Beginning of the Travels in the Land of the Rising Sun: Ishigaki andOkinawa [Joshua Burke]

After a three-day voyage from the Philippines we arrived in Ishigaki, Japan. Ishigaki is very close (131nm) to Taiwan and is the most southern Japanese Island that you can check into. I have never been to Japan before, so I was super excited to finally explore a new country outside of SE Asia.

We spent most of our time in Ishigaki exploring the town, doing boat work, and eating yummy soba, or noodles. We stayed at a marina (a rarity in Japan) that was very close to the main town, so It was very easy to do shopping, go out to eat, etc. Checking into Japan wasn’t that much of a hassle, all the customs, immigration, and coast guard guys came to your boat. All of them were friendly and very helpful, and if you had a question of where buildings were, they would point it out to you on a map.

While in in Ishigaki, we made friends with an Australian couple, David and Robyn, on Maaji Re. We got to now each other pretty well and it was fun going to a local noodle shop for dinner with David. While we were eating, the TV was showing a baseball game. I hadn’t seen a baseball game for 5 years. I had to have Dad teach me how baseball was played again. Base Ball is HUGE in Japan. I think it is the main sport, and a lot of Japanese play on the US teams.

Okinawa, the biggest island In the Ryukyu Islands is located just South of mainland Japan. This island has seen many conflicts from when Okinawa itself was a kingdom in the 14th century, and being the last major conflict during the Pacific War. Okinawa now is a sprawling urban island with most of the cities in the South end. On the North end there are still mountains covered with forests. There are many US military bases on the island because all of the Japan’s southern islands are under threat from China. I have wanted to go to Okinawa for ages and ages.

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is the only aquarium on the island and is located at the far Northern end of the island. Since we at the Southern end of the island it took a 2 hour drive to get there, which means a 4 hour round trip. We met a guy named Pat and his son, Kairen, who live on another boat in the marina, and they offered to take us to the aquarium. Dad couldn’t rent a car because to drive in Japan you must be qualified as an international driver. It would only take a couple days to get but we didn't have the time to do it.

Ever seen a manta made out of flowers?

Poor Dory. 

The aquarium on Okinawa is unique because it is the first aquarium to house an incredibly big animal. It houses whale sharks, and not just one, but three whale sharks! The tank that holds them is humongous and apart from holding whale sharks also holds manta rays, sharks, and stingrays. It was the first time I had seen whale sharks in person.

One of the three manta sharks 

Other then the whale sharks, there was also a huge room dedicated to sharks. In the shark room, there was a reconstructed jaw skeleton of a Carcharodon megalodon, a mega shark that existed 12 million years ago. The jaw was so big that I could stand in it. Each tooth was as big as my hand. By the way, Carcharodon megalodon are thought to have mainly fed on whales! Also in the shark room was a tank that held all different types of sharks such as the Sicklefin Lemon Shark, the Copper Shark, the Bull Shark, and the Bowmouth Guitarfish, that is actually a ray but looks like a shark.

The mega shark jaw!

The shark tank. 

The dolphin show at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium was amazing. The Bottlenose dolphins and the false killer wales jumped so high out of the water, that I couldn’t believe my eyes. Besides jumping they also splashed the Asian tourist, which I always enjoy watching.

Check out how high the dolphin jumped! 

I got to know these nice US cruisers, Larry and Peg with their crewman Drew, who were on a yacht at the marina. Through them we got to make friends with their grandchildren, George and JT, who live on a USMC base on Okinawa. Because we knew them they invited us on the base to go swimming. How could I refuse, I have wanted to go on a US base forever. It was my first time on any US base, and it was weird to see so many Western people again. To go swimming you had to pass a test, which I passed easily. Swimming was very fun and the pool was deep, so I could do dives, cannonballs, etc.

Before we left Okinawa we had the chance to go to the Okinawan Natural History and Art Museum with George and JT. The museum is huge and we only had enough time to do the natural history part. The natural history area was divided into six sections.
Section 1: A people embraced by the sea
Section 2: Social translation from shell mound era to ancient Ryukyu era Section 3: Prosperity of the kingdom
Section 4: Satsuma control over the Ryukyu Kingdom
Section 5: Decline of the empire
Section 6: Modern era of Okinawa
Section one was about the early days of Okinawa. There was a lot of pottery, earth ware, and skeletons of the early inhabitants. One of the skeletons is 22,000 years old! Not a lot in the section because there written language has not been developed yet.

