Typhoon Jelawat

This weekend we had another typhoon visit the island. I swear the only times typhoons come are on the weekends! It's crazy! I also feel like we're having a ton of typhoons. This is the 4th one since we've been here in 2 1/2 months. Thankfully typhoon season ends on November 1st, so we only have one more month of this craziness!

We had known since Monday that a typhoon was predicted to hit on the weekend, so we had all week to prepare. However, this typhoon seemed like it was being down played compared to the other typhoons we had this season. There were the normal casual reminders posted by the Base Facebook pages to secure all outdoor items and stock up on food but there was no posts that made this seem like it was going to be a bad typhoon. Especially since the typhoon had already downgraded from a Super Typhoon to just a Typhoon by the time it hit us. Let me tell you, it was the worst typhoon we've experienced! We woke up to the sound of rain pelting our window at 7AM on Saturday. I looked outside and it was crazy windy! The wind and rain kept up until about 11AM; that is when the eye of the storm was over us. It was pretty calm while the eye was over us between 11AM - 1PM. After that, the back end of the storm brought even more crazy wind and rain. We have like a forest of trees behind our house and they were going wild! We also saw trash cans flying all over our neighborhood. At about 3PM, our power went out! Chad was taking a nap at this point, so he doesn't even remember the power going out. Thankfully, it was only out for 20 minutes! Some of the neighborhoods on base had lost power for practically the whole day; we got very lucky! I think that it was about 5PM that the storm had finally passed and things started to calm back down. We had gone in to TCCOR-Recovery, which means we still have to stay in our house but the recovery teams were out picking up damage. Chad and I knew that we probably wouldn't go into TCCOR Storm Watch (where they let us out) until the morning.

People were posting on Facebook pictures of damages around them. There were a lot of damaged cars! There is even a video of a car being picked up by the wind that is posted below. It was crazy! Thankfully our cars are still upright and we saw no damage to our property. Well, Chad did lose one of those rain guards off his window and has a small (he says it's big) dent in the side of his car. But other than that, I'd say we got pretty lucky!

 

Today we went to drive around to see some of the damages. All we saw were a TON of downed trees and tree branches. They were everywhere, including our yard! We have two tall trees in front of our place that had a bunch of branches ripped off from them and they all landed right in our yard. Perfect! We cleaned a bunch of that up this morning. Typhoons leave our cars with this super nasty grime on them, so we washed our cars today. Everyone and their brother were at the car wash, so we bought the supplies to wash them at home. I for sure thought we wouldn't be able to find everything we needed because that seems how it always happens but we did for once! Yay!

Today's weather was perfect! It was super nice outside and there was a nice breeze so it just made for a perfect day. Chad and I went on a 3.5 mile walk/run tonight. While we were running, Chad found a rain guard exactly like the one that the wind ripped off his car on the ground. He thought for sure it was his, so we ran back to the house to check. Sadly, it wasn't the right one for his car. He was bummed! I just thought that was a funny story :)

Garlic, Garlic, Garlic!

On Saturday evening, we tried out a new restaurant. Does it seem like we're always eating? It's because we are! I swear it's one of the only things to do around here! I won't be able to lose any weight until we try out all the good restaurants! Haha! We went to Arin Krin aka The Garlic Restaurant. We were able to walk right in and get a table. I guess usually it's such a busy place that people make reservations. We got lucky! After ordering, our food came super fast too! All the portions are smaller, so we were told to order several things to share. We ordered the garlic pizza, garlic fried rice, and fried garlic. The garlic pizza was amazing! I could eat that all day! The garlic fried rice was good but not as good as Arashis garlic fried rice. I didn't really care for the fried garlic. It was kind of blah! I would definitely go back and get the garlic pizza again and try something else off their menu. They have tons of dishes to choose from all made with garlic! Our breath sure did smell nice as we left that restaurant.

