Oki marathon, Horseshoe Beach & American Village

Chris put a lot of time into his marathon training, which was on Feb 20, 2011...so for Valentine's day, we had to eat 'healthy' haha. Homemade pizza :)

Marathon day: Rain!! But nonetheless, Chris had a lot of fun trying to keep up with some of the local runners...but it was a hilly course, so this is about all I could get out of him at the end...an upside down certificate. 

Great run for Chris and my first time out on a bike since my back injury! I tried to meet Chris at mile 8, 13ish, 25 and the finish. He almost beat me running between 8 & 13 (compared to me biking the back roads) b/c it was such a hilly ride...oh, and b/c Chris is a fast rockstar! haha :) I think I crashed earlier than he did that night...and I'm sure I didn't even come close to working out like he did! So proud of him!!

Some of the frontrunners below:

S

American Village: 

American Village is about 1 1/2 miles north of our apartment. It has a large shopping area, movie theater, ferris wheel and lots of restaurants! Oh, but just b/c it's American Village does not mean people speak English there! haha. We spent a lazy afternoon there one day when we didn't feel like traveling the island.

 <---So descriptive for the kids restrooms! haha

We decided to go for a ride on the ferris wheel. 

We thought we could put up some pics of our area this way too!!

Below: View from the ferris wheel looking SSW. Jusco is the mall in the foreground. Behind that is the track and a baseball stadium to the left. Like in the US, there are sports parks, and that's exactly what that area is! The sport park is about 1 mile north of our apartment. Soooo, our apartment is in that picture, but obviously very hard to pick out! There's a yellow block poking out on the left side of the pic...that's about 1/4 mile north of our apartment. 

Below: View from the ferris wheel looking ESE. Chris' work!! The hospital is the big white building just behind the grassy soccer fields! So for people that live on base (on Camp Lester), they can literally walk across the main road and into American village. In the foreground, there's one of our favorite restaurants...the Sushi-go-round! And right next door to that is the Karaoke place where we had part of our New Year's celebration this year. ps. The Sushi-go-round for those of you that I haven't told is SO sweet...it's like sushi on a conveyer belt going around a 'bar' of about 40 people and you just take off what you want! It's amazing and surprisingly cheap! (Very nice since the yen rate here isn't very good.) I guess it helps to live so close to the fishies...so it's nice and fresh and inexpensive!

Below: Yum. Yogurtland. So delish. Soft serve frozen yogurt...you get a cup and fill it up with as much and as many flavors as you want! But you pay by weight haha. The flavors vary from vanilla to green tea to lychee to raspberry! And then there are delish toppings too...my fav are the mochi cakes. I need to post more about mochi b/c I don't know how I'm going to live without it when we move back!! :)

Randoms:
Snorkeling at sunset :) Seems cool, but really can't see that many fish at sunset without a flashlight haha











Still don't get tired of this view from our balcony!

Horseshoe beach:
Went up here one afternoon to snorkel, eat and just basically hang out :)

 <---Chris packed us a picnic!

 The coral beaches are very cool! --->

...just a small walk through the woods to get to the coral beach :)

<---Um, I think he might have to pull up for me to get in haha :)