Weekend Recaps

So this weekend was absolutely beautiful and fun! On Saturday morning we woke up early and went to my cycle class, ran some errands and then went to the beach for a bit before we both had to get ready for our evening shindigs.

Araha Beach

 Little sea snails in a caravan, there were at least 20 of them, I thought it was cute. 

People watching, and we saw some good stuff!

This was truly a rare sighting, most Japanese people don't even wear short-sleeved shirts so to spot this guy was a real treat! He had a very stylish animal print speedo and of course a reflective sunbathing mat, he was a professional sunbather!

Interesting backpack, very original!

Later that evening I went over to Erika's house for a girls bunco night and all the boys headed to our house for male bonding time. After I lost 13 out of 20 rounds (how is that possible?) we all headed back to our place to meet up with the boys and go out. I wish I had more pictures of the night (i'll try to add some later). For some reason this is all I ended up with: 

Erika (the host, blonde on the bottom right) did an amazing job decorating and setting up and she gave me the best loser's prize: a purse hanger, I am in love!

Try not to look too excited guys.

Sunday around 5 am we were woken up by a thousand phone calls from Trev's work so lucky him he got to go in and I got to go with him (actually I chose to go because I am such a sweet wife). I slept in the car until everything was ironed out and then Trev took me out to breakfast! We went to the one and only Okinawa House of Pancakes!

I was a little nervous about this place, as I am about all restaurants I try for the first time in Oki but this place was GOOD! You never know how the Japanese are going to interpret American dishes but OHOP was spot on.

I forgot to take the picture before I started eating, Oh well. I had blueberry french toast, super healthy!

Trevor got an omelet that was really good but what made it even better was that they had Texas Pete hot sauce!

Next weekend we are hopefully going zip lining so I should have lots of good pics!!

Gadgets and Gizmos- Japanese style

 Since moving to Okinawa I have had the pleasure of discovering all the funky Japanese gadgets and gizmos. Where do I even begin??? Let's start with their love for vending machines. There is an estimated 5.6 million vending machines in Japan, about 1 for every 20 people, CRAZY! You might think "wow, they consume a lot of soda" but you are verrry mistaken! The contents of Japanese vending machines range from hot tea/coffee, soup, rice, ice cream, fresh eggs, live lobsters??? to cigarettes, umbrellas, makeup, and blue jeans. I have yet to see some of these in person but I can't wait until I do! (I will take lots of pictures, I promise) Here are some more common ones:

This is the typical drink vending machine, it sells both cold and hot drinks. I would totally buy a drink from this just because Tommy Lee Jones is on it!

Cigarette vending machines- I'm glad to see the Japanese don't support smoking! Don't be too alarmed though, in order to purchase the cigarettes you have to go to a convenience or grocery store (show your ID) and buy a debit card type thing that you then insert into the machines.

This one is my favorite, an umbrella vending machine. It rains here almost on a daily basis so this is by far the most handy machine!

On to our next gadget, Japanese toilets. I used to think bidets were fancy but these toilets don't even compare!

Notice the side bar on your left, this is what makes these toilets so cool. This side bar has different cleaning settings as well as a sound button that plays flushing noises, river sounds or chirping birds
(for those who are shy).

We had one of these puppies in our first house here, the best part was when you sat down the seat was heated!

This next nifty gadget- a table buzzer, is used to get the waitresses attention at restaurants: 

The last gadget is not really a gadget at all but I didn't know what other category to put it into besides the category of junk!

I guess you would call this car flair?? This set up is pretty mild to what you normally see but I had an opportunity to snap this and I was not going to miss it! I don't think this will ever catch on in the U.S. (at least I hope not!)

Weekend Recaps

Although Okinawa is small (when I say small I mean SMALL), 70 miles long and about 7 miles wide (but a population of 1.2 million, CRAZY), it has an unlimited amount of places to visit and explore. A couple weekends ago my girlfriends and I decided to take advantage of this beautiful place and go explore the northern part of the island. All of our husbands were working that weekend so we went on our favorite what should we do today-website Okinawahai.com and found a review for an amazing place called Dai Sekirinzan. Dai Sekirinzan is believed to be the geological birthplace of Okinawa with expansive limestone formations over 200 million years old! Enough talking, here are some pictures:

This literally was the bus ride from you know what. Okay, it was not that bad but it was slightly scary at times. Japanese drivers are crazy and this bus driver was no exception! Now, let me get to my lovely chicas! Amber is on your left, she is from Oklahoma and looks like Avril Lavigne. Erika is from Oregon and is a quarter Japanese, how cool! And Lastly, Jess is from Long Island and I am obsessed with her typical New York accent, it makes me smile every time she talks!