Sunday was more of an adventurous day. I am looking for things to decorate our house with, so we went to find this home furnishing store called Nitori. It's known as the Ikea of Okinawa. To get to it, we had to take a road that we hadn't been on before, so that was cool to see a new part of the island. It wasn't too hard to find either! I was kind of disappointed though, since they didn't have a lot of house decorations there. I didn't find anything that I liked or what I did find was expensive. Right next door is a place called Sports Depot, so we decided to check that out. It reminded me of a Dick's Sporting Goods like we have back home. They had name brand stuff like Adidas, Uunder Armour, Nike, etc. I like finding new places! After that, we headed to Navel Kadena to check out the stores there. I was on a hunt for picture frames today, but sadly didn't find any that were too appealing. There is a fish market at Navel Kadena where we saw some pretty interesting things. I wonder how you're suppose to cook some of this stuff!

I had chicken ranch tacos in the crockpot for dinner, so we headed home after looking in all the stores at Navel Kadena. This was a new recipe that I tried out, usually we make chicken salsa tacos in the crockpot. They were delicious, but not as delicious as my chicken salsa tacos! :) Once our stomachs were full, we headed to Foster (the Marine base down the road) to see where I need to go for my job interview next week. I drove this time, and if you've been following my blog, you will know this is one of the first times I have drove off base. The drive went much smoother this time, no almost accidents! Thank God! I am becoming more comfortable driving off base... I kinda need to be since I have to do it without Chad to get to my interview! After finding the building I will need to go to, we checked Foster's PX to see if they had any different picture frames than our BX but of course they didn't. I guess I will just have to order them online! On our way back to Kadena, we stopped at the Blue Seal Ice Cream place. I see this Ice Cream shop every time we go somewhere and I always want to stop! I was driving this time, so I made sure we stopped :) I'm glad we did because it was really good ice cream! We took a short walk while we ate our ice cream and then we headed home. You would think we'd be tired out from all our running around but the night doesn't stop there. I changed my clothes and we were out the door for an evening stroll. We haven't really taken a walk since we got a car, before that we were walking all over the base (we didn't really have a choice!). It was nice to get out and walk again plus the weather is almost perfect walking weather these days. Not too hot and definitely not cold. We walked all around our neighborhood and then across the main road to Washington Heights and all through that neighborhood. We walked pretty far. I'm a creep but I like looking in people's houses at night to see how they have it decorated. Yes, I just admitted that. Close your blinds people or I'll be peeping! :)

Now we're finally home just relaxing on the couch! Chad is playing his Call of Duty while I'm on the computer. Seems that's usually how our nights go!

Ferris Wheel

We haven't done a whole lot this week but I am feeling the need to write a blog post because I don't have much else to do at the moment!

On Tuesday we went to American Village to ride the ferris wheel. We've been wanting to do this for awhile now but just haven't found the time. We wanted to ride it while the sun was setting in hopes of getting some good pictures! Unfortunately, the sunset on Tuesday wasn't very pretty. It was still fun and cool to see Okinawa at a birds eye view!

I had my first cheerleading practices on Monday & Thursday night this week. They went well! We're just teaching the girls the basics for now. I know it's kind of boring for the girls but good basics means a good routine later on!

On Thursday morning, I attended my first Turbo Kick class at the gym on base. I have been doing Turbo Fire, an at home workout program, for about 40 days now. Turbo Fire is the at home version of the fitness class they have at many gyms called Turbo Kick. It is different from what I have been doing but the basic moves are the same. I would have been LOST if I had not done Turbofire or Turbojam before. It's an upbeat cardio kickboxing class. It was a lot of fun! I am glad I tried it out. I think I'll be going every Thursday from now on just to switch up from my normal routine. I'm sure I burn a lot more calories when I take a live class because I feed off from the energy of those around me.

Also on Thursday, I received a call for a job interview! It's for a youth program assistant position. I'm kind of nervous, I haven't interviewed for a job in like 3 years! The interview is next Tuesday, so I'll let you know how it goes!

