Nakagusuku Castle

While we were still staying at the Westpac, Joe and I adventured to Nakagusku Castle. The Castle was not too far from Camp Foster. (See pictures in the slideshow to your right).

The Castle was constructed in the 14th Century with Ryukyu limestone. The technique of building the Castle is highly regarded, as they used the limestone in (the laying of it) in three different ways. However, I'm not quite sure our pictures will do it justice.

When you're at the top of the Castle you can see both the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, which is really breathtaking.

Joe was very excited to finally see some Banana Spiders, a rather large and toxic bug. Needless to say, I stayed away from the trees and bushes that day!

The Fourth of July

I got a note the other day from our friend Jill in Indianapolis. She wanted to say hi, see how we were doing and let us know that they were headed to the annual Dave Matthews Band concert this weekend. Joe and I have gone with Matt and Jill to see Dave Matthews for the past 4 years. It made me a little sentimental, thinking of driving through the cornfields to get to Verizon Music center, and then enjoying a night of music, Bud Light and macaroni salad. Oh yes, and music!

Anyways, it reminded me that I needed to post about our Fourth of July. We met up with an old church friend of Joe's - Mary and her husband Steve. They had a cookout at their apartment, then we all went to Kadena Air Base for AmericaFest! This was basically a large street fair (with airplanes on display) on the flight line.













I was reminded to post, because the main act for that night was Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band. They were a pretty good cover band! It was fun to see a "movie star" over in Okinawa on the Fourth.














Joe and I had wanted to arrive a little earlier at AmericaFest (but when you have no car, you are thankful people will take you anywhere!) to see American Idol season star, Melinda Doolittle. Well, Joe saw her dancing on the side of the stage while we were watching the Lt. Dan Band play --- and thank goodness I married someone more outgoing than me......















Joe definately encouraged me to go meet her!
























It was WAY COOL! She was very kind and (very petite). She was also very thoughtful to thank both of us for our service -- which was kind of funny, because we had only been there three days!

The evening ended, of course, with fireworks.

Transportation & Fresh Food

About a week after we got to Okinawa we purchased our first car - a Honda Odyssey. Yes, Joe and I are owners of a mini-van with no children. It's a little funny, until we realized how helpful it would be when parents and friends come to visit -- they will actually be room for people, luggage and golf clubs! The van was purchased from a PCSing Oral Surgeon.

The second car we found was at the Kadena Air Base "Lemon Lot". Not actually, lemons, but cars that people were trying to sell, mostly because they were PCSing. After careful consideration (and me really wanting a "cute Okinawan car") we settled on a silver Nissan Cube. This cute (and small) little car we purchased from a PCSing Doctor who worked at Camp Lester. I thought it was kind of ironic that we bought all of our cars from people in the medical field.

Yesterday I went to our local produce market. It's about a five minute drive from our apartment. This is a tiny little place, consisting of a small building and a tent. They don't have every kind of produce imaginable, but what they do have is wonderful! Joe and I go there routinely to get red and green peppers, onion, cucumber (which are fantastic), tomato, greens, lemon, eggplant, green onion and fruit. It's a quaint little place and I've been there now about 5-6 times and only once have I seen another American there. To top it off, all the local workers run around giving you samples of the food and yell something like "oh-soy-a-soy-soy-a!!!!!" very excitedly. I'm not sure what this means, but Joe and I are thinking it is something about "fresh, fresh, fresh!!".

Anyways, I purchased my usual peppers, eggplant and greens (in yen of course) and said my one piece of Japanese (thank you) and was on my way out, pleased with the amount of produce I got for my money. I was stopped by one of the workers for a bite of pineapple. I obliged, and it was, of course, delicious. However, this led to a rather akward conversation of him trying to get me to buy the pineapple. He kept speaking in Japanese and I kept trying to look confused and say no. I like pineapple, but the last one we bought was about 450 yen (about $5) and I wasn't planning on spending that much. While that is going on, another worker comes up to me an offers a slice of peach -- that was heavenly! but also not on my agenda. My pineapple salesman tried "for baby?", to which I replied, "No baby". He tried again with, "for boy?" --- "Yes, boy." He was excited then. We finally reached an understanding when I figured out that one pineapple was only 180 yen. He knew he had me then.

