III MEF Band Summer Concert

Every year, the III MEF Band hosts its summer concert for the public.  This years concert was held at the Okinawa Convention Center just adjacent to Ginowan Seaside Park.

The concert included everything from jazz to traditional music, quintets to the full band performances.  The band played, marched, and sang in the attempt to bring an enjoyable evening of music to its community.

Cape Zampa Lighthouse (Zanpa)

In 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, US troops occupied the Kerama Islands located about 40 km south of this cape.  They used the lighthouse there as a guide to the shore and landed on the beach to the south of Cape Zampa (Zanpa).

Cape Zampa is located just North of Torii Station not to far from Zakimi Castle.  This area has several beaches, intriguing volcanic rock cliffs, a fort, a lighthouse, and even a kids petting zoo among other things to see and do.

We decided to start our adventure walking towards the lighthouse.  It is located within a natural park with tons of green foliage everywhere.  I never knew so many plants could thrive on top of a volcanic cliff side... although it does make sense with how fertile the soil should be.  Anyways, there are several paths that flow through the greenery that you can walk through.  We skipped those in favor of exploring the rocky cliff side and watching the fisherman perched along its edges.  Just sitting and taking in the view and smelling the salty sea air was so peaceful and serene.  However, O can't sit still for very long so we had to give it up and go check something else out.

We ended up at the petting zoo.  Although there is no actual way to enter the zoo, it is built in such a way that the animals are all very accessible.  The little shop next to it also sells carrots slices that you can feed to the critters.  There were two different kinds of goats, rabbits, and turtles.  O was content to just stare at the goats and got a little scared when they came close to eat the carrot sticks from our hands.  After a while though she warmed up to them and wanted to feed them as well... go figure we were almost out of carrots by then, lol.

After our trip to the petting zoo, we started to head down one of the paths by the lighthouse and then suddenly decided to go off the beaten path along the cliff side towards a fort we could see in the distance.  It was beautiful and relatively easy to trek as O, who just started walking, was even able to navigate the terrain fairly well.

Unfortunately, we never made it to the fort.  O was starting to get sunburnt and hungry, so we opted to head back to the car and find some chow.  But it was a wonderful family outing.  I hope to do it again sometime.