My friend Krista informed me that I could sign up for Rosetta Stone at the library, so I went one day this week to get signed up! The best part is that it is free! So now I am using it to learn Japanese! It's hard! The first day I was using it, I was cracking myself up. They say a phrase and then you have to speak it back. When I really listened to what was coming out my mouth, I couldn't help but laugh! I've learned some basic words so far but I still have a long way to go. I hope by the end of the program, I'll be able to at least understand some Japanese!

So now it's Friday night and I have nothing better to do but write a blog post... pretty lame. Chad and I went out to dinner tonight but we really didn't know what do after so we just came back home. Sometimes those are the best nights though! I'm sure we'll do some adventuring this weekend that I will blog about later!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

So we have another typhoon headed our way! I've had many people ask me, another typhoon? Yup! Here in Okinawa, typhoon season runs from June to November. So we get several during that time period! They always seem to come on the weekends too... Boo! Here are some updates as we weather the storm...

Friday

• TCCOR 3 was declared - Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are possible within 48 hours. 

Saturday

• Midnight: TCCOR 2 was declared - Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are anticipated within 24 hours. 
• 10:30AM: Chad and I went to the BX to look for a hammer. Of course, they were all out of hammers. One of these times, the BX will have what we are looking for when we go there! So we decide that we will go off base to the hardware store. I haven't drove off base yet, so Chad made me drive for the first time. Of course as soon as we get off base it starts to downpour! The local roads get very slippery when they are wet. I came inches away from hitting a car in front of me when trying to slow down. It was so scary! It reminded me as if I were back in MI on a snowy day trying to come to a stop and you can't slow down, your breaks lock up.. yeah.. not fun. I told Chad to look up if we had gone in TCCOR 1 yet, and of course we had. After almost getting in a car accident and realizing that we didn't want to be out in the down pour, we decided we would head back without getting a hammer.
• TCCOR 1 was declared - Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are anticipated within 12 hours.

•  3:30PM: After putting together our new TV stand, we realized the weather wasn't getting any worse for the time being. We decided to go off base and try to find a hammer. We went to Makeman which is this huge store that reminds me of a Lowes or a Home Depot. They didn't have the exact kind of hammer Chad was looking for but we bought one that would work. We also needed a gas can for our new lawn mower, but Kadena BX were all out and all we found at Makeman were huge ones. So we decided to check out the PX on Foster to see if they had any in stock. Of course they didn't. I did get a nice gift out of the trip though :) Chad bought me a new coach purse! I always eye them when I go to the BX and I finally found one that I really liked. 
• 7:45PM: We came home and Chad put together a DVD stand that we bought. We also tried to put our futon together but Chad broke a bolt in the process. We don't remember seeing any bolts at the hardware store we visited earlier, so I'm not sure where we're going to get one at. Sometimes it sucks living in a foreign country. If we were home, we could just hit up the local Ace hardware and be all set. Ugh! After realizing we wouldn't be able to put it together, we started making Chicken Divan for dinner. Yum! The wind and rain is starting to pick up outside but nothing major yet. We are still in TCCOR 1.
• 10:00PM: TCCOR 1C was declared - Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are anticipated within 12 hours. Actual winds are 34-49 knots.

Sunday

• 5:00AM: TCCOR 1E was declared - Actual winds of 50 knots or greater. 
• 8:30AM: I woke up and looked outside to see that it is still very windy and rainy. Sadly, one of our little trees in our backyard has snapped in half. I don't see any damage looking out from any of my windows. The wind looks worse to me than any that I saw last typhoon. But then again, typhoon Bolaven hit us mainly when it was too dark to see anything. I slept like a baby last night, I was not awoken by the wind howling or rain hitting against our windows. Our houses are built to last typhoons, so I love being able to feel safe in it! About an hour ago, the eye of the storm was going over the northern part of the island (we are more southern). We are still in TCCOR 1E.
• 1:00PM: TCCOR 1 Recovery was declared - Destructive winds of 50 knots are no longer occurring. Actual winds are 34-49 knots.
• This means we still have to stay in our house until Storm Watch is called. We have just been finishing up season 6 of Lost all day.