Walking sticks in tow!

If you look hard enough you can see the small cape down below, that is Cape Hedo, the northern-most point of the island.

I can't remember what these trees are called, I will get back to y'all on that one.

At the end of our hike, we HAD to do the peace sign, it is Japanese tradition. 

Our little adventure turned out to be really awesome, the only downside was that we spent over 4 hours driving. How is that possible you might ask considering we only drove about 45 miles? Well, the dang speed limits are no faster than about 50 miles per hour (if you are lucky) and most of the roads are single lanes. I have vowed not to travel up north for at least a month because the drive (although beautiful) is so frustrating!

Back in Action

It is now late March and wow do I have so much to update on here! Trevor and I both left the island in November, he went to North Carolina for the good ole USMC and I went back and forth between California and Texas. It was great to be back in the states but four months later we were excited to get back to Okinawa (I never thought I would say that). The reason for this excitement was due to the fact that A) Trevor and I finally got to see each other again B) We had moved back in October to a new apartment right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of Okinawa and B) I had friends!

Yes, I know we were not in our first house very long but for good reason. Although it was a beautiful little house in a beautiful area it just was not for us. Our neighborhood was somewhat isolated from main roads and a trip to the commissary, gym or dinner took between 30 to 45 minutes. I of course was the one who initiated the move but once Trevor saw the new place I had found he was on board! The new place is in a small apartment complex with 16 units. It was a bit more pricey in rent, initially listed for 250, 000 yen but most housing agencies will come down on the price so we got it for 200,000 yen~ about 2,500.00 US dollars. Although we pay a little out of pocket (until Trevor's next promotion) it is definitely worth it!  It is super close to the beach, Camp Foster (the largest MC base) a ton of restaurants, shops and night life!

Most apartments on Okinawa are called mansions, not sure why but anywho I present to you Mikano Mansion.

I took this picture from the left side of our balcony, on the other side of those green hedges is Camp Foster, so you can see how close we really are. Every day at 8:00 am I get to listen to the "morning colors" and the National Anthem that the base plays through their loud speaker they call "the big voice".

 Looking out over the right side of our balcony we have a view of the East China Sea (this picture does not do it justice), on a clear day we can see the Kerama Islands (I will be doing a post on that later)!

  

I took this picture at Araha beach near our house, you can see our building a couple blocks away. And no worries, our building is very sturdy and tall so if any tsunamis come our way we are safe!

Here is a great picture of the beach. I took this early on a Saturday morning hence why no one is on the beach, usually it is packed! I found this next picture to be interesting, the Japanese have the funniest warning signs, it looks like a monster wave giving a boy scout a wedgie, would this keep you off the beach?

We have arrived!

 I thought I would take you back 8 months ago when I composed my very first blog post. A lot has changed since but I wanted to give you a peak into the past:

So it has been a little over a month since we arrived in Okinawa. I am not going to lie and say Trevor and I absolutely love it here, but I will say that we are starting to LIKE it. This move has been a HUGE adjustment and learning experience. All the comforts of home (friends, families, pets, TV, shopping, people who speak English!) have been taken away and now we are just trying to start over with what we do have here. 

We have moved into our house and out of the wonderful (NOT) Shogun Inn. The neighborhood is gorgeous with views overlooking the pacific side of the island.

  Don't you just love how the front of the house has no windows?? Needless to say the front of the house is not the most aesthetically pleasing.  But don't let this fool you, every other side of the house is covered in windows and sliding glass doors, in fact there are too many of them!

View from our backyard

Our neighborhood consists of about 25 houses, mostly Japanese but there are Americans mixed in. When we initially started looking one of my requirements was that I wanted American neighbors, well I got my wish but it turns out our American neighbors totally suck! Despite the language barrier our Japanese neighbors have proved to be super friendly and social! They all walk their dogs and will stop to say hello (or attempt to), children will run into our yard to catch butterflies and EVERYONE smiles!

Now on to the inside of the house.....It is a 4 bedroom 1 1/2 bath. It is a fairly new construction and very clean however it is hard to adjust to the worlds smallest appliances (oven, washer dryer, non existent dishwasher) and small rooms. The full bath is on the first floor so going up and down the ladder-like staircase gets a bit old. Just for reference, we pay 180,000 yen a month~ about 2200.00 US dollars. Thank goodness we have our OHA (overseas housing allowance) otherwise we would be living out of a box!

Entry way

Tatami room

What is a Tatami room you might ask? Well from what our housing agent told us, Tatami rooms are in all traditional Japanese houses and are used for social gatherings (usually a low table sits in the middle of the room), sleeping quarters or a safe place to keep little children. Good old Wikipedia sums it up pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami

Kitchen and dining