Summer Holiday

Well the tragic part about summer holidays in Korea, is their length. The kids here work really really hard, and unless you're at a public school, then the kids get one week off in the summer, and one week off in the winter. And that's it. Two weeks off all year. Compared to the 14 weeks off that kids in the west get.

So I made the most of my summer vacation, and jetted off to Okinawa. Part of Japan, but a 3 hour flight from Tokyo, stranded in the middle of the pacific, and with its own language, its really another world. And a beautiful world it is too. This is the view from my hotel room on Akajima. 

I had a wonderful time, there's a lot of history from World War II, where the Battle of Okinawa was the largest and bloodiest land battle of the Pacific theatre, claiming over 200,000 lives. There's also a lot of history from the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom, that flourished from the 14th-18th century until mainland Japan took control. So I visited many monuments, and old castles and tombs.

There's also an abundance of wildlife, including wild deer, that I saw just walking around on the beach, aswell as giant Okinawan tree spiders, of which I also saw a fair few. The waters are also perfect for diving, and the the number and variety of aquatic life I saw when I went snorkelling and scuba diving was simply breathtaking. Aswell as a multitude of fish, sea snakes, eels, and coral, I got incredibly close to a giant sea turtle, which was a wonderful experience.

They also make their own special alcohol on Okinawa, using the venom from a poisonous snake species native to the islands. You can buy jars of the stuff, complete with coiled snake at the bottom;

But after the vacation it was straight back to work, and back to playing games and singing songs with the kids! Its also nearly the end of the rainy season in Korea, which means we'll soon be done with temperatures over 30 degrees coupled with rain every day, which is not a nice combo. And it also means the baseball season is back this weekend, so while England can bask in the glory of retaining the Ashes in a real bat/ball sport, I'll be back out on the diamond this Saturday, playing crossbat shots at full tosses.

Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

This week, I thought I'd share with you a picture of one of little Tyrion's big cousins, a giant sea turtle from the tank in the Sea Turtle Museum on Kumejima;