Fantastic Okinawa

AEON Mall Okinawa Rycom to open Saturday

Emergency helicopter services seek to expandBy Bill Charles

Saving lives that would oth-erwise be lost is the goal ofthe Medical EvacuationService with Helicopter,

which is now waging a fund-rais-ing campaign to purchase a fixedwing aircraft to serve outer islandsof Okinawa.

The NPO MESH Support isJapan’s only private organizationexperienced in operating medicalaircraft, and provides services tosparsely populated, remote areasthat cannot be accomplished bypublic services. MESH Support isfunded by charitable donations,and they’ re looking now forisland-wide financial support toobtain a fixed wing aircraft toallow emergency services to beprovided to outer islands after atraumatic situation.

The goal is to provide med-ical services within 15 minutesthat is part of the ‘golden hour’referred to by medical profession-als as the time frame necessary tooffer emergency medical treatmentand reduce the number of liveslost. It is well established thatprompt medical treatment will pre-vent death, and the patient’ schances of survival are greatest ifthey receive care with the shortperiod of time after a severeinjury.

Today’s concern is Yanbaru,the northern part of Okinawa thathas a poor transportation infra-structure. This is problematic in anarea where the demand is high formedical rescues by helicopter dueto accidents involving tourists andhigh frequency accidents related towater activities and bike touring.

The existing MESH helicop-

ter is based in Nago, able to servemost of Okinawa Island, reachingsome closer outlying islands in thecritical 15 minutes. A fixed wingaircraft would provide extendedMESH services to outlyingislands.

MESH support in emergen-cies averages 250 emergencyflights per year, with current fig-ures reflecting 72% to local resi-dents, 20% to other prefectureresidents, and 8% to individualsoutside the prefecture and for-

eigners. Since its creation, MESHsupport has flown over 900 mis-sions. In addition to the emer-gency flights, MESH can fly doc-tors, nurses and medical suppliesto outlying areas, something thepublicly funded medical helicop-

ter emergency services cannotby law do . Transpor ta t ionbetween fac i l i t ies , suppl iesdrops, assisting with decom-pression disease, and providingpatrols and medical visits with

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The largest shopping center inOkinawa Prefecture –a behemothwith more than 200 stores, 60restaurants, a multi-plex theater

and thousands of parking spaces—opens itsdoors Saturday in Kitanakagusuku on landthat for decades was the U.S. military’sAwase Golf Course.

AEON Mall Okinawa Rycom is locat-ed on Route 330 that spans Okinawa north

to south, and at the junction with the east-west Okinawa Loop line that runs past themilitary’s Plaza Housing Area and in frontof the new shopping mall. The statisticsalone are staggering and intriguing; thatalone is enough to attract tens of thousandsof visitors to clog the roads Saturday forthe Grand Opening.

The Rycom Mall has some 220 spe-cialty stores including 46 first-ever storesin Kyushu and Okinawa, and 70 first-everstores on Okinawa. The facility boasts theworld’s largest food court, with more than5,500 seats to serve 60 plus restaurants.Add another 2,200 seats in the duplexgourmet world and there’s no shortage ofsatisfying any hunger challenge.

Rycom Mall covers five levels, with a100-ton aquarium on the first level. Theaquarium features some 25 tropical fishspecies, with more than 1,000 fish in thetank. A 2,600-square-meter welcome sta-tion is also on the first level, offering

ATMs that accept overseas credit cards, aswell as foreign exchange windows. Thestation has storage areas for carry-on lug-gage, rest areas and places for drivers torelax in ‘bus waiting rooms’. Throughoutthe Rycom Mall, free wi-fi is available, andthere are signs, floor instructions and frontpages in English, traditional and simplifiedChinese, and Korean.

AEON Rycom itself is huge in and ofitself, with three floors of shopping thatwill require 450 employees. The AEONMall Okinawa Rycom will have more than3,000 employees to serve the hundreds ofstores, restaurants and other activities.AEON Mall Okinawa Rycom will be open365 days a year, 8 or 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.Other stores and restaurants will open at 10a.m. and be open until 10 or 11 p.m. TheCinema will be open until midnight. Morethan 4,000 parking spaces are available forcustomers around the complex, as well asanother 260 spaces for bicycles.

The second floor has both AEONRycom and restaurants, while RycomGourmet World is on the 3rd and 4th floors.A Food Street is also on the fourth floor,and Rycom Sky Diner is on the 5th floor.At the Rycome Stage ‘Air’ on the thirdfloor, concerts and traditional art perform-ances about Ryukyu and Okinawa will beheld, but at night the Rycome Stage ‘Sky’will feature live pop music shows and streetperformances brought by American artists.The entertainment will be featured daily

AEON Mall Okinawa Rycom to open Saturday

AEON Mall Rycom Okinawa, the largestshopping mall on Okinawa will open thisSaturday.

The MESH helicopter in Nago surrounded with a group of fans and supporters.