The 22,000 year old male found here in Okinawa. 

Section two was a lot like section one except for people started building forts. There were models of the different kinds of forts they had found around the island. Some of them had just been dirt mounds, but others had stonewalls. I think you can go see one of these very old forts on Okinawa, but we didn’t have the time. There was also fine craftsmanship on display.

A bunch of earthenware pots. 

Section three was very interesting. A written language had been developed so there were ancient scrolls, paintings, and even ink seals! I never knew that Okinawa had been at the heart of a kingdom. The modern Ryukyu Islands used to be a quite prosperous kingdom called the Ryukyu Kingdom. The kingdom was in an ideal trading spot. It was in the middle of Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and Philippine trading routes. A lot of money flowed into the kingdom’s treasury from trading taxes.

The Ryukyu Kingdom traded with everybody from Japan to Indonesia, but the wealthiest and most prosperous trading partner was China, at the time controlled by the Ming. To trade with the Ming you had to pay tribute to the Ming Emperer. Envoys that brought the tribute were called Shinko shi and the tribute was called Shinko. About two to four tribute ships were in each tribute fleet.

A model of a tribute ship. 

A fine painting of a tribute ship coming into a port in China. 

Section four was about the beginning of the Ryukyu kingdom’s decline. Another kingdom called the Satsuma Kingdom invaded Ryukyu Kingdom 1609 with only 3,000 troops. Ryukyu Kingdom actually lost and became Satsuma subjects, ceding the Amami Islands and incurring a large tax fund to Satsuma. After the take over disasters, famines, droughts, huge taxes, and financial difficulties all started to weaken the empire.

All empires or kingdoms eventually fall, and section five explained that. Europeans started to visit the Ryukyu Kingdom and demanded trade, permission to send in Christian Missionaries, and other demands. The kingdom did nothing but refuse while continuing “negotiations” in order to avoid war. When the British defeated the Qing Dynasty in 1842, a severe economic shockwave hit the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Eventually the Meiji government disbanded the Ryukyu Kingdom, establishing the Okinawa Prefecture in its place. However the people of the Ryukyu Kingdom did not want to be part of Japan, so the Meiji government sent in police and military forces to force them to be part of Japan. The Ryukyu Kingdom fell after its last king, Sho Tai, and his ministers abandoned the Shurijo Castle.

Section six was about WW2 and modern Okinawa history. Okinawa was the last major island to be invaded in the Pacific War and the battle was brutal. The fighting lasted well over 3 months, and the island was literally a hellhole. After Japan surrendered the US controlled Okinawa until 1972, when the US gave Okinawa back to Japan. 

Thanks for reading!!!

Special Thanks to David, Robyn, Pat, Kairen, Larry, Peg, Drew, George, TJ, George’s and TJ’s Mom, and of course Jacob and Dad for making my stay at Ishigaki and Okinawa so much fun!!!
Defend Okinawa! 


Joshua 

Subic Bay Adventures [Joshua Burke]

Subic Bay is located just above Manila on Luzon Island in the Philippines. The entire Subic Bay area used to be a U.S. military base. The U.S. military is now gone from the area (except for two navy oil tankers I saw on the Philippine navy docks and some sunken WW2 ships and ruined buildings) and now is a civilian city. We spent about a week there in the marina and we had enough time to do the three main attractions. 

One of the main attractions to do at Subic Bay is a zoo called zoobic safari.  Zoobic Safari is like any other zoo except that you ride in a truck with steel bars around it while tigers are eating raw meat and looking at you like you’re its' next meal.

The tiger trucks.

The zoo has all kinds of animals, but it mainly focuses on the tigers and reptiles. We went all around the zoo, mostly by motorized train, but we did walk around a bit. What I found interesting is that the zoo used old WW2 bunkers to house some of the animals. Resourceful, huh?

This particular bunker is used to house chickens and horses. 