• 4:00PM: Chad and I are getting anxious to get out of the house. We want to hit up a hardware store someone told me about to see if we can get a new bolt for our futon. We also want to go to Arashi's for dinner. At this time, we're still stuck in the house! Boo! There is very little wind and rain, we're just waiting for the emergency crews to get everything picked up.
• 4:30PM: Storm Watch was called which means we are allowed to leave the house but the base may still be experiencing some effects from the storm. Yay! We headed to Navel Kadena where we were told there is a DIY store. We found it pretty easily and it has pretty much everything you can think of! We found the bolt that we needed for our futon thankfully :) After that we headed to Arashis for some fried garlic rice. I think I may have gotten Chad addicted to something other than Dragons! We went to check out the seawall after dinner to see the ocean. It was so windy and the waves were HUGE! It was pretty cool! After that we headed home and started putting together our spare bedroom. We put together the futon and hung up a bunch of Michigan State stuff. Pictures to come as soon as I get the clutter gone!

We didn't see any major damage from the storm. I did notice a lot of tree branches around, a lot more than the last typhoon.

Month 2 in Review

I wanted to try to recap Month 2 like I previously did for Month 1. Lets see how I do...

• Having a car is amazing!
• Each of us having our own car is even more amazing!
• We survived our first real typhoon!
• I've learned as soon as someone mentions the word typhoon, the line for the commissary is wrapped around the store. People aren't just buying 1 or 2 things, they have like carts full. Don't these people buy groceries other than when a typhoon comes?
• We've discovered more huge spiders, thankfully no more have been in our house
• The aquarium here has the most awesome huge fish tank that I could sit and stare at all day
• They grow delicious pineapple on the island, especially at Pineapple park!
• Don't buy a pineapple at the commissary unless you think it's worth $7! At one point in my life, it took me over an hour to make $7 at work!
• Last month, we had watched the first 5 seasons of True Blood. We have now watched 5 seasons of Lost!
• I love going to the beach at night to watch the sunset
• The BX is like our second home, we make a trip there at least every other day if not everyday
• Chad and I are all stocked up on shampoo, conditioner, and toilet paper for awhile now thanks to my couponing skills.
• We think we're getting used to the humidity. I don't sweat every time I walk out the door now.
• Chad is officially addicted to the Chinese restaurant, Dragons.
• I miss my fresh water beaches! Salt water sucks!
• Even though we live on an island, water shoes are not easily accessible.
• We went snorkeling for the first time since we've been here. I see many snorkel trips in our future.
• Our bed is heaven compared to the loaner bed we slept on for 2 months!
• The internet on base sucks! There is only one internet provider so we have no other choice. We pay for the most expensive package, yet it's still slow. Today it didn't work all day. If you call them, you will be on hold forever and waste all your cellphone minutes. 
• Don't take 58 all the way north if you have concrete plans, because you may get stuck in traffic!
• It rains at least once a day on the island, even if it's only for 2 minutes. It still rains everyday. 
• Mexican food is not the same here as it is back home. This makes me sad!
• I love doing puzzles. I've put together 3 in the last month!
• Finally having all of our stuff here is nice, but we were just starting to like the fact that we had nothing here to make clutter!

Marinos

I think I found my new favorite restaurant today! It's called Marinos and it's an Italian restaurant. I had read good reviews about it so I definitely wanted to check it out. The menu is divided into "sets", since it was just the 2 of us, we looked at the sets for 2 people. When ordering a set, everyone shares the same food. The set that we got included soup, cheese fondue, choice of pizza or pasta, 3 desserts from the dessert bar and free drink refills. The drink refills alone is amazing, a lot of places here don't give you free refills like they do in the states. 

The soup came out first. We think it was some type of vegetable soup, it was pretty good. Then came the good stuff, the cheese fondue and bread to dip in it. It was amazing! 

 Next our pizza came out. We got the pizza called "Bologna pizza" but it's not what it sounds. It didn't have any bologna on it! It had 3 different meats on it; sausage, ham, and pepperoni. It was good! 

