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! 

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!

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)