Blazing Trails from a King's Grave to a Ramen Shop

 Traveling Without a Plan

 

 

The routine on Friday's, around here, goes something like this.

Camera shooting partner, Doc Graff, usually shows up around 9AM.

We have no idea, where we will be going, until time to hit the road comes along.

Our main objective, is to get out of town. Anywhere, sounds good. Go have fun.

The burial place of Okinawa's First King, seemed like a good place to start the day.

We had been out searching for it about a month ago and, hiked right past it.

It was a  bit easier to locate today because Click Okinawa Dude, made a video about the place. 

 Watch his YouTube show if, you want to get an appreciation for the terrain.

The poor king and his family got kicked out of the castle and, his remains got booted, too.

His final resting place, wouldn't be with the other royalty on the castle grounds.

Friends and family mover his remains from Shuri to Yomitan and, buried him in the woods.

Visit Okinawa Hai! for all the directions and details about the Tomb.

 From the tomb, on the western side of the island, we headed over to the east coast.

We went looking for this cultural asset, called Waitui.

Those folks, in the picture, dug a trail through a mountain, by hand, finishing the job in 1932.

 Not very proficient at direction giving, I Geo-tagged the position.

 

It's located at:  N 26.31739700   E 127.88994700, for those who use GPS thingies.

Thinking about all the hard work, everyone did, I needed a break from the hot sun.

So, we decided to try out a Ramen Shop, we had never been to before.

Whenever, you see a place like this, filled up at lunchtime, you know It's going to be good.

Sitting a table with, my legs stretched out one the floor was a bit challenging.

It looked like a wrestling match between, me, the table and the wall, as I was trying to get up.

The photo had to be taken, before my piping hot lunch, got cold.

Just smelling the food, had my mouth watering and, I was half-starved to death.

The pork dumplings, we call Gyoza, were delicious and, I put some hot sauce on mine.

Somehow, during the night before, they slipped something in my beer, that casued a hangover !

The fried rice was the best, I have ever eaten. And, all that food cost less than 7 bucks.

There was too much, for me, to finish it all. Now, I wish, I had packed the leftovers as a takeout.

For those, wondering where, I got this meal, check TripAdvisor's Review. 

They'll even give you a map. I don't do directions. Remember ?

Pacific Reef Egret (Egreta sacra) AKA Kuro Sagi

Sometimes Patience Pays Off

 

 

Out in the blazing midday sun, I wasn't too satisfied with light for shooting this bird.

Out on a seawall, I was looking back towards the shore, when I first spotted the critter.

The tripod was set up and, I took enough photos to put together a GIF.

The afternoon light was harsh and, I knew a black bird wouldn't make a great image.

But, some folks like to see how these birds walk and stalk.

It did wind up catching one small fish, which it quickly swallowed.

Ten minutes later, the bird flew over the blue sea, straight towards me.

Of course, it heard the shutter snapping on my camera, in rapid fire and, turned.

The image above, I'll save and the other 199 photos can go in the trash.

The photos were taken using a Pentax K3 and 300mm lens with a 1.4 converter.

That gave me a focal length of 420mm.

The images were Geo-tagged South-West Miyazato, Okinawa, Japan.

When, I pulled that up on Google Earth, I zoomed in on the map.

And, it looks like those satellites knew the exact spot, I was standing on at that seawall.

Technology these days is really amazing.

Wouldn't it be nice if, people didn't use it, to evil things ? 


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Chasing Lowly Manhole Covers

Somebody on Facebook Started It

 

 

A manhole cover from Chiba, Japan, I shared on Facebook got a comment.

It seems there's some group taking photos and adding Geo-tags to manhole covers.

 With a typhoon approaching, landscape photography was out of the question, for today.

But, high winds, don't have much effect on manhole covers,  So, off I went to shoot some.

Nothing fancy, just your every day, grungy and unpainted ones.

The handheld Garmin GPS was brought along to get latitude and longitude coordinates.

A dozen locations were documented, along the northern boundaries of Kin Town.

Just a few samples will be posted here.

The artwork on these sewer covers is pretty impressive.

But, we don't have any problems with people stealing them to decorate their homes.

Many other places, around the globe have manhole cover thievery problems.

Beijing, China loses about a quarter million manhole covers in one year.

The scrap-metal industry and, thieves, gobble them up.

It got so bad, they invented smart manhole covers to help catch the rustlers.

They began embedding GPS chips in them.

 And, when a manhole cover is moved, it notifies the authorities.

Bogota, Colombia was having 10,000 manhole covers, lifted each year.

They started placing satellite tracking devices in them, too and are catching the crooks.

The Taipei Taiwan Solution

 

 

Engineers in Taipei developed a new type of manhole cover, made of cement.

The metal covers, were slippery and causing vehicle accidents on highways.

So, they started replacing the manhole covers and burying them underground.

Special tags, with embedded radio frequencies help locate the covers when necessary.

Theft problem and 17 accidents a month caused by manhole covers -- GONE ! 

This Could Become a Trend

Suppose countries around the globe, decide to bury the manhole covers.

Maybe, that's why somebody came up with the idea of Geo-tagging photos of them.

The search ended with Finley + Muse.

These guys may be on to something if, they're doing it world-wide.

Who knows ?

This could be the beginning of The Society for the Preservation of Manhole Covers.