Really enjoyed narrating our transit of the Kanmon Strait this morning. The storied Strait separates Honshu and Kyushu and connects the Sea of Japan to the Inland (Seto) Sea. So much history here in this narrow (just 0.37 mile wide) gateway.
The Battle of Dan-no-ura took place here in 1185, wherein the Minamoto clan defeated the Taira clan, ushering in the Kamakura shogunate & a new feudal age that would last 700 years. The epic naval battle ended the Genpei War and is recounted in the classic Tale of the Heike. 2/6

On this day in 1945: WW II ended, on the deck of battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, with a formal 23-minute ceremony and the signing of the Instrument of Surrender. MacArthur was the primary signatory for all the Allies; Nimitz (rightfully) also signed, representing the USA. Today you can visit the USS Missouri, now a museum, at Pearl Harbor. Along with the sunken USS Arizona which is now a moving memorial, these 2 ships are the bookends of WWII in the Pacific, marking Dec 7 1941 and Sept 2 1945.

So much to see in the Belém district of Lisbon! Definitely worth a good half-day there to see the impressive and moving Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries), the magnificent 16th-century Jéronimos Monastery (with DaGama's tomb) and the storied Belém Tower. 1/5


All are within a few minutes walk of each other on the scenic north bank of the Tagus River. Also a few minutes by foot is the excellent Museu de Marinha (Maritime Museum), where you'll be greeted in the entryway by O Infante (Prince Henry) himself. 2/5

In the summer of 1486, a spirited Italian mariner named Christopher Columbus presented his far-fetched but strangely intriguing plan which he called 'The Enterprise of the Indies' to Spain's reigning monarchs, Ferdinand & Isabela, at their Royal Alcázar (Castle) in Córdoba. 1/5 Today you can still walk through the portals, halls, and gardens that Columbus did. The monarchs were too busy with the final phase of the Reconquista (taking southern Spain back from its long-time Moorish colonizers) to seriously consider the upstart Italian's wild proposal. 2/5

Jagalchi Market in Busan, South Korea, is my favorite fish market in the world. Or I should say: SEAFOOD market, because every marine creature imaginable (and then some) can be found there. Featured prominently is this favorite Korean snack, called MEONGGE:
Is it animal, mineral, vegetable, or alien being? In fact it's an animal, specifically a sea squirt (though also misleadingly called sea pineapple) - a zoologically interesting tunicate proto-vertebrate with the rudiments of a notochord during its larval stage.

Each of the four largest seated Daibutsu (Giant Buddhas) in Japan is exquisite, and all are well worth a visit. #1: The Showa Buddha in Aomori #2: The Nara Daibutsu at Todai-ji

First time in Guam (just chilling for a week between lecture tours in the Carolines and Japan). I'm delighted and impressed, on multiple counts. Let me count the ways in which the largest island in Micronesia is a great destination: 🧵 1- It's extremely beautiful and geologically interesting, with a rugged green volcanic south and an uplifted, sculpted limestone north. That means stunning mountains & beaches, with the latter mostly encircled by a barrier reef which makes for great swimming and snorkeling.

Chuuk Lagoon's serene, idyllic beauty is in contrast to its violent past as Japan's main WWII garrison in the central Pacific. It was heavily bombed Feb 17-18, 1944 in Operation Hailstone as the Allies advanced toward Japan via the Gilberts, Marshalls, Carolines and Marianas.


The deep, capacious lagoon comprises 19 higher volcanic islands, 10 atolls, and over 100 coralline islets.

Bougainville Island is an interesting (and beautiful!) place. Geographically and geologically, it is part of the Solomons archipelago. It is in fact the largest of the Solomons, followed by Guadalcanal.
But politically, it is part of the nation of Papua New Guinea, not part of the Commonwealth Nation of the Solomon Islands.

A flight into history: Just flew From Brisbane to Honiara International Airport. Honiara is the capital of the Solomon Islands and is on the site of Henderson Field, the strategically critical airfield that fueled the grueling and savage 6-month Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942-3.

The airfield was taken from the Japanese, who had invaded and occupied Guadalcanal in July 1942. The Americans re-named the airfield in honor of Lt. Lofton Henderson, the marine air squadron commander who had been the first to perish in the June '42 Battle of Midway.

