Exploring Northern Okinawa (Summer 2012)

Yes, I'm writing this in January 2014, but this is now an effort to finish this blog I started years ago so that Chris and I can have a journal/photo journal of some of our favorite memories from our time in Okinawa. Why now? Well, quite honestly, I sucked at keeping up with this blog in Oki b/c we were so busy! We wanted to be outside! Not inside writing :) Now that it's winter in Seattle and I'm recovering from a surgery, it's time to finish!

Northern Oki. I need to show you a map! Chris and I made a list about a year before we were leaving to make sure that we would do our best to do everything we wanted in Okinawa. One of the items on the list was to explore Northern Okinawa...and what better way to do that than on a tandem bike?!?

We spent a couple different weekends up there exploring the backroads. We used to joke that we would determine how good our adventure was by the lack of Americans we saw... let's just say we did really good! Mostly b/c it is just a desolate area though haha.

The Van with The Bike

We parked a few miles East of the the most Northern point in Oki and started our adventure down the road on the Northeast side of the island. We ended up riding from Oku down to near Ada. It was about a 20 mile round trip day. And just surreal! So incredibly beautiful! Oh, and Chris and I didn't have iPhones when we lived in Oki, but now that I do have one, I can show you pretty much what we did that day (bonus to finishing this blog years later haha). 

So seriously friends, go open up your map on your iPhone, go to Kunigami, Okinawa, and zoom in on this area!

Nerds :)

I will NEVER get over my love for a good animal sign... pigs, birds, turtles, roadkill?!?

AMAZING views from the road... 

It was nearly impossible for me to really capture the serenity of the day. The road was quiet... a VERY welcome break from the madness of the roads by where we lived in Oki. We really could just hear our own breathing, the sound of the windmills and the bike. The views coming in and out of the curves on the road were breathtaking. It was too hard to capture sometimes with just a photo. I have some videos, but they still do no justice to portray the peacefulness of the day. If you zoom in on a map, you'll get it :)

Sometimes I couldn't stop staring in my rearview mirror :)

Fruit snack?

After a nice ride on the bike, we stopped at Cape Hedo at the most Northern point of Oki. 

And just so no one forgets... yes, he is my Jungleman ahahaha. #okinawanvendingmachinesarethebomb

Well, that was Day 1 of exploring. And a relatively flat bike ride. For Day 2, we decided to head up into the hills! Just pick a spot on Map #1 a couple mm north of the Kunigami dot. We were in that mess of forest somewhere... near a big lake! We had no idea how beautiful the dammed up reservoir would be. But holy crap was it a tough ride to get up there. Uphill on a tandem is some work! 

Note the sign as we headed up the hill. Don't piss off the fish with your trash haha.

I should also mention that we had a couple run-ins with flat tires on this ride. Luckily Chris had the tools to fix them both! Yes, it happened twice in one ride. And no, I didn't take any photos of Mr. Handyman. 

 Our adventure on Day 2 was even more desolate. No cars at all!
Gotta love the Okinawan backroads!!

My view :)

We got lost. For real. No fancy phones with maps; just went with Chris' 'gut' that the reservoir road probably made a loop. Lucky for us it did and we didn't have to retrace our path! I have a good sense of direction, but when you don't know where the roads go, it gets tricky!! These were some of the only signs we saw at an intersection. 

Turned out to be a couple great days on the bike. 

Couldn't have asked for a better weekend with Chris!

Ps. What we imaginied Okinawa was going to look like...

Races! (Spring 2012)

Just like anywhere in America, you can find races anytime on this island! Summer is definitely not for the heat intolerant though, so the longer running races are usually in the cooler months. The Marine bases here have TONS of events as well... so we tried to take advantage this Spring :)

Chris and my friend Chrissy signed up for a half marathon road race on the island... it was a pretty cool setup where they went over a long bridge onto one of the outlying islands. It was a beautiful day and we brought our favorite dog along too. Lily!! If you've read past posts, she's made several appearances... we dog sit for her whenever our friends Jill and Michael go out of town. Well, the race was really cool, but bringing Lily along sure did make for some fun stories that day.

