Our Last Weekend on Island

Saturday - June 9th [continued]

...so per my last post - we spent our Saturday night here combining a very Japanese activity with a very Marine one. We have been talking about getting sushi all week, so I was super excited to finally get to go and have some! John & Allison took us to one of their favorite sushi places here on the island - the Okinawa Kami Sushi Bar - we sat again at the traditional Japanese tables [which means taking our shoes off and sitting on the floor]. Since sushi was a new thing for most of the family, we left the ordering up to John & Allison. They ordered a TON of different types of sushi rolls - including one that the waiter finished making using a blow torch once it was out at the table [a Norwegian roll]. Despite some reservations about sushi in general, whether or not it would be filling or even edible, a good time was had by all and the sushi [in my opinion] was AMAZING. The company wasn't so bad either ;)


[Also: we have really stepped up our chopstick skills since getting here - Andrew has probably picked up using them the fastest/most naturally, he is kinda awesome at using chopsticks, the rest of us kinda get by so we can eat, now that its the end of the week we just drop stuff less!]

After dinner, John & Allison had gotten tickets for us to go to a concert at the the Okinawa Cultural Center and see the The III Marine Expeditionary Force [MEF] Band - Friendship Summer Concert. Quite full from dinner, we headed over to the concert - the cultural center is a building we have been driving past all week and the outside is super cool so we were looking forward to both the concert & getting to see the inside of the building. 


The concert was spectacular. Selections of music included everything from pieces by John Philip Sousa to the Bohemian Rhapsody by Freddie Mercury. The band and it's conductors & Drum Major were incredibly talented and entertaining! We saw a little bit of everything, they even started one piece with a bagpipes player. Before intermission one of the conductors introduced the band and shared with us that some of the members have been on island anywhere from arriving there THAT DAY to a couple of years. The youngest band member was 18! The concert ended with a standing ovation from the audience and the band then marched out into the audience to play Stars & Stripes. 

Our concert adventure was followed by a trip to get some ice cream to end our evening - Blue Seal Ice Cream is EVERYWHERE here and there is one somewhat close to where John & Allison live so we stopped in. One flavor they had available was called "Momo" which was some kind of peach ice cream - some of us tried that - Andrew tried to order oreos on top of his ice cream, thinking they would come as a crushed topping - we all got a little laugh when his ice cream came out with two whole oreos stuck on the top! 


5k + beach + BIG sushi dinner + concert + ice cream = BEDTIME. 

Sunday - June 10th

As of Sunday we had officially been on island for over a week! Woohoo! First thing in the morning we headed to Okinawa Lutheran Church again for just their English service this time. Very cool to see the Lutheran church in another country!

After church, we stopped by Kadena - the largest US air force base - for a quick tour and to visit some of their stores on base. Kadena was really cool to see, we have been driving past it since getting on the island and the Rodriguez's have close family friends who were stationed here on the island at Kadena at one point so it was also neat to see a part of their life when they had been in Okinawa!

Since Sunday was our last full day together and we needed to start preparing to leave - all of our activities were fairly low key - after Kadena we went to SEGA - something Andrew was really looking forward too. SEGA is kind of like Chuck E Cheese/Dave & Busters on steroids!! Very loud, but lots of fun! Some of the games were kind of tough to figure out since all of the signs & instructions were in Japanese but that was all part of the experience :)

The boys figured this game out just fine :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent packing, doing laundry, grocery store run...just general preparations for our upcoming flights home & John and Allison's week ahead. 


We enjoyed watching a movie, cooking, eating, and spending time together - including a marathon game of catchphrase which lasted until we were all too tired to figure out how to describe some of even the most simple words!

Monday  - June 11th

Today had a bittersweet start with saying our goodbyes to John before he had to leave for work this morning. We have only a few hours left here with Allison before it will be time to pack up the car and head to the airport and being our journey back to the states. What a wonderful blessing to get to see Allison & John and for them to share what their life here in Okinawa is like!! They have been such gracious hosts as we have taken over their apartment for the last week - and its been fun to see them enjoy married life together so much :)


As we head back to the states, again, please continue to keep our safe travels in your prayers - I know we are all looking forward to sharing about our trip in person with many of you upon our return! 

We ran a race!

