{Yomitan}

I went with my friend to explore the Yomitan area. There are lots of things to do and see here. This is a special beach she showed me. Can you see the southern part of Okinawa way out there?

 The water is absolutely beautiful on a sunny day.  All that green in there is seaweed. She said there are two months out of the year where the seaweed is all over the place, and apparently one of those months is right now.

 Here is a little village we went to by the water. You have to pay to go in. We didn't pay but we were close by. It's full of these traditional japanese homes and buildings.

 See that little white dot straight out in the middle of the water? It's a sailboat. I could have just stood at the top of the hill and stared at this scene all day long. I will show you a closer look of this small red building down there. I don't know what the japanese call those, but i am sure they don't call them "buildings".

 Here it is...the perfect spot for family pictures at sunset or sunrise. At sunrise the sun is right behind me, and at sunset it would be right behind the building. I love the red and blue combination. The colors are awesome.

 She also took me to a cave. During the war the caves(there are many) were hideouts for the japanese. The japanese government lied to their own people telling them not to surrender to the Americans, and that it would be better to kill themselves than to get caught by the Americans because the Americans would do terrible horrible things to them. So, the people believed their government.  Here is a cave where many families were hiding out during the war. Some American soldiers came to the entrance of the cave and told them that it's okay to come out and that they won't hurt them. Of course, they didn't believe them because of what the japanese told them. So, they all killed themselves with grenades, and some even slit the throats of their own kids because they thought it was better than getting caught by americans.  All those colors you see in the picture are tons of 1,000 cranes. 1,000 cranes is a sign/symbol of peace for the japanese. You will see these often near sacred caves like these or at the Peace Prayer Park. There was also a stone that showed the ages of every person that was killed in this cave. They grouped them into their families and the majority of the families had 4-5 kids ranging from age 3-16 years old. It's very sad to think this happened here.

 There is another story of another cave around here where there were hundreds of people hiding out. TWO of the men in this cave were japanese but had lived in Hawaii for a few years and worked with Americans.  When the American soldiers came and told them it's okay to come out they all wanted to kill themselves, but these two japanese men told them not to do it. They told them that they worked with Americans in Hawaii and didn't believe that the Americans would do what the Japanese government told them. The two men went out of the cave , talked with the americans and then went back in and told the people in this cave that it's okay and they won't harm them. They all went out and none of them were killed. My friend said it's called the cave of 1,000 people because apparently that's how many were in there. There is also a memorial set up at that cave honoring the two men that saved all those people.

 Here below is a memorial that was built a long time ago by a japanese man, for the families that killed themselves in the caves.  One day a man came and started destroying it saying it was a disgrace to the emperor. So, i guess someone else came out and built these rocks around the memorial that was partially destroyed. You can look inside those rectangular holes to see what the original memorial was before it was partially destroyed. And they also surrounded it with rocks so that nobody would be able to come and try to destroy it again. It's very interesting. This area was a beautiful area too, but really everything here is beautiful. Right next to it is a stream/river.

In another news, Shane made it home safely to us on Sunday night. We are so glad to have him back home with us! He arrived at 11 p.m. at night. It was late, but didn't feel like it to any of us because we were so excited. :)

Just last night we were talking about what animal each of us would be IF we were an animal. Gavin said, "I think dad should be a bald eagle." And i thought Shane would be an alligator. hahaha!
Tanner said, "I think mom should be a sperm whale." Silence.  now, there really are sperm whales. Remember also that Tanner is only five. :) Sperm whales are nice. Shane and I just giggled about that. Shane said, "why would mom be a sperm whale?"  He said, "Because they are nice and i like sperm whales." Then Gavin and Tanner started spouting off more whales i would be..."humback whale" "blue whale" "grey whale"....Dad said, "What about a killer whale?" Tanner said, "NOOO!! They are mean!!!" 
Shane declared Tanner would be a squirrel. I thought Tanner would be a fox.  Shane thinks Jaydon would be a rhinoceros. I thought Jaydon would be a HIPPO.  We couldn't quite figure out what Gavin would be. I thought he would be a monkey. I can't remember what shane thought Gavin would be. It was a really funny conversation.