Naha City, Okinawa, Japan

Naha City, Okinawa, Japan, 2010

Higashi, Okinawa, Japan

Higashi, Okinawa, Japan, 2010

From Cape To City

This was a walk that +Nathan Keirn, +Chris Lynch and I took in the beginning of 2010. We walked from the most southern point of Okinawa to as far north as we could handle. We started at sunrise and made it to Naha City sometime at high sun. Walked about 15 miles or so in a little bit under 6 or 7 hours taking everything in. I'm going to write about this more in depth next. Stay tuned.

A simple walk. We didn't have any plans but to start at sunrise with the sun and make our way north. We arrived at Cape Kyan about 30 minutes before sunrise with some bentos for breakfast we picked up along the way. At the beginning of the cape are some ruins from the ancient Ryukyu kingdom. Past this is the rocky coast of the most southern tip of the island. We found the construction crew had installed a picnic table style pavilion in which we utilized for our sunrise breakfast. A lonely surfer in the ocean shared the first light with us. Obligatory shot of the sunrise and we were on our way.

I can only write about the finer points of the trip, the rest has been locked too well in my memories. The first thing I remember was a dog. Now, my fear of dogs is well known, but this dog was different. Similar to the kid you didn’t choose to be on your team in freeze tag, but you still call him a friend. That was this dog. He didn’t ask questions, he didn’t talk much, and he just followed us. We walked for a good amount of time with him; he even tried to accompany Chris into a convenience store to get an icy/hot pack for his agitating knee. I can’t remember this to a tee, but I believe he decided to stop following us when we came upon a used car lot with some goats encaged in a small concrete cell.

As much as the canine was interested in the goats, we were more interested in why they were left in a shabby built container. Chris gave the goats some water and I think some grass from the ground to feed them a bit. Being from Texas, I guess he felt comfortable feeding farm animals. I’m from Texas too, but I held back the urge to flip the goat upside down, slit its throat, open the stomach and make fritada a la my Mexican heritage. And I can’t cook so I let Chris do his deed. The dog stayed and wandered a little with us then finally turned back after this.

We also managed to embarrass some local farmers by making them feel like class A celebrities. I feel this was before the dog left us, also I feel this is where the dog entered the picture. Anyway, the next point I remember is attempting to take a shortcut only to find out the bridge had been either destroyed or not completed. Chris’s knee was a growing pain so I managed to locate an alternate form of transportation for him thanks to a small bunch of abandoned bikes at an abandoned bowling alley.

We also came upon an old man with a very interesting story. He was with a group of young men working in some sort of shop located on the port near the unfinished or destroyed bridge. His story was so interesting that I really can’t recall any of it. Nate and Chris, can you guys recall it? The gentleman is pictured below.

After this, it starts to become fuzzy again. A meat market, some streets in Naha, and Chris abandoned the bike proclaiming, “I giveth life, and I take it away.” We ended up extremely winded at the main bus terminal of the city and contemplated using the bus system to bring us to the car at the cape for a complete return trip. However, at the last minute we decided to take a taxi back. We slept on the way back to the car and once there, made the drive home.

I wish I could remember more, but what I do remember won’t ever disappear, I’m sure.

Okinawa, Japan, 2010

Kaihocho, Okinawa, Japan

Kaihocho, Okinawa, Japan, 2009

Tri Flower Zen

HiFi Flowers, 2009

Suite

And Lightroom 4 at a discounted, discounted price. Now to get the HD camera, again...SL1?

Abandoned Home Near Chibana Ruins

Chibana, Okinawa, Japan, 2009

Katsuren, Okinawa, Japan

Katsuren, Okinawa, Japan, 2009

Dead Gobi

Dead Gobi from kevin foggie on Vimeo.

So with me dabbing into video editing a little bit, I am starting to go deeper into the rabbit hole. I've been using iMovie for my home video editing but recently switch to Premiere Pro. I had an old hacked copy of CS5 and enjoyed it very much so I went out and purchased Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium. Of course heavily discounted with my local higher education program, and war veteran discount and a few other discounts I qualified for, I got it for a price UNDER Final Cut Pro X. Looking forward to producing something with the whole suite of applications.

I was unable to port over my family home video from iMove to Premiere so I recreated the whole thing and it looks a lot nicer and I can do a lot more things with Premiere. Admittedly, I am not even a beginner when it comes to this stuff, I still feel satisfied with what I was able to create and with downtime at work, I am able to read and view more tutorials and information. Hopefully when CS6 gets here (its a shipped dvd) I will benefit from the library of templates and help files it comes with.

Luckily for me, I have a few friends in some form of video production, the most prominent, I'm lucky to say, is Wylie Maercklein. So I've been turning to these fellas for info, tips and opinions. Kevin, who I know because of Nate, created the above video. This video is amazing. It makes me want more and the ending chills and gives me goose bumps. A video like this is what I want to do one day, make the viewer feel something deep inside, probably to the background music of Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones.

PS:
Kevin, inside Adobe Premiere there is something called bins. A bin is just a folder inside the Project of Premiere. All, and I mean ALL, of my bins are named BinBin. hahaha "very pappy for cooperation"