March, Part 3: Japanese Underground Naval HQ/ Prefectural Museum of Natural History/ Mos Burger

Tuesday, March 10. We drove down to Naha to the Japanese Underground Naval Headquarters. This was a series of tunnels hand-dug beneath the ground that served as a Japanese base during WWII. Because of the nature of the tunnels, we were not able to get an decent pictures. In essence, the base was comprised of several main tunnels that branched out into rooms. Without the signs telling you where to walk, it would have been disorienting for quite some time. It was a somber visit, nearly crouching in some of the low places, looking at the chips in the wall where Japanese peasants had used hand tools to carve them, stopping in a room with damaged walls from a grenade in an act of suicide. It reminded us what Okinawa had been through in the war, even though now you would hardly know. 

The view from a tower outside the tunnels.

Our next stop was the Okinawa  Prefectural Museum of Natural History. In a similar fashion to the Smithsonians, the Okinawa Prefectural Museums are separated into categories. Although much smaller, we only visited on this trip, the Natural History museum. It felt very similar to it's equivalent in the Smithsonian, covering the history of the people as well as the wildlife hundreds of years back. Most of the signs were in Japanese, but there was still plenty to look at, though many of the areas banned photos.

We had dinner at a local chain we had been wanting to try called Mos Burger. It was typical in what you would imagine a chain burger place would be like, but being on a Japanese island, the menu was indeed different. There were many of the normal items, but some, my shrimp patty burger and Nathan's burger with some sort of cabbage salad on it, for example, were new. And of course, these were enjoyed with a favorite drink, melon soda, which is supposedly a flavor of Fanta that isn't available in the US. I tried a cherry drink that reminded me of an Italian soda as it was very light. Add in onion rings, fries, and milkshakes, and it's not too different than a burger joint back home, but with just the right amount of foreign to make it interesting.