After stuffing our faces with the delicious cheese and pizza, we decided to check out the dessert bar. We got to pick 3 different desserts. My favorite was the berry ice cream, it was so good! 

It cost us a little under $40 to eat here (we paid in Yen), so it was kind of expensive for just the two of us. It was definitely worth it though with how good the food was and how much food you got! I think also why this may be one of my favorites is because it was more Americanized than a lot of the restaurants that we've been to. Not only the food but the restaurant atmosphere as well.

Christmas in September!

I have been checking Chad's email periodically since the beginning of September praying for an email from TMO saying our stuff is ready to be delivered. I even emailed the moving company who packed our stuff to see if they were able to track it - they never did respond, thanks a lot! On Friday morning, there was finally an email saying our stuff had arrived in Okinawa! I immediately called them to schedule a delivery date. The soonest they could deliver it was Monday. We were anxious all weekend for our stuff to finally be here. The loaner bed that we had been sleeping on seriously sucks. I haven't had one good nights sleep since I got here!

We weren't told a time that the movers would be here, we just knew that it would be sometime on Monday. We had just gotten done eating breakfast and our doorbell rang! YAY! Not even 2 minutes later and they were already moving things into our place. When the packers packed all our stuff up, they put stickers with numbers on the outside of the boxes. Now that they are unpacking our stuff, the movers were calling off the numbers and we would have to check the number off a list noting that it had arrived. It was kind of stressful because there were 4 guys calling off numbers from every direction in their Japanese accent. "Did you say 124 or 134?' And then at the same time, they were asking which room we wanted the boxes in. Chad was better at understanding them than I was, so I let him check off the numbers and I delegated where the boxes went. Everything went quickly and smoothly! All of our stuff made it with no noticeable damage. We are very happy with how our move went!

The only downside is that we still have all this loaner furniture (bed, dressers, couch, end tables, kitchen table) that isn't getting picked up until Thursday. It makes it hard to organize stuff when all of that is in the way! We spent all day Monday unpacking and putting things together. Chad left for work at 5:30 on Monday night and I spent the evening getting everything out of the boxes. It really did feel like Christmas when I was unpacking since everything was wrapped with paper. It was always a surprise what it was that I was unwrapping! I am so thankful that we only has 2100 pounds of stuff because unpacking is very tedious and stressful for me! I want everything to be in its place, not just scattered or thrown in a closets. My goal is to leave the island with under 3000 pounds of stuff in 3 years. Think I can do it? :)

Now that our house is filled with stuff, Chad and I both agreed that we were starting to like our empty house. There wasn't much to clean! We do love having OUR stuff with us though. It makes our place feel more like home! Last night was the first night in our bed and it was amazing! I feel like I died and went to heaven when I lay on our bed especially after sleeping on a rock the past 2 months. And our new couch is wonderful too! I can't wait to start decorating this place and hanging things on the wall! I will post pictures of our put together home once the loaner furniture is gone and I have some decorations up!

Sights to See

This past week has been busy for me! I am officially a Cheerleading coach again! I will be helping coach the youth all star team on base. It's a team made of girls from the different military bases on the island. We will only practice 2 times a week which is a nice change from practicing everyday like we did back home. I'm glad it's not as big of a time commitment! They will perform at events on the island throughout the year. I think it'll be fun! I will be helping coach the younger girls which is a change of pace for me. Wednesday through Friday we had a cheer clinic every night where we taught the girls a dance and a cheer that they would do at tryouts. Saturday morning were the actual tryouts. Everything went well and I can't wait for our first practice next week!

