Osaka Castle is magnificently beautiful and impressive in every way - from its architecture to its setting to its storied past.





It is profoundly steeped in history, and the museum in the Castle and the adjacent larger museum tell the spectacular stories well. Here is a good summary of the larger-than-life, truth-is-stranger-than fiction story of the 1614-15 Siege of Osaka Castle:
warfarehistorynetwork.com/siege-of-osaka…

In Shinto tradition, a SHIMENAWA is a rope, typically made of rice straw, that defines a sacred space or object. It means there are kami - Shinto spirits - in the vicinity. Here's one around a tree on the grounds of Osaka's beautiful Sumiyoshi Taisha.

This shimenawa shown below - at the entry of the grand shrine Izumo Taisha west of Matsue - is said to be the world's largest.

On this day in 1945: The 'Typhoon of Steel' - the invasion and ensuing Battle of Okinawa - began.
82 days of unspeakable carnage resulted in >30,000 Allied and >90,000 Japanese casualties.

The kamikazes were deployed in full and fierce force - wreaking profound physical and psychological havoc.

The Kanmon Strait between Honshu and Kyushu was the site of the decisive Battle of Dano-no-ura in 1185. This ended the Genpei War in favor of the Minamoto clan over the Taira Clan, ushering in the Kamakura Shogunate and the 683-year period of feudal Japan. 1/4





The battle for supremacy between the Minamoto and Taira clans is the subject of the epic Heike Monogatari, or Tale of the Heike, a classic of Japanese medieval literature which exalts martial heroism and weaves in threads of both samurai and Buddhist thought. 2/4

A brief break from my posts on Iberia & Morocco to share a truly superb article on the Buddhist concept of 'Anatta' ('no self') by the impressive Chris Niebauer on @BigThink. It's a brilliant exposition on the concept...
bigthink.com/the-well/easte… .. skillfully written and with an evidence-based foundation. It highlights this key component of Buddhist thought as one example of the emerging nexus between neurobiology and the teachings of Buddhism.

Valencia (from the Roman Valentia = Valor) is a city and region with its own rich history, proud traditions and culture. A walk through the capacious Old City brings the history alive with architectural gems, museums, shops and cafes.

Not to be missed: The huge Mercado Central and the 15th century Gothic masterpiece Silk Trading House (La Lonja de la Seda). The latter was built during Valencia's golden age when the Kingdom of Valencia was at its economic & cultural peak, the flagship of the Crown of Aragon.

Historically speaking, Hawaii's most important signature crop was sugar (not pineapple, as is commonly thought). Sugar catalyzed the economic & political transition that ultimately led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893 by the 'plantocracy' of American sugar barons. The bittersweet story of sugar as a moral, economic, and (we now know) biologic toxin is something I discuss in depth in my Caribbean lecture series as well as my Hawaii lecture series.

Sightings of whale sharks in Hawaiian waters have been increasing over recent years. While they're most often seen between Kauai & Ni'ihau or between Lanai & Molokai, one of these gentle giants was recently seen off the Kona coast. These nomadic creatures are the biggest fish in the sea, yet elegantly graceful (and harmless). Each one has a unique pattern of spots, like a fingerprint. Hawaii is not generally considered one of their favorite migratory hangouts.
lonelyplanet.com/articles/best-…

This shot entering magnificent Opunohu Bay in Moorea is one of my favorites in my South Pacific photo archive. But Moorea, in all its beauty, always reminds me of the beginning of the end of the once-noble Captain Cook. 1/9 Cook died on Feb 14, 1779, on the beach at Kealakekua Bay on the big island of Hawaii, which is not-so-coincidentally where we spent the day yesterday. The circumstances are oft re-told, embellished and analyzed. Young Mark Twain put it bluntly when he visited the spot in 1866:

Sloths are as fascinating as they are adorable. We learned quite a bit about about these unusual creatures from the staff at the Sloth Sanctuary near Cahuita, a scenic 30-minute ride south from the cruise port of Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

These relatively primitive mammals are related to anteaters & armadillos. There are 2 families of sloths, three-FINGERED sloths and two-FINGERED sloths (contrary to what I had thought, ALL sloths have 3 TOES, on their back feet). All extant sloths are arboreal, i.e., tree sloths.

Belize is renowned for its diving, and its huge barrier reef is the world's 2nd largest. It also has a very interesting political & cultural history. British 'Baymen' mahogany loggers challenged Spanish hegemony and eventually succeeding in wresting the territory from Spain. It would become the crown colony of British Honduras in 1862 and an independent sovereign nation in 1981. And now for some more interesting Caribbean vexillology: The flag of Belize has more colors than any other national flag - 19.