Friday - June 8th

Nakaguasuku was the name of the game for our morning! Very large, sprawling castle ruins here on the island. Okinawa used to be its own country under the Ryukyu Kingdom - whose castle leftovers we spent the morning exploring. This was also cool because we could see both sides of the island - the Pacific Ocean side AND the East China Sea side from the top of the ruins. Crazy thing we learned at the castle was that the parts of the stone walls still remaining are currently being restored literally stone by stone. As walls are taken down to be rebuilt, the stones are numbered so that they can be replaced EXACTLY as they were taken down. We 
all agreed none of us would want that job!

As we were leaving Nakaguasuku, 1st bonus of the day: we learned that John was given the afternoon off from work so he would be able to join our adventures for the day earlier than we had originally thought he would! So we promptly left the castle ruins and headed to run a few quick errands and meet up with John. We grabbed lunch and then it was time to head to the much anticipated [at least for me!] Kokusai Street - which is downtown in the city of Naha [south on the island]

...Kokusai Street may have been more of an adventure than Allison & John had originally thought it would be...7 people [5 of which had never been there before] ended up taking around 4 hours to visit all of the different stores and markets to be found. 2nd bonus of the day: We made a McDonalds pit stop, the quality of the french fries and coca-colas being served, at least on Kokusai Street, was up to par!

Back to the four hour part - we were all quite shopped out and walked out I think. It was a warm Okinawa day, and while many of the stores had air conditioning, there were also many that did not. Excited about our purchases, it was then DEFINITELY time for dinner. 

We have been looking forward to trying a curry place that John & Allison love called Cocos, so it did not take much deciding that it was a good night for a visit.

I'm happy to report it was just as tasty as they had advertised! You pick your dish and then pick what level of spice you want in your curry sauce on a scale of 1-10. Level 1 anyone would be able to eat - even if you don't particularly like spicy/hot food. Once you get past Level 1 however things heat up rather quickly. The restaurant will not let a customer order a hotter sauce than 5 if they have never done so before. No one from our group ordered higher than a 4. 3rd bonus of the day: Origami activity bucket at dinner!

Saturday - June 9th

As I write this, it is currently late Saturday afternoon here in Japan. So far today we have:

#1. Run a 5K on Futenma [another base here on the island]

Quite a hot morning & a hilly course but a successful start to the day nonetheless :)

After our race! :)

#2. Headed back to the beach [tried to snorkel but the water was really rough today]

#3...and now we are all getting ready for the night ahead [we are going out for sushi & a Marine Corps Band Concert]...which is why I have a little time/energy to write about our last day or so! 

[Much love to all of our family & friends stateside & everywhere else!]

Let's go to the beach!

Still going strong here in Japan! The weather has been progressively getting better [aka sunnier] since we have gotten on the island. Here are our adventures from the last two days:

Wednesday - June 6th

Adventure #1: Ocean Expo Park & The Churaumi Aquarium


On our way to the aquarium we of course drove past more beautiful sights here on the island and stopped for lunch at a very traditional Japanese soba restaurant. [which meant taking our shoes off before sitting down, low tables, and of course chopsticks!] No clue what we all ordered for the most part, so pictures on the menu were helpful and the food ended up being delicious :)

Driving and lunch adventures of the day!

The aquarium itself was by far awesome beyond words!! The structure of the aquarium itself and the location is breathtaking. It took a while to get through the aquarium, mainly because all of the fish were so colorful and interesting to see! We stayed at one of the tanks during a feeding time and it seemed that the number of fish in the tank tripled once the food came out. After going through a few more exhibits - including one with fish that literally glowed in the dark - we got to THE tank! This tank, known as the Kuroshio Tank, is literally one of the largest in the world and easily the most amazing and beautiful to see! We spent a good long while at this tank mesmerized by all of the gigantic animals inside. After the Kuroshio Tank we visited the shark tank, and then headed to the dolphin show. Dolphin show = SWEETTTT! Despite the fact that the entire show was in Japanese it was easily one of the best dolphin shows any of us had ever seen - the fact that it was overlooking the water didn't hurt either :) The Ocean Expo Park had its own beach [go figure!] so after the dolphin show, we stopped by the sea turtle tanks and the manatee tanks, and spent the next hour or so relaxing at the beach before heading back down the island to go home.