Chad also had to work on Saturday so once we both got home we decided to venture to the bomb dump. Chad has been wanting to take me there for a couple weeks now to show me some hidden gems. The bomb dump is where Chad works; it's on Kadena AB but it is its own separate part. The rest of Kadena AB could fit inside the bomb dump, that's how big it is. Not just anyone can get on the bomb dump but since Chad works there he was able to get me through the gate. The first place Chad took me was a small waterfall. We had to hike a little bit through the woods on a path that wasn't very well kept. I am not a "hike through the woods" type of person. I was freaked out that a snake or some wild creature was going to attack me! After only tripping once and bruising up both of my knees, we made it to the waterfall. After that, Chad took me to a building that has a ladder attached to it so you could get on the roof. Chad climbed to the top but I decided to stay on the ground. It was so high up! The last thing we went to see was some Japanese shrines. They kinda freaked me out but were cool to see at the same time.

On Sunday we went to Shuri Castle, which was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The original castle was actually destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa but in 1992 it was rebuilt and is now used as a World Heritage Site. We got to walk through the castle and learn some of the history. I thought it was interesting and cool to see! We even had to take our shoes off before we entered the castle. Surrounding the castle are other historical sites to see as well as gift shops and restaurants.

After visiting the castle, we wanted to check out the Garlic House restaurant which was on our way back. Unfortunately when we got there, we realized they are only open for dinner. A lot of restaurants are like that around here, I don't like it! We've heard good things about the Garlic House, so we'll have to make a trip back some evening. Instead, we went to CoCo Currys which we have been to once before. A lot of people on the island say that CoCo's is addicting, but we don't really find it to be craving good.

Once our stomachs were full we decided we wanted to go snorkeling! Neither of us had been in the sea since we've been here which sounds crazy since we're surrounded by it! We went and bought some snorkeling gear and headed to Torii Beach. It's not really a prime snorkeling spot, but it's a nice beach and close by! We had so much fun! We didn't see a whole lot, a few fish here and there but it was fun swimming around. We did see a snake though! When we got home I researched what kind of snake it may be and the one that I found that looks just like it, says it is very poisonous but not aggressive. Yikes! I'm kind of freaked out to be swimming in the Sea/Ocean because of all the creatures in there. You never know what's going to sneak up on you! Despite that, we look forward to finding better snorkeling spots in the near future. I wish I had an underwater camera!

Finally, for dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant that we hadn't been to before called Pete's Place. The owner actually spoke perfect English. I haven't heard a Japanese (maybe Chinese?) person speak such good English since I've been here! The food was good and the workers were super nice! Before we left, the owner even invited us to go with them to the Beer fest that was going on down the street with them. They were going to take a taxi after cleaning up our table and wanted to know if we wanted to share it with them. I thought that was so nice! It might sound creepy but we could tell she was being sincere. After our long day, we were just ready to get home!

We are now cuddled up on the couch watching season 5 of Lost while I write this blog while everything we did is still fresh in my mind :) Tomorrow all of our stuff is getting delivered, Halleluiah! Chad has to work 12 hour night shifts this week starting tomorrow night. It will be nice that he is here when our stuff is delivered but sucks he won't be here in the evenings to watch Lost with me!

Sunday Funday

Since we had headed north twice over the weekend, on Sunday we decided we would go check out Naha which is south of the base. It didn't take us near as long to get to Naha as it did to Nago! Naha is where the airport is, so technically we have already been there once. We flew in at 10PM at night after 24 hours of traveling so I couldn't remember a thing of what we had seen on our first trip through Naha! We just drove with really no end point. Eventually we drove so far and weren't seeing much so we turned around. I had heard about Kokusai Street which is a street with a bunch of little shops on it. My directions said there would be a sign for it, but I missed it on the way there. So on our way back, I was more attentive and we found it! Once we found the street, the next challenge was trying to find some place to park. There were a bunch of pay lots but we weren't really sure how they worked. We pulled into one and I got out to look at the machine where you pay. I wasn't sure if we were suppose to get a ticket and then when we came back insert the ticket and pay or what we were suppose to do?! So, I told Chad to just park and we'd figure it out. Lucky for us, some Japanese people pulled into the lot and just walked away. So we figured that's how you do it!


