Tokashiki Again (May 2012)

We love the Kerama Islands... so we went back! Tokashiki Island is just an hour ferry ride away. We stayed in a cabin with our friends Mike, Jessie, Brian and Andy. Chris' cousin Travis and his two friends joined us for just the day as well. This trip is not quite as picturesque as the last 2 Kerama Island experiences, but it was surely just as fun!! Our weather was just so-so, but with this group of friends, there are always good times to be had regardless of the weather!

Our cabin = awesome!

Our cabin was buried in the woods. One of the two little wooden peaks. 

We spent the first day just hangin out in the cabin and snorkeling. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was that we saw a sea turtle! Of course I have no photos... our underwater camera pooped out on us at some point this year... maybe this was when. The turtle was so awesome. He just meandered around in the shallows, so I followed him around for awhile. 

We cooked up some food that night and headed down to the beach to hang out. As secluded as our cabin looks in the photo, it was only about a mile and a half walk uphill to get back to it from the beach. That night was probably one of the clearest nights we have seen since moving to Okinawa. There are no lights by the beach, so the stars were just unreal. Jessie and I decided it would be a great idea to go for a night swim. Needless to say, we didn't have our bathing suits since we didn't plan on getting in the water. But since we were the only 2 girls on the trip and the only ones getting in the water, we figured we could walk down the beach a bit and go with the bare bones minimum since it was so dark out. We were in for a couple surprises... 1) Getting in the ocean at night is really creepy but REALLYcool. Like I said, the stars were unreal and the moon was setting. It was like straight out of a movie awesome! And it was also phytoplankton season! So every time we splashed or moved in the water, little fluourescent phytoplankton started glowing all around us. By far one of the COOLEST experiences ever. 2) You never know when a Japanese tour group is going to come strolling down the beach. Enough said. We didn't have on a whole lot of clothes... our friends/husbands thought this was quite hilarious. Again, like straight out of a movie... we were the only people for a half mile stretch of this beach and along comes the tour. Jessie and I have laughed about this for months. She's been one of my best buds here in Oki :) She's like my Andreea of Optometry school... when we get together, somehow we end up with the most rediculous stories and having the best time doing it!

The next day we rented scooters and scooted around the island. (Travis and his friends rented them the day before and got stuck in some torrential rain!) Chris decided he wanted to rent a tricycle scooter. It was like being in the movie Dumb and Dumber on that thing. :)

Travis and scooter

Trapped in the rain :(

The trike...

 We hope this isn't the last time we'll see the Keramas! Love this place :)

Dragon Boat Races (May 2012)

Every year, there are traditional Dragon Boat Races in several cities around Okinawa. One of the more popular races is near the capital city of Naha. We knew that traffic might be crazy, so we decided to drive part of the way and then ride down to the races on our bikes. We love our van for this reason :)

Julie, Chris, our 3 bikes, and one PB&J sandwich...soon to be devoured by Chris.

The 3 of us had a ton of fun exploring the area between Camp Kinser and Naha on bike. We rode on all sorts of small back roads.

Some pics of the boats,  acting like Japanese police officers and walking with 'beer goggles'. Great activities by the Okinawan police! :)

Our Van

Let's just say the cars in Oki are usually somewhat less than desirable... but we really lucked out with this van!! Chris looked for something like this for months... something to haul people, bikes, dive gear and all sorts of good stuff. It's even a yellow plate since it's fuel efficient. (In Oki we have white plates for 'normal' engine cars and yellow plates for fuel efficient/small engine cars) The van's engine is in the back, the battery is under the passenger seat, and it pretty much sounds like it's going to take off when we go over about 60km/hr. Our van has been involved in many great events: Van parties with the girls (Nicole, Diana, Jill, Lyndsey and Julie), naming Candy, the little dancing hula girl on the dashboard (w/ Mike, Steve and Chris), and loading it up with camping gear to take out to IeJima Island on a ferry with Chris' family! Here are some pics of the infamous van that we wish we could bring back with us to the states!

Northern Okinawa with the Steins (April 2012)

After getting back from Ishigaki, we had a day to hang around home, and then it was off for more adventures! We did go to the Japanese Naval Underground, which was another staggering reminder of WWII.
Our first adventure in Northern Oki with the Steins was to IE Island. A bunch of us signed up for the IE Island 'Marathon', which featured races with several distances: 3K, 5K, 10K and half marathon. Every race in Oki is called a 'Marathon'...you just sign up for the distance you want :) Our friend Hanashiro san helped us organize everything! She is amazing, and always lets us join in with her family here in Oki.
IE Island is pretty small, and when we went last year for the same race, we noticed that the campground seemed really nice. So we rented a bunch of camping gear, loaded up the van and headed across to the island on a ferry! Not only were we traveling with the Steins, but we also met Temi, his daughter Nyla, Luke, and Luke's new fiancee, Yuri! I'm sure our crew was a sight :)

This sign was in the ferry terminal...the bottom right photo is HILARIOUS! Seriously...we have no idea what it means.

Teaching Nyla how to stretch on the ferry :)

Camping gear explosion :)

Ok, so let's just say our camping gear was not the best. Temi and Nyla's tent was clearly missing some necessary poles, so we had to billyrig it with ropes...tie it up to the trees and use what poles we had. Awesome.

Temi showing off his billyrigged tent. 

After getting all of our gear set up, we went to get our stuff for the race. The race was actually in the afternoon, and then there was an after-race celebration. This is probably one of the most fun events in Okinawa! 

Pretty tough lookin' crew: Chrisx2, Nyla & Hannah

Temi & Nyla before the 3K

The mass insanity of the 3K...lots of orange shirts and lots of kids!!

Here are all of our race photos:
3K: photos of Hannah, Chris, Jenny, and Temi & Nyla
5K: me
half marathon: Chris

All smiles after the race :)

Chris and I both won prizes for our age groups!! 

He got 2nd in his age group and I got 3rd in mine.

I got a cool Ryukyu glass medal and a box of vegetables that were home grown on IE Island! The beans were delicious!

Chris looks like a giant!

Tim hangin out with all of our goods during the race!

We had some interesting Japanese food after the race...one of the most tasty treats was a taco type wrap...I don't know if was really that good or if I was just hungry, but I swear it tasted like it had Doritos in it. Hannah and I both chowed down! They also had a 'beer giveaway'. All of a sudden they announced free beer and everyone went running for this random tent. Temi and I just followed along :)

Well, we hit the sack early and woke up the next morning to some rain. It was very peaceful in the campground. We went out to explore a little bit in between the rain showers too! 

Nyla, Hannah & Chris

Van party!!!

We went down into a cave on IE Island... supposedly there is a rock down there that is special for pregnant women...depending on if it feels light or heavy will predict if you are having a boy or a girl. I picked it up for good luck anyways :)

Yuri just got engaged...she didn't want to lift up that rock just yet :)

Cave exploring!

After exploring the cave, we went to climb up to the tallest spot on IE Island. It's just this random rock that juts out of the center of the island. Here's our crew on the top! ...and the views coming back down. 

We caught the afternoon ferry back from IE and split off from our friends for yet another fun adventure with the Steins...Okuma! Okuma is a military resort here on Okinawa that has a ton of fun stuff to do. Chris stayed with the Steins for 3 days up there and they went snorkeling, jet skiing, rafting, etc...! We also walked to Hiji falls one day...nice walk in the woods with lots of spiders and lizards!

Hiji Falls

We had another amazing time with the Steins in Oki!!