USO Okinawa Service Salute 2011

Elyce with members of the USO and a few Generals here on Okinawa.

Last night Elyce and I attended the USO Okinawa's Service Salute. This gala highlights a service member from each of the U.S. military services as well as Japan's National Defense Force. In all there were 7 military members awarded for their outstanding service. It was also a night to highlight the contributions that some of the local businesses provide for the USO and our troops. Elyce was one of the many special guests that included CEO's, Generals and Admirals from the U.S. and Japanese military services as well as important members of the USO.

 

Elyce and I after dinner.

Deadly!

The economy is bad even for ex-video game characters!!

1997 - Rayden in his prime!!

One of my favorite games growing was Mortal Kombat. And my favorite character on there was Raiden. Raiden had control over thunder and lighting, he could fly and teleport! Plus he just looked really cool. I was on base driving yesterday running some errands when I saw Rayden! I gave him the whassup head nod, which he returned with a swagger that only an immortal bad ass could do. But I guess he fell on hard times with the economy being as bad as it is. Because instead of raining lightening bolts from the sky he was whacking weeds along the sidewalk with a gas powered trimmer. I felt sad for a moment, but I know the economy will pick back up sooner or later and Rayden will be back to whacking immortal enemies instead of dandelions.

2011 - Rayden keeping the base looking nice by keeping the edges trimmed.

My "Very Popular" Japanese Car

Here in Okinawa, pretty much everyone drives some type of small car or "econo-box". It's just the way it is. The cars are all very small, very slow and it seems that most of the Americans drive the older cars  because they're super cheap. For example, Elyce drives a Honda Fit, which I know they sell in the states and I drive a Honda SM-X. The SM-X is a little odd. First of all the one I have is burnt Orange which I thought would be pretty rare... The second thing about it is that it has one door on one side and two doors on the other, plus a lift up back. I know, strange. But I got a good deal on it and it does what I need it to do! I don't really miss many things about the U.S. but I really, really miss driving a car that can go from zero to 60 in less than an hour!

A day or so after buying my Orange-mobile!!

Leaving work one day...which one is mine?!?!?

Japanese Drill Team?!?!

After having dinner with some friends, Elyce and I came home to what seemed like a mini-parade in our neighborhood. There were drummers and dancers in the streets. A truck with a microphone and a loud speaker had someone singing and a couple guys playing some type of Japanese guitar. The drummers and dancers followed the truck throughout the neighborhood. Elyce and I had no idea what was going on, but it was entertaining for a few minutes. Lots of folks, Japanese and American came out of their homes to see this little festival that was marching through the streets. I asked Elyce, "What do you think it is? What do think they're singing and dancing about?" Elyce replied, "I don't know, they look like a Japanese Drill Team." So for the rest of the night we just called them the Japanese Drill Team. Well, this "Drill Team" carried on until about midnight. Take a look at the video I recorded and imagine two or three groups of these "teams" strolling through your neighborhood til midnight!
The next day I found out that this event is the annual Obon Festival. It's a way of paying respects to the deceased family members and celebrating their lives and wisdom.  More info on the Obon Holiday can be found here.

Another Satellite Dish...gone!

Well the storm has come and gone. We were held hostage for 48 hours in our apartment while we endured the loud winds and buckets of rain. The power never went out so we were able to surf the net, listen to music and watch some DVD's. After the wind subsided, Elyce turned on the TV and got the blue screen. So you know what that means....Reggie has to go to the roof to check on the satellite dish. So I climbed the three flights of stairs and unlocked the roof access gate. I looked out to where our satellite dish is normally mounted and it wasn't there. Not only that, no one's was there. There's usually 4 satellite dishes on our roof. They were all gone. I took a survey of the surrounding neighborhood and noticed that there were a lot less satellite dishes out there than there normally is. I wonder where all these dishes went. Someone probably stepped outside of their front door to a pile of about a hundred satellite dishes this morning, ha ha. Oh well, we were thinking about switching to something different anyway, like Apple TV or that Slingbox thing.

TCCOR 1E!

        

Elyce and I are sitting in our little Japanese apartment sitting out our second major typhoon of the season. The first one was over the Memorial Day weekend and to be honest it was pretty scary. Our apartment made noises I didn't think a building could make. We heard glass shattering outside. The rain and wind beat on the windows like drums. It was Elyce's first typhoon experience and the worst I'd ever experienced. So now we are sitting and waiting to see what Typhoon "Muifa" is going to do. So far it hasn't been so bad. We both got off work early yesterday so that we could prepare for the storm. But so far it's just been a lot of wind and rain. I haven't seen any debri thrown around like the Memorial Day storm...not yet at least.