Kokusai Street reminded me a lot of a tourist street. You know those streets in tourist towns where every store has the same exact trinkets? That's what this was. We walked in a few stores on the way down and then walked in a few more on the way back. All the stores had music and bright colors, it was fun! After we shopped a little bit, we headed back to our car. We went up to the machine again and typed in our parking spot number and it told us how much we owed. Chad had to pull over this green bar that locked his car into place. If we hadn't paid, then he wouldn't of been able to get out. It's actually not a bad parking system, it's better than paying someone to sit there and take people's money! After we left there, we headed back to Kadena. It wasn't a very eventful Sunday but it was nice to do some more exploring!

Okinawa Aquarium

On Saturday, we went to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. This was one of the places we for sure wanted to visit while on the island. Everyone says it is a must see and do. The Aquarium is up north near Nago, where we had been on Friday when we went to the Pineapple Park. Since we had been on the expressway the day before and realized how expensive it was, we decided we would take route 58 up. We wanted to stop along the way and take pictures of the ocean anyways. Big mistake! About a half hour in to our drive we got stuck in traffic on a one lane road. It was barely moving. After about sitting in the very slow moving traffic for about an hour, we saw a sign for the expressway. We were so sick of sitting in traffic we just got on the expressway thinking we could take it to where it ended in Nago and get off there. Big mistake #2! We didn't even think that the expressway we were getting on would take us the opposite way! And of course once we got on it, the next exit to get off was forever away. Ugh, so frustrating! So we finally got off from it and got back on going the other way. As we were getting off the expressway, we found the same traffic that we were stuck in before. So getting on the expressway set us back at least another half hour. After all that, we finally made it to the aquarium. It took us over 3 hours! I'm not sure if that traffic was because of the weekend or what, but I am now going to rethink taking route 58 when we're headed north and have somewhere to go! When we took route 58 on Friday, traffic wasn't bad at all!

Chad and I planned on buying the year pass to the aquarium since we knew we'd be back when our families came to visit. It was after 4PM when we got to the aquarium and that's when the ticket price decreases for the day, so we opted for the cheaper tickets this time. The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium has the world's 2nd largest aquarium tank. It was amazing! I could sit there all day and just watch the huge fish and other sea creatures swim around. Other than that there were other unique fish in smaller tanks to look at it. It only took us about a half hour to walk through the aquarium and then we had came to the exit where there is a gift shop. I seriously thought we had missed something, it felt like we barely saw anything. I think part of it had to do with how long it took us to get there and then once we finally did, it felt like such a short time of being there. I was actually kind of disappointed! But then Chad remembered that he had seen signs for dolphin, sea turtle, and manatee exhibits, so we went looking for them. They were actually outside and across the way a little bit, which I thought was strange. I was glad we found them though! I loved the sea turtles! The big fish tank alone was worth the drive to the aquarium. I'm glad we made the trip even though the traffic was frustrating!

After we got done at the aquarium, we were ready for dinner! I had read online that someone said that the Johnny's Burger place by the aquarium was a good place to eat, so that is where we stopped. It was a nice restaurant that served everything from burgers and ribs to pizza and tacos. We both got a cheeseburger. I ordered the Johnny's Cheeseburger and Chad ordered the Agu Cheeseburger. Mine had a picture that just looked like a normal cheeseburger, but Chad's didn't have a picture or an English description. When we got our burgers, they looked exactly the same. They both had eggs on them. We think they screwed up and put an egg on mine because the picture didn't show one. I'm not too sure about the burgers, I think they made the meat with onions or something because it had an onion taste to it. I wouldn't order a burger if we were to go back, but it wasn't that bad. It was after 8PM when we started to head back home. We decided to take the 58 back and not the expressway, since it didn't seem like there was traffic. It only took us a little over an hour to get back so it was much quicker! Despite the traffic on the way there, we had a great day and can't wait until our families get here so we can take them to the aquarium!

