July 28th, 2009 Scott
For people who are serious about bicycling, a rain bike is a luxury item that actually has some tangible benefits. Such a bike is used for rainy days so you can still train but not get your $15,000 unobtanium gold plated carbon fiber kevlar laced super deluxe Schwinn all wet and rusty. I suppose you could just upgrade all the bits that rust to titanium and not worry about it, but I don’t know if you can get titanium bearing races or not.
At any rate, most rain bikes are simply lower end model race bikes so that the expense of replacing rusted out parts is less painful. I wanted to pursue something even more efficient by using a internally geared rear hub and no derailleurs. This arrangement is very clean (looks like a single speed) and at the same time fairly water proof to the tricky little expensive bits (like integrated shift levers and $300 + a pop). So I was going to build up a bike based on a single speed frame and use a Shimano Nexus rear hub. In the process of doing my research, I found that someone had already built my dream rain bike. The only problem is that they only sell it to walk in customers. Since I live in Okinawa and their shop is in West Newton, Mass., it’s unlikely I’ll get there. Hopefully I can talk them into selling it to me over the Internet.
My dream rain bike
Posted in Health and wellness, Triathlon | No Comments »
July 21st, 2009 Scott
I’ve taken a lot of pictures with my iPhone that I thought would be interesting to blog about but have negelected to get them on to the blog. So, I have a collection of several photos dating back to last November that I’ll post here and give you a caption for each one. Enjoy.
Is it a lime (the peel is green) or an orange?
An Okinawan coffee farm
Another shot of the farm
The whole family at the coffee farm
My band marches in the international day parade
Our banner in the parade
Jelly on your root beer float, anyone?
Check out the warning on the bottom
S C plays the saxophone in Vietnam
More Cambodia airport food choices
My mariachi guitarron debut!
A "Gina" sized couch
Seether in concert at Camp Schwab
Fish heads anyone?
Interesting combination of menu items at Tokyo airport
Posted in Okinawa, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments »
July 18th, 2009 Scott
I live a few miles south of Camp Hansen on Okinawa. It is one of several Marine Corps bases on the island. From time to time some of the bases will be the object of local demonstrations objecting to the presence of the bases or complaining about the noise around the air base. Two days ago I rode my bike up to Camp Hansen to use the pool there for my swim workout. Everything was normal on the way in but when I left there were about 30 or so Okinawans lining either side of the driveway to the main gate with various signs that read:
“Go home marines!” or “No more War!” and other similar slogans. As usual with these demonstrations, the people were very courteous and polite. There was a TV news camera set up but they weren’t recording anything. I think they were there just in case something video worthy present itself like a foolish American getting out of his car to make a scene. I don’t think this ever happens though. We get emails from the command from time to time at work letting us know about these type of demonstrations and what their impact of traffic will be as well as any potential safety concerns there are about Americans being near the event. I would estimate that we get notification for about 10 or 15 of these demonstrations/rallies/parades per year and almost all of them are very peaceful and organized.
It does make me stop and think about my presence here though. I remember my first day on the island looking at the base with it’s high fence and guarded gates to keep people out thinking it odd that we possessed a piece of property in a foreign country for our own military uses (yeah I know, we are here for the Japanese defense too). Imagine if you had a foreign (truly foreign) military base sitting right next to your home in the USA. Would that strike you as a little odd? Well, there are some Okinawans who feel the same way. They consistently site that a majority of the US bases in Japan are all on Okinawa while the island itself only represents a very small portion of Japanese land. Over the last several years, many of the more valuable areas once occupied by bases have been returned to the Okinawans and a huge move of marines from here is supposed to occur in the next 5 – 10 years. This change should alleviate some of the tensions currently in place, but the bottom line is that the native people here have been putting up with either Japanese or American occupation for the last 400 years or so and they many of them likely long to go back to being an independent region doing nothing but farming and fishing. Things have changed significantly here in the last 50 years since the war though and that transition would likely be much more difficult than many people would be willing to undergo.
Back in the early 70′s, before the reversion of control want back to Japan, there were some fairly violent riots as evidenced by a recent photographic exposition Gina and I went to a few months ago. Scenes of car fires, angry mobs with Molotov Cocktails, and general unhappiness were photographed over and over again. The reversion from US control back to Japanese control appeared to cause some issues as well. The change in currency from dollars to yen created a huge vacuum for businesses that relied on US soldiers for a customer base and they suddenly saw that base disappear. There are business districts on the island that are still frozen in time from 1972 because that’s the day they stopped operating and the areas essentially dried up economically. Outside of Gate 2 of Kadena AB has some areas that show this effect as well as some areas right outside main gate of Hansen. There are also many areas that have shown amazing recent growth as well. The Okinawans have little hesitation in creating new land to make shopping malls, factories, or other business centers. There is a constant movement of earth from land to the ocean around here as the island grows little by little with each bucket of fill. I don’t think the EPA would allow us to do such work on the coast lines of the US.
Posted in Military Culture, Okinawa, Okinawan Culture | No Comments »
July 11th, 2009 Scott
On June 14 while competing in a triathlon in Gamagori Japan, I had a sudden loss of balance and coordination hit me as I ended the bike leg of the race. I was unable to control the bike or even stand up for a few minutes. It was very scary and my initial diagnosis was dehydration. Upon return to the states some two weeks later, I visited my doctor and failed one portion of the neurological exam with him(my eyes bounced around while looking at his finger to an extreme left or right). He ordered an MRI of my head and several blood tests. The blood tests showed that I have hypo thyroidism and am significantly low in my vitamin B-12 level. Both these conditions can create neurological issues so I had hoped that might be the end of it. Then when I returned to discuss the MRI with him, the results showed a 15mm x 5mm object in my cerebellum that was indicative of a stroke event. This was not good news. We scheduled an appointment with a neurologist for two days later and he ran a full set of neurological tests on me. I didn’t fail the eye portion this time, but when he put a tuning fork to my head, it sounded lower in pitch and softer in my right ear. It also was louder in my left ear when he held it centrally on my head. His review of my MRI was that I had an unusual blood vessel in one portion of my cerebellum, but that it was not indicative of a stroke event. Because of the tuning fork result and his assessment of the MRI, he feels I have a problem with my right inner ear.
So, the good news is that my head is okay. The bad news is that either I have Meniere’s Disease or they don’t know why I had the issue. Either way, I’ve been cleared to exercise however I’d like and that I need to get a couple of audio tests done on return to Okinawa to rule out Meniere’s. I have done some research on this disease this morning and it’s an ugly, ugly disease involving debilitating bouts of vertigo lasting minutes to days and there really isn’t a cure or 100% effective treatment available. Hopefully it will turn out to be something less significant that is wrong with my ear that can be treated.
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