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Helios Pub reopens with specials after renovation

Helios Pub, a popularcraft beer pub in theMakishi district onKokusai Street in Naha

City, is reopen after a bit of reno-

vation following its successfulbeer festival, and already servingspecial craft beer made inOkinawa.

To celebrate, Helios is host-

ing a special Champagne fair,inviting patrons to give theirChampagne Pierre Paillard BrutGrand Cru a try for only ¥750 aglass. Another option beingoffered is Black Velvet, a cocktailcombining beer with champagne,for ¥950. A bottle of champagneis ¥8,000, taxes not included.Helios officials say they’ll be run-ning the champagne special forabout one month.

The Helios distillery is oneof the major Awamori distilleriesin Okinawa, known for popularproducts like “ Kura” or“Todoroki”. Helios distillerystarted in 1961 with producingtheir own Rum as their first prod-uct. Catering to the U.S. Militarymarket. Okinawa is an islandknown as a producer of sugar-cane, and Tadashi Matsuda, theHelios founder, started makingrum because of his personal poli-cy that all production should beaccomplished using local ingredi-

ents. Since then, Helios has been

adding to their production linewith Awamori, craft beer, shochuand Habu sake. Helios pubopened in1996 on Kokusai streetto serve their fresh and local craftbeers to as many beer lovers aspossible, not only Okinawans butan increasing number of visitorsfrom outside of the prefecture.The pub image is much as anEnglish local pub, and visitorstend to take a very relaxing timeat the pub. Guests can choose350ml regular glasses for ¥500,650ml tall glasses for ¥700 andthe mass, a one-liter jug, for¥1,428. Helios also offers trialsets that are a choice of threekinds of beers, 150ml each, for¥667.

There are various foodmenus that include tasty sausages,Okinawan pork, fish and chips,salads, garlic sticks and muchmore! Whether alone or with fam-

ily, friends or partner, Helios saysit’s the place for “making funtime really great!” The HeliosPub is open 11:30 a.m. ~11 p.m.weekdays and 11:30 a.m. ~ mid-night on Fridays and Saturdays.Yen and major credit cards areaccepted. Call (098) 863-7227 forreservations. An English menuand English speaking staff areavailable. Map: https://goo.gl/maps/efRJp.

HelicopterContinued from page 1

medical specialists such as psychiatrists,pediatricians, obstetricians and gynecologistsare vital services MESH offers.

Now, they’re looking for island-widefinancial support in their campaign. Businessesare already involved, with both donations andcontributions from sales of products.

Johnson Controls Building EfficiencyOkinawa branch, which provides buildingsolutions for local customers including the U.S.Military facilities on Okinawa, donated $3,000(¥356,430) to MESH Support. A donation cer-emony was April 13th at the MESH SupportHeliport in Umosa, Nago-city. Hiroyuki Usui,

Director of the Mechanical EngineeringDivision, Building Efficiency, JohnsonControls K.K. presented a check for $3,000 toMESH Support Director, Masahiro Kohama.

This donation was a part of Usui's team inOkinawa receiving Johnson Control's highestinternal employee recognition award, theChairman's Award, which included a $10,000donation to the charity of their choice. Theteam won this award for its outstanding safetycommitment. David Kuo, Okinawa BranchManager of the Mechanical EngineeringDivision, spoke at the ceremony, "We wantedto contribute to organizations that support thelocal community. MESH Support providesessential support and why we decided to con-tribute." Director Kohama thanked JohnsonControl's contribution and commented that the

donation will be used for operations of the heli-copter.

Okinawa branch will also donate to otherthree organizations such as a handicapped wel-fare service organization, engineering educa-tion support and to a U.S. military supportorganization to contribute to life saving andhelping people need support. MESH is receiv-ing support from Aeon and Max-value stores,Okinawa Japan Beverage Co., Ltd., Coca-ColaBottling Co., Ltd., Okinawa, Okinawa PepsiBeverage Co., Ltd., Okinawa Yakult Co., Ltd.,and Okinawa UCC COFFEE INC. MESH alsohas three different decals available for a ¥500donation each, of which ¥400 goes to the heli-copter procurement project.

How can the public get involved? Verysimply! Wire donations to the MESH Support

Bank Account or contribute online.The Bank of Okinawa Ltd., 402 Nago

branch savings account, Account number1625737, Nominee MESH Support. There areno transfer fee charges at the ATM ServiceWindow. From the Post Office Bank, AccountNumber: 01770-5-135567, Nominee MESHSupport. There are no transfer fees. On-linesupport allows donations and membership sup-port which individuals and organizations cancontinually support by registering as members.Credit card payment is available to pay theannual membership fee and donations atwww.meshsupport.net (in Japanese).

MESH Support and cloud founding is onfacebook at https://readyfor.jp/projects/mesh.The deadline to accomplish the cloud fundingtarget is June 1st.

Helios Pub offers an oasis of a relaxing space in the middle of thebusiest Naha shopping district.

Helios Pub serves a selection oftasty pub food.