Back in beautiful Rangiroa today, the largest atoll in Polynesia (and 3rd largest in the world after Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands & Huvadhu in the Maldives). You could fit all of Tahiti into Rangi's capacious lagoon which is surrounded by 400 coral islets called motus. 1/5
Rangiroa means 'Vast Sky' and it lives up to its name. It's about 48 miles long by 20 miles wide and its circumference is over 120 miles. The photos below were taken from inside its 'inland sea' lagoon - it might have been called 'Big Water'. 2/5

Back on beautiful Fakarava today, 2nd largest atoll in French Polynesia (after Rangiroa) & notable for being R.L. Stevenson's first stop after the Marquesas on his Pacific voyage on The Casco in 1888. He wrote of it in an essay 'An Atoll at Hand' in his book 'In The South Seas'.
Fakarava is in the Tuamotu archipelago. Its huge rectangular lagoon sits where a mountainous volcanic island once loomed but has subsided completely beneath the sea over millions of years, leaving only a ring of coral motus.

How did the Marquesa Islands get their name? It was given to them by Spanish mariner Alvaro de Mendaña, the first European to reach the islands, in 1595. He named them after the Marquesa de Cañete, the wife of his patron. 1/6 Mendaña's voyages would go far beyond Polynesia in search of the mythical southern continent of Terra Australis. But his voyages would be blood-soaked, and end in mayhem in the Solomon Islands. An excellent account by Robert Graves:

St. Kitts & Nevis is a Caribbean island nation in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. It is the smallest, least populous, and newest (1983) country in the Americas. St. Kitts was both England's and France's first toehold in the Caribbean- the 'mother colony' for both.

It's lush and beautiful, straddling the Caribbean and Atlantic. Below is a view looking southeast from St. Kitts to Nevis. The clouds that gather on the volcanic Nevis Peak give the mountain its name, derived from the Spanish word 'nieves' for snows.

The Battle of Les Saintes in 1782 was a key battle in Caribbean history. It took place in the Dominica Passage between Dominica and Guadeloupe. It takes its name from the (beautiful!) Les Saintes archipelago of Guadeloupe.
The battle pitted two naval titans against each other: France's Comte de Grasse and Britain's Admiral George Rodney. Comte de Grasse was fresh off a crucial French victory in the Battle of Chesapeake Bay (aka Battle of Virginia Capes)...
navy.mil/Press-Office/N…

The French held sway over numerous domains in the Caribbean for extended periods (hence the many French place names on former 'English' islands such as Roseau, Dominica and Basse-Terre, St Kitts). The domains below were all under French hegemony for at least 10 yrs. But only the 4 in yellow remain French today:

The past 3 days are a time to reflect on the tough questions we must each answer for ourselves regarding the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on Aug 9. These were separate events & decisions, and these key questions can be asked for each of the bombings: Truman and Churchill did not mince words when they warned 11 days before the Hiroshima bombing:

The epic 'Churning of the Ocean Milk' myth dates back at least to the Vishnu Parana c. 1000BC and long before that in oral tradition. It details a momentous tug-of-war between the gods (devas) and demons (asuras), with a twist: both sides were working together on a common goal. The goal was to bring forth amrita, the elixir of immortality, with a vow to share it. The demons, who were in control of the world at the time, helped the gods tear off Mt. Mandara, one of the 5 peaks of Mt. Meru where the gods dwelled, to use as a churning stick. 2/11

The maneki-neko 'beckoning cat' is quintessentially Japanese, but like everything else it had Chinese antecedents in the auspicious 'fortune cats' of Chinese folk tales. In Kanazawa (which means marsh of gold) the cats sport an elegant gold leaf patina. Note the waving hand varies, and it matters:

SAMPURU, from the English word 'sample', is Japanese food replica art. It's distinctly Japanese, artistically interesting, & whimsically fun. It's also quite practical- to inform and entice customers. I've had 2 pieces of sushi on my desk for 25 years- and they're still fresh. Sampuru dates at least from the Edo Period and replicas were originally made from wax. Modern sampuru are mostly made of plastic and natural resins. Guess which food items below are real and which are sampuru fakes? 2/4

If you’re a Lab-lover, you might want to worship at the altar of this idol. To do so you’d have to go to Chinatown in Incheon, South Korea. The area dates back to the China-Korea Treaty of 1882. That’s when Chinese traders settled in the port area of this city by the Yellow Sea. The area is no longer residential, but...