fares now, I can confirm that the earning rate to QF is cough. Booking/paying for an upgrade to "Class J" earns at discount economy rates (that is, 10 status credits per flight), while an upgrade to F earns at flexible economy rate (that is, 20 status credits per flight). And no minimum points guarantee.

OK, so in Class J you get a wider seat (2-3 instead of 3-3) + tea, coffee or juice; in F you get an even wider seat + a light meal and alcohol. At 1,000 Yen for the upgrade, class J may be OK; at 8,000 Yen, F isn't.

We had an interesting experience at check-in for this flight. The check-in chick was concerned that our bags were overweight and said that the limit was 20kg per bag. I pointed out that we were in "Class J" to which she replied: "Almost Business" :shock: She then allowed us the extra couple of kg's.

Dare I say it; if I book a domestic flight in Japan again I would probably go with Jetstar Japan if they flew the route. Or maybe I'll try ANA if the price is right.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Okinawa

We had a short 4 night stopover here before flying to Fukuoka and visiting Nagasaki. First a couple of views from the plane:







That's Kouri Island with the long bridge to it, we visited it a couple of days later.









We had read that Okinawa was nice but quite different to the rest of Japan. We would have liked to stay longer but as always, the budget is limited. Okinawa possibly has a small relationship to my Uncle Jack; but more on that later.

I had received a megabonus offer from Marriott: B2GO (buy two, get one). Everywhere else in Japan the Marriotts were too far above our budget. Here, the Marriott Resort & Spa near Nago was not too far above budget so we used our time on Okinawa for a mini-mattress run.

First and third nights at the Marriott, 2nd night at the Hilton and the last night at the Double Tree near the airport as we had a 0710 flight the following day.

This allowed us to see a fair bit of the Island.

 

[kermatu]

Fabulous trip report. Like all the little details, particularly in the smaller villages. Thanks for posting.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Fabulous trip report. Like all the little details, particularly in the smaller villages. Thanks for posting.

It's our pleasure; we hope it is of use to you on a future trip.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Marriott Resort & Spa

According to Google Maps, the drive from Naha airport to the Marriott should take just under an hour. But by now it was Friday evening and peak hour traffic. The lass at the hire car depot suggested that the expressway would be choked and we may as well save our money and go up the normal road and see stuff along the way. We discovered that Okinawa is far more built up than we had imagined and is urban sprawl and red traffic lights for most of the trip from Naha to Nago. Took us more than two hours.

Lesson learned: either don’t arrive in peak hour or stay closer to the airport for the first night.



There is not much in the way of eateries around this Marriott and given Japan's 0.00 alcohol driving laws we decided to eat in-house. The food was good but a little pricey like most restaurants with no nearby competition.





Nice view from our room:







Only 2 weeks earlier I was wearing ski gloves, two jackets and a beanie in Hokkaido; it's now 27 degrees overnight, I have changed to shorts and tomorrow I am going for a swim

And we have swapped cherry blossoms for orchids:

 

[Jacques Vert]

Hilton Chatan Resort

Lots of US citizens around here as it is not far from the US base; in fact, there is a definite US presence on the whole of Okinawa. The Hilton was very pleasant; the view from our balcony:

 

[Jacques Vert]

Some nearby scenes:









And the local beach:

 

[Jacques Vert]

Don't you just love J'english? This sign has three of my favourites:



"Swimming is prohibited only in the swimming area". So presumably...Swimming is allowed only in the non-swimming area

"Swimming is prohibited during swimming hours" Sure.

"At high tide water get deep" Well bugger me, how unusual is that!

 

[kermatu]

It's our pleasure; we hope it is of use to you on a future trip.

Given all the good Japan TRs of late - yep, a pretty safe bet this will be.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Following a suggestion from the Concierge at the Marriott, we drove to Kouri Island (about 45 mins north of Nago) for some sightseeing and lunch.

You cross a 2 km bridge to get there:



As you can see the weather was closing in and spoiled +1's photos. Would be very pretty on a nice day.

There's a touristy tower that gives nice views.



There are some nice restaurants on the island including L Lota, the one at the tower and a couple of others but not all are open for lunch. We chose the one at the tower; the food was good as were the views.

You get to ride in one of these self-driving buggies:



There's a fee if you want to visit the tower but the buggy ride is free if you are only going to the restaurant.

The curry was good:

 

[Jacques Vert]

 

[Jacques Vert]

As mentioned before, the last night was at the Double Tree at Naha. When we checked in the lady proudly told us we had been upgraded to a deluxe room with a massage chair. Only problem was the massage chair took up about 85% of the available space. One of the smaller hotel rooms we've stayed in for quite some time. Sorry, forget to take photos.