Unbelievable = everything at this aquarium! [This group of pictures is courtesy of Allison, her camera took much nicer pictures of the tanks here than mine did]

Crazy beautiful! [these are back to my camera]

Thursday - June 7th

Adventure #2: BEACH DAY at Torii Beach

Between the typhoon and a lot of overcast days that followed, we had not quite made it to the beach on a sunny yet. Had several trips to the beach that involved rain and/or many dark clouds and water conditions that did not allow for swimming...which meant yesterday's beach trip was much anticipated and very exciting to have accomplished :)


The water conditions allowed for the boys to spend a good amount of the morning snorkeling and Allison & I ventured out in a kayak. [We quickly found out how NOT to steer a kayak, and not so quickly figured out how to paddle somewhat straight - we may have spent a lot of time going in circles!]


We had lunch on the beach, Andrew & Mrs. Rodriguez tested out the water slide, and we all enjoyed reading/napping/relaxing throughout the day!

Beach day :)

The rest of our day after the beach was low-key as well. We visited a local fish market to pick up fresh salmon for dinner, once John got home we all worked out either at the gym or running, and then it was time to enjoy the salmon from the market. One word = DELICIOUS. 

So that pretty much brings up to our today [Currently Friday morning here]. Planned adventures for the day include: Fukeshen Gardens, Nakaguasuku [castle ruins here where you can see both sides of the island from the top], and Kokusai street [aka shopping!]. 

Adam & The Snake.

For whatever reason, I am currently up [its 5am on Wednesday morning here] and motivated to blog about our day yesterday. So since this post will only have one day of adventure I will make an effort to maybe shorten your reading! Still tons of pictures though don't worry :)

Tuesday - June 5

Okinawa World

Yesterday morning is when the typhoon officially rolled through, so we all were up early to watch the high winds and heavy rain sweep through, then most of us went back to bed for a little so overall we ended up having a fairly leisurely start to our day. [Grits, eggs, and toast for breakfast!! Yum!]

Our big adventure for the day was a trip to Okinawa World - this [like Nago Pineapple Park] is a place John & Allison had not gone before, but was recommended by many of their friends here who have also had family in town. The description from their website it probably the most helpful in explaining what Okinawa World is [By theme park, they mean the park had an overall theme to it - not American theme park with roller coasters]: 

"Okinawa World is Okinawa Prefecture's foremost theme park and presents the local history, culture and nature all in one location. The parks main attraction is Gyokusendo. 5000meter long cave that was formed approximately 300,000 years ago, it offers today a 890-meter promenade to the public. Next-door is the Habu Park, a center that has no secrets about Okinawa's venomous snake. There is also a scenic village of old time Okinawa and workshops that allow experiencing Okinawa's traditional industrial heritage and local folk craft such as glass blowing and pottery. "

Many, many beautiful and interesting things to see and experience here!! Below are pictures from their Tropical Garden, their traditional craft village, and the huge cool tree in the center is at the entrance to their cave.

Some beautiful things we saw at Okinawa World!

Some more cool things [Clockwise from top L: Adam measured up next to a snake, inside of the entrance to the cave, glass blown art, Japanese fortunes, glass blowing, Adam with Habu sake - a type of alcohol - in the making, more glass art, and their on site brewery]

We had fun exploring the different things Okinawa World had - even encountering a variety of unique signs/things that you don't see everyday in the states. Ladies - the bottom left picture is instructions for the WOMEN'S toilets here... 

Check out the sushi Spam we found & Andrew even ordered some delicious french fries while we were there!

In the crafting village there were many different artisans - one of which was slightly more modern - a photographer! We took a break from exploring Okinawa World to have some fun dressing up in traditional Japanese outfits :)

Looking pretty great :)

It was a little overcast yesterday - but nice enough that we were leisurely walking through Okinawa World - Adam even found a little down time to keep reading his book (Debbie, if you are reading this, please be proud!!)

Rockstar DCE!

Last, but not least, an explanation of the title of this post - Adam & The Snake.

When we entered Okinawa World, one of the first areas to go through it their Habu Park - basically snake central 101. The Habu is a type of snake found here in Japan - and on the island of Okinawa, they have tons of other kinds of snakes here as we learned touring through their museum and past tanks literally full of live snakes. Now to appreciate this overall it is important to understand that saying Adam is TERRIFIED of snakes does not begin to cover his feelings of disgust, hatred, and fear towards these animals - they are not his favorites. But being a trooper, he was walking through Habu Park and even went with us to the snake show they had! The show was interesting because it was all in Japanese so we only vaguely knew what was going on the entire time the lady was presenting. They had a laminated sheet in English with a general explanation of what was going on - but that only got us so far! After seeing a variety of live snakes get tossed around on stage and a race between a mongoose and a snake - the show was basically over. After the show ended, we then had the 'opportunity' to get our photo taken with a large python. This event easily turned into the most hilarious and priceless part of our day - we were all practically crying we were laughing so hard...I will let the pictures speak for themselves :)

Again *DISCLAIMER* Adam really really does not like snakes x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000...

