Birthday weekend up north

In honor of celebrating Betsy's completion of 28 years of life, we spent a lovely weekend on the far northern end of Okinawa. We spent much of the time at Okuma Joint Forces Recreation Facility. There we did such things as SCUBA diving (off a boat, for once), camping (although we never got in our tent, opting instead to try sleeping in the back of our van; if there had been any wind at all, there's a chance that we could have slept thru the raucous noise from young Marines in the campground), biking & hiking. And, of course, eating at the Surfside Restaurant. From there we drove to the northern tip, Cape Hedo-misaki, where we took way too many photos. Then we checked out a hiking park nearby with some very cool rock formations & vegetation. On our way home, we stopped at a roadside beach on the Pacific side & did some snorkelling. Yes, we got a LITTLE sun & a FEW bug bites! ;-)

10,000 Eisa Dancers!

We ventured with John, Amanda & Cayce down to Naha & its infamous Kokusai Dori on a gorgeous Sunday to witness the annual "10,000 Eisa Dancers" performing in the streets. Hoping to avoid a headache in parking (both in terms of time & cost) we decided to park at Jusco & take the monorail, which turned out to be quite easy & kinda fun! We'd seen Eisa dances previously but this was the first time to see quite so many spectators & definitely so many young kids dancing in the groups.

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Festival at Sunset Mihama Beach

We heard there was a festival going on quite close to our apartment on Sunset Beach (we often ride our bikes or even walk by there). Sure enough, there was! They had yummy festival food & we saw some cool fireworks!

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Biking in the morning

Betsy has started biking to work (2 days in a row now) with a coworker & friend (Kristen Pon). And this morning (2nd day) Josh joined them until they hit Gate 1 of Kadena AFB, where the gals went inside & Josh kept going around the base! He made it successfully all the way around, but admits that he did get off his bike on one long, arduous hill. Maybe next time he won't have to (he doubts it). He ended up completing about 14.5 miles total. Here is the route he took:

Expensive fruit!!

We've noticed that locally grown produce tends to be a LOT more expensive than imported varieties. Our rudimentary knowledge of economics (some might say lack thereof) would assume the opposite, that costs would be decreased for production locally. But take a look at these mangos:

From Okinawa - FOO...

The exchange rate averages about 115 yen to the US dollar, so this wooden cushioned box of 5 Okinawan mangos costs the equivalent of US$111. The Mexican imports cost about $2 each. The explanation we've heard thru word-of-mouth is that strict agricultural laws/standards here in Okinawa tends to produce a very high quality of produce, hence the outrageous price difference. Wish we could afford to investigate!! ;-)

Trip to the States

So we made the destination of our first vacation since moving to Okinawa to visit loved ones back in the US! I know, I know, we want to check out Asia while we're here, but we can't help that we're lovers! ;-) We had a GREAT trip too, so we're glad we did it. We began our 2 weeks with a long weekend at a house on Lake Oconee in Buckhead, GA, setting for Betsy's 10-yr CA class reunion. There were 10 former classmates in attendance (average CA class size was about 16), many with spouses & even kids. It was so much fun. We almost won the prize for farthest trip also, but Kelly beat us, coming all the way from Manila!

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From there we headed to Birmingham, Alabama for 3 nights to visit family & friends. Our close friends Ludwig & Ana flew in from RDU to visit us for a full day. While in B'ham, we managed to squeeze in such things as a McWane Center visit & some yummy lunch at Surin West, plus many more adventures that we forgot to document photographically! We then went to Atlanta for 2 nights & Josh's family followed. Betsy had to spend 16 hrs of 2 days at a continuing ed course (conveniently close to Josh's Grandma's house). Josh got to go to 6 Flags with his siblings & nephew, but the whole family found time for a delicious Caribbean dinner at a golden restaurant discovery by John!

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Upon departure from Atlanta, we kidnapped our 6-yr-old nephew Jordan (not really, his mom gave her consent). First stop was 2 nights (but only 1 day) in Fayetteville, NC with close friends Lisa & Alex. We had fun in the sun at a park near their house, followed by a fantabulous dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the world, The Mash House! (We turned the camera over to Jordan around halfway thru this album! He's got some talent, huh?)

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And our last 4 days were spent in SC with Betsy's family. First stop was her cousin 's family in Columbia, the Jackson 5! We only got to spend about 4-5 hours with Carolyn & Bryan but we had a great time playing with little boys. Somehow our camera was completely neglected (perhaps we were distracted?) while we were there or else we'd prove how yummy our falafels were! ;-)

The next 3 fun-filled nights we spent at Folly Beach with Betsy's parents & grandparents & cousins (on her mom's side). We ate too much & got quite sun-burned before it was time to leave, so you know it was a GREAT time!!

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Kelly's visit

Our childhood friend from boarding school (CA) in Venezuela, Kelly Schlonecker, came to visit us for a week en route back to visit her family/friends in the US for the summer (she lives/works in Manila currently). We had a great time with her & she made sure we took lots of photos!

Remembering WWII in Okinawa

Since it was the anniversary of the WWII Battle of Okinawa, we decided to visit Peace Prayer Park on a very nice (but very hot) Saturday. It is a venue we have been planning to check out for a while now. John, Amanda & baby Cayce were our chauffeurs & companions on the excursion. And we were certainly not the only people on Okinawa in our decision to do something so appropriate on such a day! The park was quite busy, as were the roadways nearby. Let's just say parking was an adventure (& not a quick one)! There were special memorial services set up that attracted the largest crowds. The language barrier did not make those quite as meaningful to us, so we mostly concentrated on what we could definitely absorb.

Peace Prayer Park

We absolutely recommend a visit to the park, if you're able. It was HIGHLY informative in regards to Japan's history related to WWII, especially what happened on Okinawa (both during & after the fighting). The Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of World War II, with more than 12,000 Americans and 107,500 Japanese troops killed, along with at least 42,000 Okinawa citizens dead. Make no mistake, it was sobering to learn of the horrendous effects of war, especially on innocent civilian lives that are most likely taken for granted by both sides of the conflict. But it was good to see such a venue for us, dedicated to achieving peace through understanding the experiences of others. Since we did not experience any of that piece of history first hand, this type of memorial allowed us to get as close to being there as possible. Time ran out on us before we could visit the Memorial Hall monument (including Butterfly Garden & Art Gallery) so we'll probably be back at this park again! Come join us!!

Another gorgeous sunset - June 19

We took 8 good photos of this one!

Okinawa Zoo

We visited the much maligned (by those few who we know have visited) Okinawa "Kodomo no Kuni" (a zoo & kid's park), which is not far from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa City. The weather cooperated for us (especially considering that it's very much rainy season right now) & the animal collection they housed was actually pretty decent, in terms of quantity, variety & exoticity (is that a word?). I guess, coming from North America, it's not hard to show us animals that we'd consider exotic. We were a little saddened by several of the habitats (mainly the ostriches & hippos & a few others), but otherwise we thought it was worth the time & 500-yen entrance fee.

Okinawa Zoo

The centrally located pond was kind of amusing. Walking along the boardwalk, the carp would actually follow you because they were so used to people throwing food (which was sold in vending machines) to them. And when people did throw food in, it was utter madness seeing all the teeming mouths gaping to get the crumbs. The way they behaved you'd think they were starving, but they were all fat & huge! The Okinawa Marine publication recently did a nice little write-up on the park (which includes a couple more attractions targeted directly at kids)/