Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Summer in Okinawa (May 2011)


Mid-May: Rainy season brings lots of these guys to our windows :)







Memorial Day Weekend: Typhoon Songda rolled through. The worst winds were 113mph! Good thing everything around here is made out of concrete :) The 100+ mph winds lasted for 4 hours...all at night...definitely a wierd feeling being in a rocking building. 



Our poor beach sign! haha 
...but only damage for us was a broken door

Nails stripped...


Summer in Okinawa (May 2011)

I have a lot to add...especially considering that summer in Okinawa is forever! :)

In early May, we went to the Hari Dragon Boat races in Itoman, Okinawa. The Dragon Boat season lasts for a few weeks, so this was just one of many races. 


Loading up the boats

The size of the paddles
Yummy :)



Check out all of the spectators on the pier by the bowling pin building! We couldn't believe how many people came out for the races. 
The race!!
 
Sweet bouncy house for kids!





Monday, May 2, 2011

Oki friends and Oki biking

After the Steins left, we continued to stay busy with entertaining! We decided it was time to put our new patio furniture to use. Good weather + good friends + balcony with furniture + nice view + margaritas = GREAT times! :)
We had several friends over on a few different occasions...
One night there were some local fireworks...and we had a great view from our place! We had a few friends come by for the event.



Another night we decided to just hang out...with the 'fantastic five' as our friend Hanashiro-san calls us (Temi, Luke, Kirsten, Chris and myself). We had nowhere to go, so margaritas on the balcony seemed like a good idea :)

Temi, Kirsten and Luke

 Luke trying to show us that he really was happy.



Okinawa Biking:
Well, Chris is a seasoned road biker and has gone on several rides since being here in Okinawa. He's gone out both alone and with some groups to see some really cool parts of the island! I'm still a newbie at the road bike...in fact, I don't even have one! I'm just used to my trusty old moutain bike. But, as many of you know, we have a tandem roadbike here with us! Sounds crazy, but it's a lot of fun. :) We decided to take it up north one day (in a van), and get out onto some of the open, less traveled roads. We only went about 15 miles as it was my first time on a bike since last summer's broke back days! The day was a little gloomy and we probably could have gone farther, but thundering in the distance creeped me out and we turned around. It was probably a good thing we did b/c it started to pour during our last mile! The ride was SO nice though b/c the area was very pretty and desolate...just like we like it for riding on the roads! 

 So Chris wanted to go see the view but I was too scared b/c it was just starting to thunder and I was afraid lightning would hit the tower. I'm a worrier...what can I say! haha
Cool view, cool fish :)

On Easter Sunday, Chris was on duty at the hospital all day. So I decided to take out my mountain bike. I ended up riding a little over 25 miles and explored some new areas near home. I ran into one of Chris' coworkers near this festival for Children's Day. They fly 'Carp flags' of a certain color for the children. 



100 mile bike ride:
Yes, you read that correctly...100 miles and we did it on the tandem!! We met up with a group of riders at 6:30am last Saturday and rode 50 miles north (to Okuma-a resort area), had brunch, and then rode back!! It was really fun, but I was exhausted by mile 85, and near 3 year old breakdown level my mile 95 haha. j/k :) The group we rode up with was great too! Fun people to be around for my first century ride ever!!! Not sure when the next will be...I'm still sore haha :)




All done with my first century ride!! :)


And last but not least...our first of many...the military ball! Oh, which consequently was also Saturday night...after the 100 mile bike ride. Nonetheless, I was determined to still go in style and even attempt to dance a little...just couldn't work the quads haha...made for interesting dancing :)
Chris and I also decided that we had never actually danced together as a married couple! How funny that we just finally shared our first dance.


Kirsten & I

          

    Out on the floor bustin' a move with Jessie!






Favorite pic of the evening :)



Peace out April! 

The Steins Visit!!

Chris' sister Jenny and her family (Tim, Hannah and Chris) came out for about 10 days at the beginning of April. We had a great time with all of them...and despite a couple days of jet lag and funky stomachs, I think I can speak for everyone to say that everyone had a fun filled week. :)

We checked out the Peace Prayer Park... a very somber yet 'peaceful' place to remember all of the Okinawans lost during WWII. There's a lot more history here than I ever realized...I didn't truely understand the Okinawan role in WWII until moving here. Okinawans did not speak mainland Japanese until after WWII. They spoke their own dialect. They were not part of the Japanese forces. Just got stuck in the middle...fun fact: In the 1970's Okinawa was turned over from US rule back to Japanese rule. At a particular time on July 30, 1978, all of the traffic changed direction from driving on the right side of the road to driving on the left side of the road. Can you imagine that mess?!?

 Butterfly cocoon












 Found a cool frog on the wall :)





















Snorkeling time!! Chris x2 and Hannah were in the water for several days for snorkeling and rafting adventures :)


 Chris and his waterlogged wetsuit!


Octopus!! Hannah was brave enough to pick it up and put it back in the tide pool. 

 Dinner then a walk along the seawall.



Renassaince Hotel Room: notice anything funny about Chris' outfit?!? 
They had Japanese 'robes' to wear. Aka 'really small whites that tall people like Chris don't fit into' haha




Taking out the raft...





Chris ran a 1/2 marathon on IE island the day before the Steins left. We took a ferry over to the island in the morning and rented bikes! So much fun! We rode to the beach and Chris x2 and Hannah did some more snorkeling while Jenny, Tim and I hung out on the beach. Then we rode back to the starting area and Chris ran his 1/2 marathon and did fantastic!! He was a true triathlete that day...snorkeling, Japanese bicycling and running! 







 Can you find Chris's head...
Clue: he's hiding haha
 So fast he's a blur! As usual :)


Great ending to a fun week!