We were both shaking after this photo op, but seriously I still die laughing looking at these photos :)

Everyone else had a slightly more low-key snake holding experience:

After all of the Okinawa World adventures - we headed home to grab our stuff for the beach. We spend the late afternoon reading on the beach before coming home for dinner & a few games of Apples to Apples before we all headed off to bed.

Today's plan: Going to the Ocean Expo Park - which features the Churaumi Aquarium!

Our Weekend Adventures!

Ohayou (Good morning) everyone! We have had a busy and fun past couple of days here in Japan with John & Allison. It is currently our Tuesday morning, and I have a few moments now to share some of what we have been up to + lots of pictures :) Enjoy!

Saturday - June 2nd

Cape Zanpa

John and Allison live closest to the city of Naha which is south on the island of Okinawa. So on Saturday we started our day with a trip headed north to Cape Zanpa which is nearest to the city of Nago. Cape Zanpa was BEAUTIFUL and we spent most of the morning walking around and enjoying all of the sights. Breathtaking views of the water, cliffs, a lighthouse, several monuments and statues! Last fall, John and Allison visited this area and LOVED it, so it was fun to get to share one of their favorite places on the island with them. We even spent time re-creating a fun jumping picture they took during their visit in the fall. 

Some of the beautiful views around Cape Zanpa

More of our Cape Zanpa adventure - the bottom left picture was taken at the top of the lighthouse!

Orion Brewery

In my last post, I mentioned that we were going to visit a local brewery, that ended up not happening today due to all of their tours being full - so we will try again another day for this! (Side note, we spent lots of time on Saturday driving - check out how trippy it is to be driving on the LEFT side of the road!)

The two smaller pictures are of the countless road-side tombs that seem to be everywhere around the island - many look like small villages. I am super fascinated by them!

Nago Pineapple Park


When the brewery was a no-go for the day, we headed off to our next stop - the Nago Pineapple Park. Before going, we knew that it was supposed to be a pineapple winery and farm. When got there and actually experienced it we found out Nago Pineapple Park had a little bit of everything, this to our surprise and amusement, included a multi-room shell museum! Upon arriving we got to board a Pineapple cart (that drove itself!!) and take a tour of the pineapple fields and growing areas. We then toured the shell museum and then headed to their store area where we tasted several different kinds of pineapple wines, champagnes, and juices. Also got to sample various pineapple cakes, cookies, actual pineapple pieces, and even pineapple chocolate. Overall, very entertaining and fun to see all of the various pineapple EVERYTHING here!

Our Pineapple Cart ride adventure!

Some of the variety of pineapple products we tried. Sweet pineapple, pineapple chocolate cookies, and pineapple/lime juice are pictured here!

Dinner 

To conclude our Saturday, we headed back from Nago down south back to Camp Kinser and enjoyed a laid back evening. Grilled BBQ chicken for dinner and got to meet some of John & Allison's friends/neighbors who came over afterwards. We were not the most exciting group of people to necessarily meet at this point, since most of us could barely keep our eyes open after our day of adventures + still working through adjusting to the time change!

Sunday - June 3rd - My Birthday :)

Sunday for us had a more laid back schedule, it was also my birthday here in Japan. I was woken up with coffee & birthday breakfast cooked by my wonderful fiancé before we headed out to John & Allison's church here on the island.

Okinawa Lutheran Church

Church this morning was a bilingual service, their church holds this service on the first Sunday of every month. It was very interesting how the service worked. Their pastor has been in Japan since 1984 and on the island of Okinawa for the last 13 years - as a result he is very fluent in Japanese. Most of the liturgy he would say the english first & the congregation would respond, then the Japanese and the congregation would respond. Some parts he would say the English, then the Japanese, and then we would all respond together - everyone in their preferred language. This is also how singing worked. We sang everything in English, but those who wished to sing in Japanese sang the Japanese words at the same time. For the sermon, the pastor would say EACH sentence or two of his sermon twice in a row. Once in English, then again in Japanese. We also had the readings read in Japanese first, and then again in English. 