We were heading for the airport at 0600 and breakfast did not start until 0630 so they put together a breakfast pack with pastries, fruit and water for us to eat at the airport.

We took the monorail from immediately outside the DT which cost 260 Yen each and takes about 12 minutes; great option.

Our flight to cough was on a B738 and took about 1.5 hours, then sat on the tarmac for about 10 minutes as we were early.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Uncle Jack




Uncle Jack enlisted in the AIF on 7 January 1941. He arrived in Singapore on 15 August 1941 and was soon in northern Malaya as a driver. He was captured during the Japanese advance towards Singapore and listed as “missing”.

As a driver, he was of use to the Japanese forces so they put him to work for them, and apparently treated him reasonably well at first: that was until he saw his opportunity and “accidently” reversed his truck over a Japanese officer who was particularly disliked, killing him.

After the fall of Singapore he spent time in Changi prison, then the Burma-Thai railway, before being taken to Japan where he arrived on 18 June 1944. He was imprisoned in Prisoner of War camp Fukuoka 17 near the town of Omuta, roughly half way between Fukuoka and Nagasaki. There he and other POWs were put to work in a coal mine that supplied the steel works in Nagasaki.

Uncle Jack was there in Omuta on 9 August 1942 when the US dropped the second atomic bomb (Fat Man), this time on Nagasaki. From what I have been able to put together, it is likely that he and many other Australians were working the night shift in the mine and had returned to their barracks at the time the bomb was dropped. Although some 60km from the hypocentre, Camp 17 was partially destroyed.

A US POW (at Camp 14, close to the steel works) described seeing a single plane which they thought was doing reconnaissance, then seeing something drop from the plane. As it dropped lower they could see three parachutes which I now understand were radio measuring devices dropped from an accompanying plane. The US POW remembers seeing the plutonium bomb (Fat Man) drop behind a hill and disappear from sight, followed by a blinding flash and an horrendous wind.

A few days later (August 15) Japan announced its surrender and the Japanese guards left. I understand that most of the POWs made their way to Nagasaki and then to Kanoya on the southern end of Kyushu, some by train as the line had survived the blast, although some followed a different route. Perhaps only Uncle Jack knew what route he took, maybe even he did not know. From southern Kyushu most made their way to Okinawa on returning supply planes, then to Manila.

Uncle Jack’s war record for 29 September 1945 reads “Manila reports POW recovered”; he had been a POW for three and a half years.

He embarked on HMS Formidable on 5 October and disembarked in Sydney on 13 October 1945.

Unfortunately the war had taken its toll and Uncle Jack passed away on 15th February 1956, aged 39.

So our visit to Fukuoka, Omuta and Nagasaki will be both thought-provoking and challenging.

 

[Jacques Vert]

We picked up a hire car from the airport in Fukuoka and drove south to Omuta where Uncle Jack was imprisoned in Fukuoka 17 POW camp. As we drove into town we spotted a sign pointing to the Coal Museum. As Uncle Jack had been assigned to work in a coal mine in Omuta, we decided to start our investigations there.






We asked the lady at the ticket office (the one who spoke almost no English) if she knew where camp 17 was. She enlisted the help of two colleagues, neither of whom spoke any English either. Eventually she thought of someone to telephone who did speak English who could translate for us and between the four of them we got directions to where they thought the camp and mine were.

The campsite didn't seem to be quite right so after visiting those sights I rechecked some papers we had with us and found coordinates for the camp. I asked “Miss Garmin” to take us there and she duly obliged.

Not much left at the camp site:




An historical map given to us at the Museum indicated an old mine adjacent to the campsite but there was no evidence of it and it was unclear whether it was still operating in 1944.

This mine nearby certainly was:




The next shot was taken through a gap in the fence:

 

[Jacques Vert]

A couple of more shots through gaps in the fence:

 

[GarrettM]

It's our pleasure; we hope it is of use to you on a future trip.

A lot of wonderful inspiration here JV. +1 from me for this report. Looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Looking forward to the rest of it.

We've had a few busy days since our last post but will try to catch up a bit later today.

 

[Jacques Vert]

So after a successful day chasing family history we drove back to Fukuoka. The area between Fukuoka and Omuta is basically flat with not a lot to see.







We were booked into the Hilton Sea Hawk which we picked up on a 40% sale. Not too shabby:




The view from our room: