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