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!!

Ishigaki with the Steins (April 2012)

In April, Chris' sister and her family came back out to Oki for round 2!! We started off the visit by taking a short flight over to Ishigaki Island; it's about halfway between here and Taiwan. We stayed at hotel with a really sweet freezing COLD pool!

Hannah and I decided to act like we were beached whales. I love acting like a kid :)

We got everyone in on the beached whale action!!

Jenny enjoying the nice weather.

That evening, we went to eat at a great Yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku means 'grilled meat'. You are served prepared raw meat and veggies and then you grill it up yourself! This place was called Maru, and it was probably some of the best meat I've ever had. It's famous for the Ishigaki beef.

After dinner, we went to check out a cool park. Once we figured out where it was, we decided it would be extra fun to go back after dark to check out the stars! Well, it was cloudy, but we did have a lot of fun up there both nights we tried to see the stars... we checked out wierd bugs that had bioluminescent butts. Yes. That's right. Their butts were glowing. They were all over the hillside, but it was very difficult to photograph b/c they were moving too! And we also checked out a creepy egg building at night and took some fun photos. Oh, and most importantly, we saw our first Habu snake! Yes, the famous Habu that is deadly but hardly anyone sees while they are here in Oki. Ours was not in such a deadly spot, but still creepy to see it slithering along the road.

The Steins at the top of the park.

The 'egg' building

Glowing bug butt. :)

Night photo fun!

The Habu Snake!!!!! 

On day 2, we took a ferry ride over to Iriomote Island... yes, it's pretty remote, just like it sounds. We checked out the famous Hoshizuna no hama, or the Star Sand Beach. Some of the sand grains are actually minute protozoan fossils! Pretty cool. The beach itself was a gorgeous place for some swimming and snorkeling as well.

The star sand...you'll have to blow this one up to see the star shapes!

The beach

After hitting up the beach, we went on a boat ride down the Urauchi River in Iriomote. It was very serene... we felt like we were in the Amazon!

Oh, and supposedly there are wildcats that live in Iriomote... Hannah and I were on the hunt! Check out the one we found hiding in the woods...

We even found a special wildcat sign!

We wandered around the river for a little while where Hannah did some serious crabbing...

Mangroves

Sinking in!

Rawr! Watch out for the Iriomote wildcat!

A few pics from the ferry ride there and back... the way back was on the very loud 'work' ferry. I think construction workers use it to travel between islands. 

The loud ferry! 

Dinner at a Hawaiian restaurant. Hana means flower in Japanese. We forced poor Hannah into this photo op!











The next morning, Chris and I got up early to go hike Mt. Nosoko, one of two 'mountain' hikes on Ishigaki. It was pretty foggy, but we decided to go for it. The entrance looked a little sketchy, and I actually thought the hike was pretty creepy!! We had to break a ton of spider webs on a trail that was often buried in pretty thick foliage. Chris also spotted another Habu!! This was a little more scary this time since we were out in the woods. We also saw lots of lizards...who all seemed to have great little lizard personalities :) And we definitely heard some serious rustling in the woods! I think it was an inoshishi (Wild Pig)!!! We did make it to the top to find that it was socked into the clouds and mist. It was still a nice way to enjoy the morning.

The entrance

Can you spot the Habu???

Spider webs. Ick. But pretty cool looking!

My hero, the web breaker!

Foggy view from the top

 

Mt. Nosoko as we were leaving!! Just missed out on the view.

Ishigaki was a great trip... beautiful island full of farmland and sugarcane fields. We headed back to the mainland of Oki on day 3. There's still another adventure ahead for this Stein visit...