Day Trip
This poem erases the Japan National Tourism Organization’s current recommended day trip itinerary from Naha, Okinawa’s capital. In the 1960s and 70s, as tropical tourism became popular in places like Hawai‘i, Okinawa was developed into Japan’s own, much closer, beach resort. Most tourist brochures, including this itinerary, don’t mention the military bases lining the highways between tourist destinations, though the bases are a tourist attraction. For example, Road Station Kadena, an informal museum across the highway from Kadena Air Base, features historical photography exhibits and a viewing platform from which visitors can watch U.S. Air Force jets take off and land.