I can only imagine...

When you look for stuff about Okinawa on the web because your 16-year-old is on a nearly silent school trip in Nanjō-shi, you tend to find things. Like, the Battle of Okinawa (1945) killed a quarter of a million Japanese^&dagger — more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

At least the United States and Japan are friends, now, right? Friends? I hope the illusion lasts. I'd like to see the Sapporo Ice Festival someday.

^†And simultaneously snuffed out the last authentic traces of indigenous Ryukuan culture...

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Woot! The trip blogging has begun!