Just like everywhere else in Japan, this race was JAM PACKED! People everywhere and parking was kinda far from the start. We ended up parking in a lot and having to take a shuttle bus. We weren't sure if dogs were allowed on the bus, so I just put her in a tote bag. Yeah, she's not that small, but it was really funny. She didn't make a peep, but her butt eventually started falling out of the bag and people on the bus started to notice. They all loved her though. They all said 'kawaii!!', which means 'cute'. Lily just eats up the attention... all you have to do is look at her and she starts wagging her tail. Happiest dog ever!!

Chrissy & I in the parking lot

Lily's ready for the bus ride!

Chris and Chrissy got to the start area, so Lily and I took off walking up on the big bridge so we could find a good spot to cheer them on. 

Most content dog ever :)

Chris excited to see Lily! 

Cool costumes dudes!

Lily gets hungry again. 

Chris and Chrissy both did great! Fun day in the spring sun for the 3 of us and Lil :)


Random photo: Chris did a bike race and snapped this photo... probably don't see this too often in the states!












Next up, triathlons!! Since finding out in Aug 2010 that I have a longstanding back problem, running had not been part of my life anymore. It was a huge blow! But, I feel incredibly fortunate that I live here in Oki. Why? Well, it's temperate year round, I'm surrounded by military where working out is a part of life, and I came to a great place to take up swimming! Chrissy, Lyndsey and I had been swimming together for several months, and I was finally feeling more comfortable in the water... even though I'm super slow in comparison to anyone that's swam most of his/her life. I laugh b/c I still remember almost failing swimming in gym class in high school. I was so bad at it... it was rediculous! Anywho, I don't think I would've been able to get to the point where I am now without the help of Chrissy and Lyndsey. Running: well, after not running for a whole year, I decided to start slow. I'm at the point where I can run 2-3 miles once a week. It actually doesn't hurt me at all to run! It's just afterwards that I have pain radiate through my leg if I push it too hard. And finally, biking. I LOVE my mountain bike. I can hop on that thing at any time and bust it out, but it's a wee bit too small for me, and Chris really wanted to build me a road bike! He worked so hard on rebuilding a bike so that the handlebars where up high enough for me so I didn't hunch over while I'm riding. One of the toughest things I deal with everyday now is that I cannot slouch. Not one bit. I have to have my back straight all the time. I still sneak rides on my mountain bike every once and awhile though :)

Ok, so the races. I did my first very mini triathlon, and the swim was in the ocean! It was pretty rough... not gonna lie. Chris did it with me, and he's about the same pace I am in the water. At one point, I looked over and he was doing the backstroke :) Love that guy b/c after he got outta the water, he went on to kill it on the bike and run and still place.

Walking our bikes to the start. I look rediculous on that red bike, but it worked!

My first triathlon finish!! Slow, but steady :)

Chrissy and I afterwards. She's one of my #1 motivators! We continued to swim from May to November twice a week at 5:30am. We never missed a week unless one of us was traveling! Now that's a good partner :) 

Chris may have crashed his bike, but he's still smiling. And he placed. And he still has some of those scars. 

 As much as I was just thrilled to be able to do a triathlon, I felt like I wanted to do one more b/c I thought maybe I could go just a little faster and farther :) This one had a pool swim instead too! Chris, Chrissy and Chrissy's husband, Eric all came to cheer me on. The run was great, the bike was rediculously slow b/c it was windy and I was sitting straight up like I was blocking the wind for everybody and their brother, and then the pool swim at the end was awesome! I'm still pretty slow in comparison to lots of my athletic peers out here, but I am just so thankful that I didn't lose all of my drive to try to get back out running and biking again! 

And swimming has definitely saved my sanity :) 

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!