The Keramas

We decided to take full advantage of the long weekend over the 4th of July and take a little trip. Our destination: Aka-jima, one of the Kerama islands. These islands lie about twenty miles west of Naha, Okinawa, and they are apparently a diver's heaven. While we do not scuba dive, we have snorkeling gear - and we decided to go see for ourselves.


















There are three inhabited islands in the group. Tokashiki is the largest, then Zamami, then Aka. An American teacher of English on the islands put together a website detailing some places to stay and some things to do at http://www.zamamienglishguide.com/. We picked out a spot on Aka - turned out to be a wonderful choice!

The Kawai family (Ai, Kazumaru, and their children) are wonderful hosts. They also have a website for their bed & breakfast/dive shop Kawai Diving. Most of it is in Japanese, but they have a full page in English. If you look across the bars on the top you will see it and can click over to it. Ai-san and Kazu-san have been doing this for about 25 and 30 years respectively. They love to practice their English (and are pretty good at it). A stay at Kawai Diving goes something like this!

First you take the ferry out, about a 60 minute trip, leaving from Tomari Port.
















When you arrive, Ai-san picks you up at the port in their little Kai Truck (see post below on my new car!) and drives you through the small village to their place on the other end.


















The village on the island is quite small, but there are a few places you can go that serve lunch. They offer a fairly standard okinawan selection of soba, curry rice, taco rice, maybe some chanpuru.




















Then it's time to take a boat ride with Kazu-san and go see the beauty of the water! It's so clear out there. We had some disposable underwater cameras, but they just don't do justice to the amazing sights and colors of the day.






























After a long afternoon of sun, sea, and fresh air, it's time to head back, clean up, and enjoy a delicious home-cooked dinner. They typically feature whatever fish Kazu-san caught that day or the day before! Dinner is served on their patio looking out over the beach.




















After a night of clear, starry skies (and sleep on a futon on a hard floor, admittedly - this is a Japanese style bed and breakfast!), they treat you with breakfast on the patio before it's time to check-out and head back to Okinawa! What a fun weekend.
















As you might expect, there are lots of hermit crabs on Aka. A beautiful butterfly wouldn't shock you. But would you expect to see deer???




















As a final note, they also keep a blog. And in their daily postings they mentioned us several times! That makes us famous I guess! Their blog is here, and for convenience since it is all in Japanese I have included the link to google's best guess interpretation of it here. Look for their entries from July 2-6, 2011 to see their pictures and comments from our visit!

Funny English

For our 4th Anniversary, Joe took me to the Marriott Resort in Nago.  We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend!  We also had a few laughs with the "English"!

My New Car

Hey this is Joe here - so I've been meaning to make this post for a long time. My favorite cars out here are what I call Oki Trucks (they are called Kei Trucks). They are so fabulously tiny you can't tell where the engine hides. There are thousands of them on this island, and they look like this.

















Back in April, our neighbor had to have some work done on his car and so he got this one as a temp. He was kind enough to give us the keys so I could take some pictures in it. There is only enough room for the driver (and maybe a nice IBC root beer in the cup holder there)! I NEED ONE OF THESE GOOFY THINGS!

















Best ride ever. If I lie down on the ground I'm longer than this car. Maybe someday I'll get one...

June 2011

At the very beginning of June, we were hit by Typhoon Songda.  This was the strongest typhoon I have felt since living here!  The winds outside and around our apartment were so loud that it sounded like a jet engine was taking off on the top of the building!  When we awoke the next morning, we were surprised to see how much destruction there really was.  Here are a few of the trees that were uprooted at Comprehensive Park.  

Fortunately, the "other side" of the storm brought summer!  Joe and I went out to find a new beach on Hamahigashima Island. Beautiful!

But we still needed more!  The next weekend we went back to Tsuken-jima.  The water there was fantastic!  You can see just a hint of the great colors in this photo.

We also had my Okinawan music friends over for dinner.  We had lasagna and salad with Joe's Key Lime Pie for dessert.  They loved everything and asked for seconds :)  We even taught them how to play the card game  Pit, which was quite a hit.  The Japanese/Okinawans are typically very reserved and polite -- and Pit is not!  By the end of the evening we were all shouting "Ichi, Ichi, Ichi!"  (One! One! One! in Japanese).

One big change at the end of June was that Joe will no longer be working at Camp Foster.  He has been transferred to Camp Kinser in Naha.  His Okinawan Assistant, Miss Uehara was very sad to see him go (and vice versa!)