Our bulletin/order of service for the morning.

 Sunday Afternoon

After church, we headed home to being packing/getting ready for an overnight trip to Okuma (a military resort base on the island). We were at first not sure if we were going to be able to go up to Okuma because of an incoming typhoon - however the typhoon was not to hit until Monday or Tuesday so our trip stayed on schedule. Before leaving for Okuma we rented snorkeling gear so that we would have it whenever the weather calmed down enough to snorkel.

Okuma

Much like our adventures on Saturday, Okuma is north of where John & Allison live, so after packing the cars we headed north back up the island - this time going past the Nago area where we had been the day before. At this point, it pretty much down poured rain for the remainder of the drive and day. We got to Okuma, checked into our cabins, and thankfully the rain calmed down enough to spent a little time that night walking on the beach. We shared drinks and dinner at the resort that night & ended our evening playing catchphrase (at which I am TERRIBLE!! haha)

Monday - June 4th

Okuma

Monday morning, due to the incoming typhoon, the weather was not going to be snorkeling friendly - so instead of snorkeling we spent the first part of the morning packing up from our stay at Okuma, and exploring a little beach of the beaches and rocks there before checking out and heading to hike for the day. Again - cannot stress how BEAUTIFUL it is here!!!!

North Beach at Okuma!

Tadake Falls


Our big event of Monday was hiking Tadake Falls - this is another of John & Allison's favorite places on the island - and after hiking it together we could understand why! Due to the overcast weather for the day we pretty had the entire trail to ourselves. "Trail" is a bit of a relative word for our hike, since most of the trail consisted of wading through water, climbing up and over rocks, and even climbing through various parts of the jungle/forest surround the water. We had a lot of fun with this hike!! At the end of the hike you reach an awesome waterfall which was really amazing to see. Bonus - there is a path to climb to the top part of the waterfall, so after enjoying the waterfall itself and taking some pictures of course, we all trekked up the side of the mountain surround the fall to get a birdseye view from the top. Again it was BEAUTIFUL - seriously - can't get enough of the scenery here. It's no wonder John & Allison love being outside here as much as possible!

Tadake Falls hike!

Cocoks (Co-cos)

Last adventure for our Monday was a ladies only event! Allison made appointments for us 3 girls to get pedicures at her favorite place here on the island for this - Cocoks (pronounced like co-cos).

[While we got pampered the boys chose the more manly activity of going to the gym and working out - I think the girls got the better end of the deal!]

Cocoks was AMAZING!! Every aspect of our time there was so relaxing and fun! When we arrived, we were lead to huge comfy lazy-boy type chairs, given a glass of cool and refreshing green tea, and immediately had our feet soaking. (This was especially great after our hike from earlier today). We each had a 20+ page book to go through and select our nail design from (each page had about 24 design options on it). We also got to select the oil they were going to use on for our leg/foot massage. The whole pedicure took over an hour and was the best from start to finish! About half of that hour was the massage alone. Check out the finished product!!

So much attention to detail and patience the ladies at Cocoks have!!!

Monday concluded with another great home-cooked meal at John & Allison's before we all headed off to bed.


So far this morning - we all woke up to watch the typhoon roll in - this consisted mostly of a lot of high wind gust and rain! Now we are all getting ready for the day and going to head off to visit Okinawa World! Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers - it is such a blessing to be able to all spend time together and we are thankful for every minute!

Welcome to Okinawa!

4.5 hour drive to Chicago + 22 hours of flying to Okinawa = US FINALLY BEING IN JAPAN!!!!!!!

We had a very smooth trip from when we left the Rodriguez's house in Indiana, all the way through to getting off of the plane in Okinawa. A few little bumps along the way - had some trouble printing boarding passes during our plane/airline switch in Los Angeles and after our very last flight Adam left his phone on the plane (whoops!) - however we eventually got our boarding passes and Adam his phone, which meant most importantly we finally got to see John & Allison!

Not too much exciting to share about our flights. Watched movies, had some snacks, tried to sleep (some of us more successful than others), ate airline food, read, tried to sleep, stretch, watch more movies....you get the idea :) Our arrival in Tokyo from LA was when we had to go through immigration and customs. The country of Japan has some awesome mug shots of all of us on file now. As part of the process of entering the country they scan your fingerprints. After they scan your finger prints you are told to look at a little mirror & screen, then without warning they have taken an awesome picture and sent you on your way to collect your bag and clear customs. The flight from Tokyo to Okinawa, was some of the better sleep we all managed during our flying portions of the trip - probably because we were so exhausted and ready to just be done traveling for a little while. The airports here in Japan were fairly easy to navigate, and the Japanese people were incredibly helpful at giving direction despite the language barrier. 