The tigers have a pretty big area that they roam in and you can go into the fenced off area in a truck. Mom bought some raw chicken to feed them. When we were out a trainer fed the raw chicken to the tiger from inside the truck. The tiger started eating the chicken on the ground near the truck, but then it decided to jump on the roof. Luckily, there were bars on the Plexiglas roof so the tiger didn’t fall on us. It was really awesome seeing the tiger eat on the roof. Then another truck came alongside us to see the tiger and then the tiger jumped on the roof of their truck. As some people are scared of tigers, a couple people screamed in the other truck.

Feeding the tiger.  

The tiger on the roof. 

Ocean Adventure was, in my opinion, the best attraction. Aside from being able to interact with the dolphins, you also watched informational shows and learned about sea and land creatures.

When I mean interact with dolphins, I meant that I got to not only feed them, but also to ride them, pet them, and even dance with them! The dolphins they have here have all been rescued from dynamited reefs, or other sad catastrophes. Nala, the dolphin that we played with, had most of her hearing wiped out when her reef was dynamited.

Me riding on Nala.

It was fun playing with the dolphins and I learned a lot more about them. I have never been able to really touch a dolphin, much less ride them. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.   

Besides the awesome dolphins, I also watched a sea lion show and a wild animal show. The animal show was pretty funny, but it was not the animals that were funny it was the humans!  Some Asians are very superstitious about snakes and some are scared to death of them...

One of the keepers said that they had lost one their snakes in a black backpack.  Some of the crowd started to panic, and one person even left! When the keepers found the backpack in front of a lady, they picked up the backpack and brought out a snake! The lady started screaming as loud as she could. She wouldn’t stop screaming until the keepers reassured her that it was a rubber snake! There’s more.

When the keepers brought out a python and asked for a volunteer to come up, a young lady came up. When the keepers asked her if she was scared of snakes, she said yes. So they said they would help her get over the fear. They first asked her to touch the python. She did so very cautiously. Then, they put the python around her neck. The lady was so scared that she started crying! I have never seen people so scared of snakes as the Filipino people! That along with the dolphins made my day.

The last attraction we did was the Treetop Adventure. As the name suggests, you do zip line related activities in the trees.

The first activity we did was a ride called the silver surfer. It was a two-person ride only, so Mom and me went together. The surfer is like a surfboard with handles and is elevated by two wires. A motor works it and you go zooming above the forest floor. It was a lot of fun. 

The canopy ride is where you go from tree platform to tree platform on chairs about 100 feet up from the ground. The chairs go slow and the ride was quite relaxing.

The repelling (more properly called the screaming descent) was my favorite ride even though it lasted 2 seconds. You go to the top of a 100-foot tall tree and put your harness on and get attached to a hook. Then without any warning you drop 99 feet down in 2 seconds. I couldn’t stop shaking till we were out of the park! 

Thanks For Reading!

Joshua    

Wow! 

Tubbataha Reef: Philippine’s Natural Wonder [Joshua Burke]

Tubbataha Reef is an amazing place. It is located in the Sulu Sea about a day sail from Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines. Tubbataha Reef forms the apex of the coral triangle, the area with the largest coral species diversity on the world. The triangle extends as far as Borneo in the West and New Guinea in the East.

Checking out an overhang. 

Some christmas worms living near a piece of brain coral.

Because it was so unique, the Philippines named it a national park in the 1980’s. Then the world saw how unique it was and named it A UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) world heritage site in the 1990’s. The reef is also on the back of one of the Philippine bills.

Since it is a UNESCO site, Philippine rangers and Navy personel protect the reef area from over fishing and harmful fishing practices like dynamite and cyanide fishing. The only damage to the reef is when a typhoon comes through the area and breaks some coral or a wayward US minesweeper or Chinese freighter crashes into one of the atolls.

A beautiful sunset over an exposed part of the reef at low tide. 

We made good friends with the rangers and on the first day we got to watch a big fight at the Ranger Station (they had satellite TV) televised from Las Vegas. It was Mayweather (USA) vs. Manny “Pacman” (Philippines).  Manny is the most decorated Philippine fighter and the whole of the Philippines shut down to watch the fight. We were rooting for the home team. Whenever Manny hit Mayweather, all the rangers would gleefully yell and holler. It was quite funny. Unfortunately Manny lost and all the Philippine rangers were super upset. Luckily Dad and Mom brought a lot of cold beer from Princesa….

