Was Christmas any different in Okinawa than what we're used to in our previous western hemisphere previous holidays? A lot of the SOFA community focuses on the warmth, which is definitely hard to find in North America, but since our childhoods were more tropical, the warmth is only so-so here. Yes, the boys (John, Jordan & Josh) went outside to frolick in the sunshine with new toys after waking up to see what Santa brought us, while the awesome gals (Jane, Jessica & Betsy) slaved away on an awesome Christmas dinner. After that things got a little less typical for us. Early in the afternoon we loaded up the van & headed up to the Maeda Point (Maeda-misaki) in search of some good diving or snorkelling. Unfortunately, the winds & surf weren't cooperating with diving conditions that day. So we spent the gorgeous afternoon doing some fantastic snorkelling at nearby Maeda Flats. It was a bit reminiscent of the Murphy members' childhood Christmas days in the Caribbean, but this time we had an underwater camera & wetsuits (to keep us from shivering). All 6 of us got into the action (even Jordan) & saw lots of colorful underwater life. Then after that, right around sunset, we checked out nearby Cape Zampa (Zanpa-misaki) & the very photogenic lighthouse, walking trail & lookout point nearby. That part (traipsing around a lighthouse in shorts & flip-flops) was a new Christmas activity for all of us. ;-) It was indeed a merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Diving off the Sunabe Junkyard
For their 2nd ocean dive ever (the day after their first), Jane & John were introduced to the other end of the Sunabe sea wall, near the junkyard. The tide was pretty low (read: below comfort level) so the snorkel out was semi-exhausting (thanks, John, for safely transporting the camera for us). But after that intro was completed, the only bad thing was that the camera battery hadn't been recharged from the previous day's diving, so very few shots were captured of the area's lush coral scenery. The exit was actually even tougher since the tide was even lower so we actually did more coral walking (with very heavy gear in tow) than snorkelling. :-(
Friday, December 21, 2007
Jane & John's First Ocean Dive
On my siblings' 2nd full day of their 2-week visit over the Christmas holidays, we took them on their first ever SCUBA dive in salt water! That's right, no more frigid fresh-water North American rock quarry. ;-) Having been recently certified in Birmingham, Alabama (at our suggestion) before coming to visit us here in the coral-reef-diving wonderland that is Okinawa, Jane & John were ready to see what they'd been missing. We chose the very novice-friendly & nearby Sunabe Water Treatment Plant location (at the southern end of that section of the sea wall) as the first destination. Unfortunately, it was fairly overcast (the day before having been absolutely spectacular, of course) & the visibility down under wasn't the finest, but the newbies had a great first dive (unlike the photographer, Josh, whose "new" but very used BCD just refused to hold onto his tank). Things were really fine with the dive until a surface brought us to the realization that conditions below were better than above, where we left Brittany & Jordan, who had become miserable once the rains started & our misplaced van keys were nowhere to be found. Before John & Josh thoroughly demolished the driver door trying to break in, the astute neighbor who received our misplaced keys in her bag returned them to us, having seen our plight from her nearby apartment. And before too much longer the ordeal was done & we made a few adjustments in our future planning (so as not to repeat such potential disaster). Sorry again, Jordan & Brittany!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Couchsurfers, Part II (Checking out Ie Jima & enjoying "Pizza In The Sky")
Our couchsurfing friends, Jo & Brendan, returned to stay with us for a few more days, after a few weeks in mainland Japan & before heading back to Taiwan for several more weeks. And we were able to spend another lovely day showing them around our beautiful island home a bit more.
So we took them to a place we've been wanting to check out ourselves for quite some time, Ie Jima, a small island just west of Okinawa, off of Motobu Peninsula. After the short ferry ride over, we had a lovely time exploring by bicycle (which we rented for 1000 yen for the day). We were surprised to find that our 4.5 hrs (between ferries) did not afford enough time to see quite every sight that we wanted to.