So here it is, my glorious, 180 yen pineapple.

The beginning of July

Well, we finally have our own home, own cars, own cell phones and own internet. Yay! I know that many of you have been waiting for pictures and stories for the last month, so here we go....

When Joe and I first got here, we stayed in the Westpac Lodge for about 10 days.
It was a tiny little place, but we still had a view of the ocean... erm, strike that, the East China Sea.
The Westpac is located on Camp Foster (where Joe has started working). It's a pretty large base, with everything from Commissary (grocery store), PX (like a big Wal-Mart/Mall/Macy's), Movie Theatre, Performing Arts Hall, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Popeye's, Scuba Gear, Pizza Hut, housing (apartments and duplexes), Gas Station, not to mention all of the other more traditionally though of military items (service men, large trucks, hummers, etc).

Our sponsor, Meg, was very helpful in getting us set up. Here's a view from their off-base apartment, located in Chatan Town (if you look on an Okinawa Map, it's on the East China Sea part of the island: find 58, then it's between 23 and 24.
She and her husband Chris have a good view of the Naval Hospital at Camp Lester....And parts of Camp Foster...


On a side note, the Japanese don't really label their roads so well. I mean, all the big ones have a number. But, all of the side roads do not. I'll have to post a picture of a local map sometime. Needless to say, when I drive around, I try to stick to the few main roads I know really well!

I'm not sure who took these photos, but I think it was Joe when we were going on our off-base house hunt. This is what the "city" looks like around the base

Brief Mid-Week Update

We hope to have internet this weekend at our new place, and then the posts will be more frequent.

We just "saw" a solar eclipse on the island! The first time in 40-some years! Right around 11:00, the sky got darker, like it was going to storm. Then in about 15 minutes, it was bright and sunny again.

Our First Okinawa Picture Post!

Just a quick post - here's what it looks like from the balcony of our apartment! We are using a friend's computer so there's just one. We hope to have full internet access at our place on Friday!

And the winner is.....

OFF BASE!

Joe and I found a place, courtesy of Central Housing/Sakura Housing in Awase Okinawa City. We will be living in "Ocean's Seven", which has a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean! It's very close to a local restaurant; Sam's by the Sea http://www.sams-okinawa.jp/by_the_sea/en_index.html - so if you can figure out where that is, we have a 1 minute walk from our apartment to Sam's.

We'll be renting a 3 bedroom/ 2 bathroom place on the 7th of 8 floors that has waterfront views all around. We just picked up our keys and will officially move in on the 16th. Which means..... we finally get our stuff back! Yay!

It's too bad (again) that we can't post pictures yet -- our internet will be set up at the apartment in 10-14 days. So hang in there!

Other good news is that we bought our second car today! We are now owners of a cute little silver Nissan Cube. We are feeling like Okinawan's now, since it's a tiny little box car - good for navigating little streets.

Our First Adventures

Yesterday (Saturday) Joe and I took our first "real" adventure in Okinawa. Since we have a car now, we're able to travel around off-base! Our trip yesterday was to White Beach, which is about 40 minutes away. White Beach is actually a Naval Base - but they have a campground and cabins (no, we didn't camp - yet!) and an absolutely beautiful beach. I don't ever think I've seen ocean so blue. It was crystal clear and sunny and the water was warm! I think I could like it here......

On a side note, I'm sorry that we can't post any pictures yet. We're using the Westpac's computer/internet and there's no input for our Sony Memorycard. I promise once we get into permanent housing I'll post pictures of all these things!

Today (Sunday) we went to church then to the Camp Foster O-Club (Officer's Club) for brunch. I could get used to that! A beautiful and delicious brunch with everything from breakfast food, to Yaki Soba, Tomatillos and dessert. Of course, my favorite - Mimosa's! (Justin - you might like to hear that they also had a soft-serve ice cream machine).