All of our flying adventures. The pictures at the top are at the start of each flight (from L to R)

By the time we got to Allison & John's, it was around 10:30-11:00pm Japan time. (Here is a useful online time converter to check out the time here vs. the US). #1. Love their apartment, they have done an awesome job of decorating and making into a home, it was really fun to get to see in real life what we have all been seeing over Skype these last 7 months. #2. One of our first Japanese adventures involved taking shots of Habu sake - which is a kind of alcohol with snake venom in it, very interesting and not as terrible as it might sound! #3. It was bed time. We were all so thankful to have arrived safely, happy to see the Snyders, and very ready to lay down and go to sleep!

Full Day #1 - Friday May 31st

8:00am: Allison has really enjoyed becoming part of a community of wives here on their base that all enjoy running and working out together, so this morning we joined her and her friends in a CrossFit workout. Basically this involved a lot of sweating as well as laughter and water drinking. 

Mid-morning: Came back, ate breakfast, showered, skyped my family, got ready to leave for the beach

Afternoon: Got a tour of some more of the area - visited the 100yen store (which is similar to the American Dollar Store as far as everything is around $1, however the 100yen store is way bigger and cooler), visited the local grocery store - so interesting to walk through a grocery store and NOT recognize most of what was available for sale and eating, and then went to the beach and had a picnic lunch. The weather today was fairly rainy, so we did not do too much else at the beach other than eat and watch the rain. After lunch, we went to American Village - which is pretty much what it sounds like. The Japanese have created a shopping/restaurant area that they feel replicates things we American like/wear/do...etc. Finally, we headed over to another military base in the area and met up with John so he and Allison could purchase wet suits they had been looking to buy since they have become scuba certified since moving out here. 

"American" 

Late afternoon: NAP.

Evening: We headed out for dinner. Ate at a restaurant called Gen - which had a little bit of everything available to eat from sushi to different kinds of soba (a type of noodles), meat, and rice. Everyone enjoyed what they ordered even though it took us a little while to eat anything due to the fact we all got a crash course in using chop sticks tonight!!!!! 

Our dinner experience tonight :)

Things we learned today about Japan/their culture...etc:

1. Yellow license plates = the car has an engine similar to what you would find in a golf cart, so don't expect them to be able to drive fast. While license plates = the car has a normal engine. A "Y" on a license plate = stands for "Yankee" and means the car belongs to an American

2. They drive on the left side of the road here - making for an interesting experience as passengers used to driving on the right side.

3. Trying to say a few words/understand some which is super challenging! 

Arigatou gozaimasu or just Arigatou = thank you. 

Hi = yes. 

Irashaimase = Welcome. (When some one says welcome to you, typically when we entered stores or restaurants it is not necessary or expected to say anything back, most polite option to say nothing)

4. There is only 1 American music radio station so they try to accommodate all interests of music. Hence we experience Country hour earlier today, and later on heard soul music and even later rap. 

Sorry for the long post - very exciting to be here and try and take everything in!!!

Tomorrow our main adventure will be going to a local brewery and winery - can't wait to share about it!

Oyasuminasai all! (good night)

Japan or Bust!!

As promised, a Japan-related post finally. This may be news to some of you...but here are the details to catch everyone up!!

Okinawa has awesome beaches that we are all looking forward to spending some time at!

Who: Adam's Parents, Adam, his younger brother - Andrew, and me! 

This is from the last time we saw John & Allison!

What: We are going to visit Allison (Adam's older sister) and her husband John!!! We haven't seen them since they first moved to Okinawa in October of last year. John is a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps and his first major posting was - surprise - Japan!

John & Allison with us at their wedding!

Where: Okinawa, Japan - John & Allison live on a US military base there. Okinawa is one of several islands that collectively make up the country of Japan. If you look at a whole map of Japan - Okinawa is a tiny island towards the bottom of the string of islands. I found a fun map below that shows all the military bases on Okinawa. The Marine Corps bases are all in red on this map - and John & Allison live on Kinser (kinda the bottom left red dot...) Anyways - you get the idea!