We first found the Monument of Hokon & its adjacent park. It was a welcome first "catch-our-breath" break, being at the top of a rather steep hill. Then we made our way to the base of the prominent Mount Gusuku (shaped like a volcano), where we parked our bicycles & began climbing stairs. We first arrived at the mid observation deck & gift shop building. After a few minutes looking around, we made the hike to the top, which was only about 15 minutes of stair climbing. The views from atop the peak were wonderful. By the time we descended we were ready for some lunch, so we rode our bikes back into the town. Finding a COOP grocery store & a Hot Spar convenience store, we purchased some tasty food & settled down at a table in a little park nearby to enjoy it. Next, we decided to bike along the southern coast in search of the Niya-thiya Cave, where 1000 local people sought refuge during WWII bombings. We passed the Ernie Pyle Memorial park & inspected the monument to the US war correspondent who was killed there during WWII. Then we stopping along GI Beach, where we thought the cave should be. We explored several smaller caves & crevasses before deciding that we must not have gone quite far enough. And true to that suspicion, about 100 meters further on down the road, we found the very well-marked stairs leading down to the entrance of the large cave & it's legendary stone of power (which legend holds will assist a woman in becoming pregnant, if she lifts it; none in our group were allowed to attempt the lifting). Then, with only had a few minutes to play with before needing to be back at the port to return the bikes & board the ferry, we rode to Nishizaki fishing port nearby & stared down from the piers into the crystal clear waters at the sea life below. We did capture a few photos & video of some interesting fish out of water on a concrete pylon. And then it was a speedy bike ride back along the coast to Ie Port for the last returning ferry of the day at 4pm.
Once safely back on Okinawa around 4:30pm, we made our way to our favorite pizza joint, Cafe Kajinho (or "Pizza In The Sky," as the ex-pat community here fondly refers to it). There we had some wonderful views of the sunset skies & of course, some delicious pizza, salad & drinks.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
SCUBA Diving Just Got Even Better!
We love getting to delight in one of our favorite parts about living where we currently do - SCUBA diving!! It's especially fun when we try a new location or see new sights or have new toys to play with. So for our first experience aboard Captain Mark's "Sea Lady IV", we were delighted with several new things. A new place was introduced in the way of the very vibrant corals at "Ammo" (aka "Mark's") Reef, not far out from the western shore of Okinawa, about halfway between Kadena Marina & Araha Beach (straight out from Sunabe "Junkyard," sort of). The name is derived from the WWII ammunitions still seen from time-to-time in the area (hopefully never handled in any way by divers that see them) or from one of the few boat captains that knows about it (if you prefer the latter of the names presented). It was indeed pristine (relative to the popular spots right up against the same shore that we've frequented over the past year). It was also our first dive with our new dive camera (SeaLife DC500 with an external flash) which isn't actually new to the ocean but it's new to US! We purchased it from one of Betsy's coworkers that is moving back Stateside in a few short weeks. We went a little nuts taking photos in our 50-min dive (these are all from the first of our 2 dives of the day, because we exhausted the battery & about 2/3 of the memory card in that short time span). But we got some fantastic shots (& some half-decent that I probably should have deleted but didn't)!!
Our second (unphotographed) dive of the day turned out to be our first night dive. We did not plan it that way but fortunately at least 1 diver decided not to go down so he loaned us his awesome UK HID dive light (costs over $200 which is a lot for a flashlight, y'all!). So yeah, we're now officially spoiled for life on choice of lights, but boy, was night-diving cool. I bogarted the light so poor Betsy just held my hand & had to either look where I was aiming it or stare into darkness. It was so cool to see the same reef area before & after dark. You can really concentrate on the details at night. We saw an awesome pink stonefish & bright red shrimp (under a ledge) & multi-colored eel (medium sized) protruding with his mouth agape. We're definitely looking forward to getting our Advanced certification (probably soon after we buy much cheaper dive lights) & maybe a few free specialty certs!P.S. Thanks to Kadena Marina's free specialty course of the month promotion (sponsored by PADI), Betsy & I are now also enriched air (aka nitrox) certified. It happened just 2 days after this day of diving, so we're anxious to get out & try a new gas! Yippeee!!!
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