The Story So Far: Part 3


Now that I felt confident driving on the left side of the road, I decided to go even farther afield from Camp Foster. I was talking to a friend of mine, and he suggested that I go check out some old castle ruins. After recieving some vague directions, (get on 58 to Kadena, and you will see signs....you can't miss it!) I filled up the car with gas, and took off. I managed to find the castle ruins, but I had to have nerves of steel to get there. You see, the road leading up the hill to the castle was twisty-turny and two lane in name only. After a couple of minor scares, I found myself at the parking lot. Boy was I in for a suprise.

Just a little background information on the castles here in Okinawa. These castles are called gusukus. These gusukus were built during the early 1400's. At this time, Okinawa was divided into 3 kingdoms that were not on speaking terms. The central kingdom, Chūzan conquered the other two kingdoms and form the Ryūkyū Kingdom. This kingdom remained independent until 1879. I discuss the history more in later posts.

Zakima-Jo, as this gusuku is called, was built by the local lord to protect his land. The gusuku is mainly in ruins today, but it offered a breath-taking view of the western side of the island. If you looked out from the western wall, the land dropped off onto a steep cliff. I can only imagine what it would be like to try and capture this gusuku. One interesting thing about this gusuku, during the Battle for Okinawa during World War 2, it was used as an artillery emplacement by the Japanese. After World War 2, the American Military placed an antiaircraft battery there because of it commanding view of the local area. More pictures of this area are located here.

After I left the Zakima-Jo, I decided to go even further west. That was a beautiful drive through what looked like small farms (the area had the farm smell at least). I ended up in the Zanpa Point National Park. Zanpa Point is farthest west you can go on Okinawa. There was a lighthouse on the point that overlooked cliffs made of coral. One could walk out CAREFULLY onto the cliffs and watch the East China Sea crash into them. There was also a nice walkway that led further on into the park. With the breeze coming off of the ocean, it was actually chilly out there. After I walked on the trails for about an hour, I noticed it was getting dark, so I decided to head back to base. The pictures that I took of that area can be viewed here.

When I got back to base that night, I was dog tired. I told myself that I was going to take Sunday off and just lounge around the room. As we will see in my next post, that did no quite happen.


The Okinawa Expedition

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