We then traveled in the afternoon to Nakagusuku Castle ruins. They are not far from Camp Foster. That was interesting, because the Castle was built in the 1300-1400s -- and it was very different from the Castles built in Europe around the same time. The Castle consisted of three levels that were like three large chambers. I would assume that back when the castle was active there were wooden separators, etc. There were beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea.

We're licensed!

and we got our first car! We passed the drivers test on Monday and got our licenses on Wednesday. Yesterday (Thursday) we bought a Honda Odyssey from a departing Oral Surgeon. Joe and I both tried driving (on the wrong side of the car and on the wrong side of the road!) and it wasn't too bad.


The hardest part is that the windshield wipers and turning signals are reversed on the steering wheel -- so instead of signaling to turn, we've participated in the "Okinawa Wave" many times!

Sir!

Yesterday our sponsors took us to the Camp Foster Commissary to pick up a few groceries. Joe was in his khaki uniform, as we were trying to get some official paperwork completed. As we were walking around the soap aisle, I heard a distinct and direct "Good Afternoon, Sir!"

It's kind of amusing having an officer husband.

After an interminable flight, or rather..... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 flights..... we are safely in Okinawa, Japan! It's 6AM the next morning as we write this, which means that you know it's Joe writing this and Lindsay is just getting up. =)

We had quite the adventure flying, there really is so much to see in this beautiful world we've been given to live in. We flew into Seattle as the sun was setting on a gorgeous, clear day. Mounts Rainier and St. Helens stood off to the South, watching our arrival as they cast gigantic shadows below them. After six hours of waiting in Seattle, we climbed aboard the trusty DC-10 that would be our home until Okinawa and flew to... Anchorage, Alaska! You know, you hear about people going on cruises to Alaska, and for some reason I always thought that'd be a goofy place to cruise to. Well, Alaska is now near the top of our list of places to explore - we've got to go spend some time in the Pacific North-West (Seattle, Vancouver) and then go see those mountains and glaciers again. The sun was just coming up as we began to land, gigantic snow-capped mountains poking their way through the clouds until the clouds gave way to show the beauty of this truly unique coast in full. Absolutely stunning. That stop was a real unexpected treat.

We grounded in Anchorage for two hours, then escorted the morning sun across the Pacific to Yokota Air Base, just outside Tokyo. We arrived at about 7AM local time. There, they had everybody get off and fill out H1N1 screening forms while they refuled. Yokota was ghastly while we were there, it was something like heavy London fog (though I've never been there) that limited your visibility to about a half-mile and gave you a headache. Gray, gray, gray. In two hours we were flying again, to Iwokuni Air Base about an hour west. When we arrived, there was a strong isolated cell right over the airfield the pilot didn't want to fly through, so we circled out in the sun for 30 minutes before heading back to Yokota. Everybody off the plane again, refuel, and then we're off to Okinawa instead!

Two hours later, in beautiful sunny weather, we flew into Kadena. We arrived about 4:30PM local time, found all our baggage, went through customs, met our sponsors (wonderful people, both dentists who just graduated from Iowa last year), checked into the WestPac lodge where we'll be staying until we have a home, grabbed a quick dinner at the next-door Macaroni Grill (there'll be time to go local later, although I did have a local brew: Orion, pronounced by our Japanese server as "or-ee-on"), and fell asleep about 9PM.

The sun is just coming up, and it's illuminating the Pacific to the West outside our window. I'm typing on a computer terminal provided by the lodge. Once we can figure out how to get photos up we'll try to show you some of the beauty around us. For those of you hoping for a Skype call, I don't know that we'll be able to accomplish that from here, the internet seems to be accessible only through this terminal even when I plug the right cables into Lindsay's laptop. E-mails and this blog will have to suffice, I suppose - but we'll keep trying. Today we'll work on the three C's - Cell phones, Car, and id Cards. Hope you're all enjoying the rest of your Wednesday in the States where I guess it's just about quitting time at 5PM!