Ho'olaule'a

(Continued from last post)

After we got done at Pineapple Park we decided to take the expressway home instead of taking 58 back. This was the first time we had been on the expressway. It was nice being able to go 80 klicks (50 mph) and not having to stop at traffic lights! It was a lot faster using the expressway than taking 58 however it's not very scenic. Route 58 takes you up by the shoreline the entire time so you get to see the beautiful sights of the ocean. Another con of the expressway is that it's a toll road. It cost us 700¥ ($9.00) to take the expressway from Nago to Kadena! I thought that was very expensive, especially if we would have taken the expressway there and back... $18.00! The expressway is quite a bit faster so we'll take that when we're in a hurry but if we have some time to spare, I don't mind taking 58 in the future.

That night, we went to a Ho'olaule'a (Hawaiian Celebration) that the base was putting on. When we got there there was some entertainment going on but we decided to stand in line to get some food. We waited in line for over 45 minutes just to get some garlic chicken teriyaki. It was good but not good enough to wait that long. After we sat down and ate our food we went and found a spot near the stage to watch the entertainers. I thought it was cool! It makes me want to go visit our friends, Brittany & Eric, who are stationed in Hawaii even more!

We ended Chad's birthday by cuddling up on the couch and watching episodes of Lost, our newest TV series addiction.

 

 

 

Chad's Birthday

On Friday, Chad turned 24! He skyped with his mom and sister on Wednesday night while he opened the gift his family sent. He got 2 Breaking Bad Tshirts and Spicy Garlic sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings. Chad loves the spicy garlic wings from there so we're going to try to recreate them here! On Friday morning, he skyped with my Mom while opening her gift to him. She got him rechargeable battery pack and charger for his Xbox controllers. I got Chad a pair of Oakley sunglasses, that he has already been wearing for the past month. Chad doesn't like cake, but what's a birthday without cake? I saw a cake made out of beer cans on pinterest so last minute I decided to put it together for him. I had to make it while he was gone, so my only opportunity was on Thursday while he was at work since he had Friday off. He came home from work and saw it on the counter. He loved it! Best birthday cake ever he said.


Since Chad had the day off we wanted to go explore Japan since we really haven't got to venture very far from base. We wanted to go see some waterfalls, so I found some online that people recommended. The one we wanted to go to required you to hike through water all the way there, so we knew we would need water shoes. We went to the BX but all we could find were kid sizes. I am sure I could have fit in a pair, but Chad definitely would not. So then we went to Kadena Marina, where they sell scuba gear. They were pretty much out of all sizes of scuba shoes. We just weren't having any luck! They told us to check out another watersport store on the near by Army base, but we didn't really want to spend big bucks on water shoes right now. All we wanted was cheap water shoes. It's frustrating living on an island sometimes because things go out of stock and takes a while to get here!

So after we realized we were going to have to spend all day searching for water shoes, we decided to just go in the direction of the waterfall and see what else we may find on the way. The waterfall that we wanted to go to was past Nago which is on the northern end of the island. There is a road called 58 that our base is on, it leads north and south. So we got on 58 and headed north toward Nago. Our island is only 67 miles long from top to bottom, so you would think it wouldn't take very long to get places. Wrong! The max speed limit on the island is 80 clicks, which is equal to 50mph and that's on the expressway! On a road like 58, the speed limit is usually 60 clicks which is about 38mph.

On the way there, I looked up on my phone places to see by Nago. I found that Pineapple Park was near there and I knew it was a place I wanted to see during our time here. After driving for about 2 hours, we found it. We thankfully didn't even get lost, the directions I had were pretty easy to follow. We paid 600¥ each to get in the park, which is about $8.00. The first thing we did was get our picture taken with a pineapple mascot. It was one of those things where they take your picture and then try to get you to buy it. After that, we hopped in a moving pineapple vehicle and had a tour of the pineapple fields. Then we walked through indoors where we saw how the pineapple went from whole to canned. It was pretty cool to see. After that, we got to taste a whole bunch of pineapple flavored foods including wine. We also got to taste the pineapple that they grow there, it was sooo good! We bought a pineapple to enjoy at home. Overall, it was a pretty cool experience and I'm glad we did it.