When: Leaving tomorrow & staying for 2 weeks. As I write this post, we are in the middle of last minute packing and preparation. We leave from Chicago (Adam's family lives south of Indianapolis, IN). So tonight, we are driving to Chicago, then first thing tomorrow our flying portion of this whole adventure will begin. Our flights are: 

• Chicago to Los Angels, CA
• LA to Tokyo
• Tokyo, Japan to Okinawa 

We will be flying for around a total of 22 hours tomorrow (a little over 24 hours of travel time total including a few small layovers). There is a fairly major time difference between Japan and the US. Japan is 13 hours AHEAD of the Eastern Time Zone here is the US, and 14 hours AHEAD of the Central Time Zone. This basically means that when it is morning time in the US, its night in Japan (and vice versa). 

I will be blogging throughout our trip so be on the lookout for more Japan posts to follow these next couple of weeks. Please keep us in your prayers, that we have safe travels & an awesome and blessed time visiting John & Allison and seeing their new life!

-Kyla

Top 10 Events of (my last week of) College!

Last week, (okay every week since getting engaged AND placed for internship within a period of 72 hours!) was kind of hectic. I have condensed all of last week into a format David Letterman would perhaps approve of...

Top 10 events of my last week of college:

10. FINALS. There were plenty of these + papers to occupy any spare time. Enough said.

9. PACKING. Mom was a savior in this department for me. I had packed up a fair amount of stuff before she came in town, however while I would be at work or a final, Mom diligently worked on packing up my kitchen and anything else she could, as well as lined up a storage unit to store my stuff in during the time between school ending & moving to St. Louis

8. VISITED WAYSIDE, WISCONSIN (Adam's new home for internship) - SO blessed by all of the people there, and SO excited for the opportunities and ministries Adam will get to be a apart of - even stopped by Lambeau while we were in the area!

7.  MOM FLEW IN! Kevin (our Best Man) picked Mom up from the airport on Sunday while Adam & I were on our way back from Wayside. Celebrated a late-night Mother's Day. I was really excited because I put together a Mother-of-the-Bride Wedding planning survival kit to give her :)

Mother-of-the-Bride Wedding Planning Survival Kit

6. WEDDING ADVENTURES - First thing Monday morning, Adam, Kevin, my Mom, and I paraded off to the tux store to pick out the guy's wedding look. Lots of fun and the guys were great sports too! Also all 4 of us had a cake tasting adventure on Tuesday afternoon - successfully tried some cake we will NOT be getting for the wedding - but who doesn't love a wedding adventure??

5. Went to BRIDAL SHOW #2 with Mom! This show was held at a country club, much bigger in scale than my first Bridal show, I was really glad I had been to one already so I knew what to expect a little more with this one. We got champagne before we even walked through the door, and the night ended with a Bridal fashion show (we had front row seats!!) 

4. On Tuesday, took Mom to see our reception venue - 

THE WILDER MANSION!!!! This was by far one of the highlights of the week! Check out some sneak peak pictures below :) We also met with a caterer later that same day- very long appointment - may or may not have discussed a burrito bar with queso as an option - much to Adam's excitement!!! (sure beat the conversation about linens haha)

3. LAST CLASS & FINAL OF UNDERGRAD! This was ten times more exciting than I had ever imagined it would be! Fun that Adam, Kevin, and I all had the same last class/final so we could celebrate that together!!!

2. Friday - we got to have our ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS taken! Adam, myself, and Kevin headed down to Old Town (a part of downtown Chicago) first thing in the morning, met up with our photographer, and spent the next few hours getting photos taken - our pictures will be done getting edited in the next couple of weeks - can't wait to share them with you all! Also fun was having Kevin along, not only because it was just fun to have another friend along (made things a little less awkward with the photographer at the beginning) - but also because he was SUPER helpful with carrying things and pitching in anyway he could. [Had to share his sunglass look he sported!]

1. LAST NIGHT OF COLLEGE AND GRADUATION. Mom left late Thursday night, Friday was laid back (engagement photos - woohoo!) - and our week got to end perfectly - spent with all our dear friends!!! We hung out, danced late into the night, and got to cheer on everyone we have spent the last 4 years with as they finally graduated!! Bittersweet though it was, can't be more thankful for everyone and the experiences we have all shared these last years together!

Family photo!

Upcoming post: News about our upcoming trip to Japan! (One week from today 5/23 - until we leave!)