Watching the fight at with the rangers and some dive boat crew at the Ranger Station.

When we weren’t watching guys beat each other up, Jacob and I played volleyball with the net they had there. In the afternoon when it was low tide, a sand spit would surface and you could play on it. The rangers have built a volleyball net on the spit and Jacob and I had lots of fun playing volleyball.

Us on the sand spit with the ranger station in the background. 

One night we had smores over at the ranger building. Many of them said it was too sweet but one of the Rangers, Marc, loved them. I think he ate four! Since he liked them so much we left half of our smore supplies with him.

The diving here was astronomical. Even the snorkeling here was comparable to the diving. On one snorkel I saw two sharks! I have never seen sharks while snorkeling. And these were huge white-tips that got pretty close to me!

Like Layang Layang, the reefs at Tubbataha had walls that were sheer and went down to the ocean floor that is +2000 meters down. While diving I saw tons and tons of white-tip and black tip sharks. Surprisingly enough, most of them were babies about a foot long.

The drop off. 

A baby white tip.

You are also supposed to be able to see thresher sharks and tiger sharks, but I didn’t see any. Whale sharks are also a common sight here. Just a week before we arrived there was a sighting of one. Too bad we didn’t see that, it would have been awesome.

Me and mom on a dive.

Besides from all the sharks here, there are also many sea turtles. I saw about 2 turtles every dive I went on. The thing that surprised me the  most was that I didn’t see any mantas! It was really weird; usually you see lots of mantas when you go to a remote area like this.

A Hawksbill Turtle. 

Of course the fish and coral here were abundant. There were tons of triggerfish, parrotfish, unicorn fish, bug-eyed fish, wrasses, and clown fish. And that is just naming less then 1% of the fish we saw.

The sheer amount of fish...

A huge Maori Wrasse. 

Thanks to the Philippine Rangers, the local dive boats, and of course Dad and Mom for making Tubbataha reef such a fun experience!

Thanks for Reading!

And DFTBA!

Joshua

Wouldn't want to touch this animal. 

Layang Layang: A Paradise in the South China Sea [Joshua Burke]

Layang Layang is what the title says, a paradise in the South China Sea. Layang Layang or swallow atoll is a natural atoll about a whole day (24 hours) sail from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Like most atolls Layang Layang used to be a volcano millions of years ago. But the volcano sank and reef grew up around the edge. In that time between then and now, corals have flourished and the marine life that is attracted to the coral has made the atoll a simply amazing place.

 A beautiful sunset over Layang Layang.

Your probably wondering how we got inside the atoll. The military blew up a section of the reef to make a channel so that their frigates can come inside. We stayed on a mooring the size of our dinghy that were built for frigates/destroyers. There was no fear of the mooring breaking because of our weight while we were there.

The artificial island and giant mooring. 

On the atoll the Malaysian government built an artificial island. The island is 1 km long and a third of the island houses a navy base with a runway, the next third houses houses an eco resort, and the last third houses a government marine research station with a bird sanctuary. There is also a bird island but I will talk about that later.  

One of the warships that patrol around the island. 

A plane landing on the runway.

The military base here is the main base in the area and all the warships in the area operate out of the base here. As you probably know from the news China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan are all laying claim to the tiny islands in the South China Sea.  The military base is here to protect Malaysian claims to the islands. Having the military base here is also a good thing for the reef. It keeps all the fishermen out of the area. Greedy fishermen = DEAD reef.

What makes Layang Layang so unique is that all around the atoll there is a +2000 meter strait drop to the bottom. On the “walls” surrounding the atoll vast amounts of fish, stingrays, dolphins, mantas, and sharks call this place home. Even whale sharks visit the atoll from time to time, but unfortunately they are not permanent residents. Also on the few rocks that jut out of the water and the artificially made bird island there are many types of birds.