On this day: February 1, in 1778, Captain Cook arrived on Ni'ihau at the western end of Hawaii's windward island group. He bore gifts of goats and pigs, and the Hawaiians as usual gifted him lavishly with fowl, sweet potatoes, taro, and bananas . He soon left to explore the northern reaches of the Pacific. He would return from the frigid Arctic in November after failing to find a hoped-for passage to the Atlantic, understandably deciding to winter in the lovely 'Sandwich Islands'.

On this day, October 21, in the year 1600, the largest and most important battle in Japan's feudal history was fought when the Eastern Forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu met the Western forces of Ishida Mitsunari at Sekigahara, a small town on the vital Nakasendo road. The Battle of Sekigahara was the decisive turning point in a centuries-long process of unification and was the definitive battle contributing to the end of the Sengoku (Warring States) Period which lasted roughly from 1467-1615.

How can you find the equator on any unmarked map such as this physical map of the world in mercator projection with no place, border, or latitude markings ? 1/5 Easy: Just draw a line through the top of Lake Victoria and/or the top of New Guinea's Bird's Head Peninsula and/or just below Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, and you have it. 2/5

We're sailing through some fascinating geography as we round the eastern end of New Guinea en route back to Australia through the Solomon Sea & Coral Sea. I learned something interesting (for a geography nerd) today: there are TWO Dampier Straits around New Guinea. See the 2 light blue lines on the map below. One Dampier Strait is off of the Bird's Head Peninsula in Indonesia's Western Papua. The other is off Papua New Guinea's New Britain island and connects the Bismarck Sea & Solomon Sea.

Betelnut is actually a portmanteau word combining 2 key ingredients in betelnut-chewing: the betel leaf (from a vine in the pepper family) and the areca palm 'nut' (actually a seed). The 3rd key ingredient is lime to alkalinize the mixture and make it much more absorbable. But in New Guinea, the part of the betel plant that is chewed is not the leaf but rather the long bean-like CATKIN (good Scrabble word) which is actually a pendulous cylindrical flower cluster. The catkin is also used as a utensil - a kind of a dipping stick for the lime.

New Guinea and its eastern offshore islands in the Bismarck Sea played a key role in human prehistory & the eventual peopling of the entire vast Pacific all the way to Easter Island. 1/7 The first humans to settle New Guinea arrived about 42,000 yrs ago and were part of what is known as the Melanesian Migration. Humans reached the Bismarck Archipelago about 37,000 yrs ago and the northern Solomon Islands by about 34,000 yrs ago. 2/7

New Guinea is BIG. It's the world's 2nd largest island and it is even bigger than you think. It is actually much larger than it looks on standard mercator maps which shrink equatorial lands & expand polar lands. 1/4 Here is the true relative size of New Guinea compared to the world's other large islands. Note how it looks similar in size to Great Britain (world's 9th largest island) on the mercator world map above, but in reality it's 3.8X as large.

More on amazing Cendrawasih Bay: It's quite literally 'The Home of the Whale Shark' since the Cendrawasih whale sharks are the only known non-migratory whale sharks in the world. They stay year-round, gathering daily to feed off the south shore fishing hamlet of Kwatisore. 1/7 They circle under the 'bagans' (mobile fishing platforms) to share the catch of tiny sardines & other baitfish. Best of all: you can swim with these gentle giants. A magical experience as these behemoths - largest fish on the planet - circle around you in warm clear waters. 2/7

More on CENDRAWASIH (also spelled CendErawasih) Bird of Paradise Bay: The tranquil beauty of the area today belies some very dark WWII history. This was a strategic and hotly contested region. The island of Biak (Pulau Biak) was an important Japanese stronghold. In the bloody, horrific Battle of Biak from May-Aug 1944, the Americans ousted the Japanese, as a prelude to the invasion of the Philippines in the Second Philippines Campaign of Oct 1944-August 1945.
warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-ba…

Made it to Triton Bay in Indonesia's West Papua province where the karst wonderland of jungle-enshrouded limestone formations bejewels the sea and is exceptional in several ways. The karst islets sit in the sea in a coastal region that itself is a vast unspoiled wilderness. 1/5 There is an impressive mountainous backdrop and the naturally-sculpted limestone formations are carpeted with a riot of flora, thanks to the heat & intense humidity & great intrinsic biodiversity of the area. 2/5