The Diving

 Diving is obviously the main thing to do at Layang Layang. The diving and snorkeling is amazing wherever you go into the water. We used the eco resort for diving. They made diving so much easier. After a dive they would refill your tanks so that they were ready for the next dive. Every dive, a dive boat would take you out to the dive site and would be a live boat while you were diving. And I can’t forget Victor, our amazing dive master. He was worth every penny and I wouldn’t have seen half the animals if he hadn’t pointed them out. 

Jumping off the dive boat. 

There were multiple dive sites on the outside wall on Layang Layang. All of the dive sites were wall dives and the wall went 2000 meters strait down to the ocean floor.  On some dives the wall went down gradually while on other dives the wall was sheer.

I did 7 dives in 4 dive sites in 3 days!

Having some fun at our safety stop.

Wrasse Strip

Wrasse Strip is a dive site that is located on the NW side of Layang Layang. During one dive on Wrasse Strip I saw 4 hammerheads, a green sea turtle, a huge manta ray, a puffer fish and 5 grey reef and white-tip sharks.  I saw all of that in ONE DIVE!!!! AMAZING!!!! It was the first time I had seen hammerheads in the wild.

To find the sharks you had to swim away from the safety of the wall and out into the open water. It is a bit scary at first when you swim out into the blue because you have no point of reference but you get used to it. It especially helps if you keep your eyes on the dive master. Besides from seeing sharks in the blue, you can also see schools of huge fish, such as barracudas, a big-eyed trevallies.

It is a bit hard to see, but this is one of the hammerheads we saw.

Wreck Point

Wreck Point is just off the artificial island and hence the dive site name has a wreck. The ship is there and I would have loved to explore it. The only problem is that the wreck sank down to +2000 m….

We did a night dive there and I saw 6 turtles varying in sizes! Most of the turtles were sleeping in holes in the wall and we accidently woke them up when we shined our lights on them. One huge turtle swam so close to me that it rubbed its fin against my dad and me. That dive was defiantly the turtle dive.

A TURTLE!!!

Shark Cave 2

This dive site was quite amazing but ironic because I saw more manta rays then I did see sharks. This was the second shark cave at Layang Layang and was smaller then shark cave 1. During the dive I saw 2 white-tip reef sharks and 3 manta rays.

Manta rays always amaze me. Maybe it’s how they seem to fly in the water, or maybe it is just because they are so big. You can’t go to a specific spot in the Layang Layang reef and find them like you go out into the blue to find sharks. It is luck when you cross one. While at Layang Layang I never saw more then one manta at a time, in other words they were not in groups. And they never really stuck around for long, one minute at the most.

A big manta gliding through the water. 

The Point

The Point was a cool dive site and this is where the sharks went from cool to scary.

We were out in the blue looking for sharks and Victor pointed two grey reef sharks out to us. Then another showed up, then another and another until there was six grey reef sharks swimming around us! These sharks were quite big in size. One of the sharks swam about 10 meters (30 feet) away from me. Sounds like a pretty fair distance but under water it is close. Especially with an animal like a shark that can turn directions and come at you in a blink of an eye.

Luckily we were near an atoll were there is tons of fish food for the sharks. If we had been in the middle of nowhere it could have been a different story. 

A sleeping shark.

Layang Layang is the best dive site I have EVER BEEN TO, PERIOD.  I would defiantly recommend coming out here if you ever you have the chance. 

A stunning hot pink coral piece. 

Bird Island

Bird Island is a small artificially made island. Well I wouldn’t call it an island, more like a bunch of rocks stuck together. Terns and boobies are the main birds that are here.  But I have also seen some cormorants.  It is currently the beginning of the breeding season and little chicks were running all around the small beach screaming, “where is my food!”. While at Bird Island you could barely hear yourself talk over all the birds squawking to each other.  The entire island was covered in birds.

The amount of birds for the size of the island was quite amazing.

Most of the birds just stay here for the breading season and then go back to the mainland during the off-season. But some tough birds stay here all year round and endure horrible weather during the off-season.

This place was simply awesome and I wouldn’t have experienced it without my mom’s wanting to go here. Special thanks to Mom, Dad, our dive boat captain and Victor for making my experience at Layang Layang unforgettable.

Victor and our dive boat captain. 

Thanks for Reading 

Happy Travels

JOSHUA