Mornings Just Got Better...

Normally I wake up around 5:30am to the sounds of Marimba on my iPhone. I have no idea what a Marimba is or where it is...or who it is. But whatever it is, it's been cheerfully waking me up for nearly two years now. No offense to this ringtone which is just doing his or her job, but I cannot let the alarm ring for more than 1 and a half seconds before I have to turn it off. It's not that the sound is bad, it's just that it rips me away from my sleep to the reality of waking up and going to work.

But today...today is different. I'm not really sure what time I woke up this morning because my watch is buried deep in my suitcase and my iPhone which is normally on my bedside table ready to wake me up has been relegated of its duties as the morning alarm and is one of the cargo pockets of the shorts I wore the night before. This morning, the sounds of light rain and chirping birds along with the sunrise peeking through the heavy linen curtains woke me up. What alarm name is this? And how can I download it so that I wake up this pleasantly everyday?! I tried to lay in bed for a little while longer but I couldn't resist it. I got out of bed and pulled the drapes back just enough to get a glimpse of what was outside without letting too much light in, because Elyce was still asleep. Looking outside I saw the most lush landscape I've ever seen. I threw on those cargo shorts, boiled a cup of coffee, grabbed some fruit from next to the daybed and stepped outside to enjoy my first morning in Bali!

Car Washes In Okinawa

I have never been to a place where the lines at the car wash is always long! If its a nice sunny day, you can fuhgettaboutit. But even on an overcast day like today the lines are about 10 cars deep. For those of you not living in Okinawa, you may be wondering what's the big deal about washing your car. Because its not like many of us have a nice new shiny car that we're trying to keep the new cat scent in. Actually I'm still trying to get this putrid moldy smell out of my 3 door SMX. If you live off base in an apartment, like we do, then chances are you don't have access to a water spigot and water hose. Another reason washing your car is a big deal here on the island is that our cars get really dirty and salty! We've had typhoons in 3 of the last 6 weekends and the cars have taken a beating! So in an effort to not have to wash the car and then sponge it off before the soap dries, you have to go to the car wash. And wait. By the way I typed all of this with plenty of time to spare while waiting in line to get the car washed!

World's Largest Tug of War Contest, Naha Okinawa

The rope is 90,000 lbs and 200 meters long!

 The world's largest tug of war contest is held annually on the island of Okinawa in the city of Naha. Approximately 25,000 people attend this event every year. We missed it last year, but now that we are on within the last few months of our tour here on the island we are trying to make sure we get in all the things that's on our bucket list. This was one of the events. The day started with Elyce and I meeting some friends at the hospital and then driving down to Naha. We started around 1030am so that we could make it in time for the parade and to avoid any traffic. The drive was quick and easy, which is unusual, because whenever we try to get to the airport in time we get stuck behind the worlds longest string of "yellow plates". Anyway, Jason had the good idea of parking at the DFS mall and then taking the monorail to Kokusai Street. Great idea! We made it to Kokusai Street just in time to see the first group march down the street in the parade.

 So the parade wasn't exactly like the parades back in the States. Instead of floats and balloons, this parade consisted of several groups of men who carried very ornate decorations on top of a very large bamboo pole. Each group had around 20 or so men dressed in their parade garb. They would take turns trying to balance this one tall bamboo pole with the ornate decoration at the top. I know I'm not explaining this very well, that's why I have pictures!

The parade also had a lot of children performing karate or traditional dances. Their wasn't much music but there were plenty of chants, drums, bells and the intermittent pops of firecrackers. We had no idea what they were saying but we tried to mimic them as best as we could.

Silver Lining

The saying goes that when you have clouds, look for the silver lining. Meaning that when you have trials or tribulations in your life, look for the thing that may be positive. But have you ever thought that silver linings wouldn't exist unless there were clouds in the first place!

Memorial Day Weekend on Miyako Island

View of the ocean walking through the gardens of the hotel.

Just like the name of our blog implies, we keep our bags packed, ready to jetset whenever we can. For whatever reason, Elyce and I didn't make any plans despite both of us being totally responsibility-free for the entire weekend. After Elyce got out of class on Friday, she had to run some errands so she picked me up from work and I rode with her to tie off some loose ends. While on Kadena we were talking about what things we could do this weekend....bar-b-que's, movies, road trips? All of which would have been great after the last few weeks filled with work, tests, a respiratory infection... So I asked her, how about calling the good folks over at IACE (travel agency) to see what they have going on. Well to make a long story short, we were on a plane off to Miyako Island the next morning.
So in our brief research of this place that we've never heard of before, we found that Miyako Island is about 40 minutes by plane south of Okinawa (great!). It is supposedly home to Japan's most beautiful beach (outstanding!), there are no Habu snakes on the island (perfect!).
After an extremely easy and short trek through the Naha and Miyako airports we took a taxi through tons of cornfields to our hotel on the southern coast of the island. Besides beautiful beaches, I guess Miyako is mainly farmland... We didn't waste anytime once we got to our hotel, we got some lunch, booked our kayaking/snorkeling trip for the next day and then headed out to enjoy the warm weather, quiet pool and tropical gardens.

The Miyako Island Music Festival 2012, Maehama Beach. 

It was just our luck that on this sleepy island called Miyako, was a music festival planned the day after we got there on their most famous beach, Maehama Beach. Of course we went to the music festival and although we knew we were on a Japanese Island, because we were only a couple of the few non-Japanese people there, we felt like we were at some Caribbean concert because of the mixture of music that was played, Reggae, Spanish, Japanese folk music, Japanese-pop, harmonica instrumentals, etc.
For a last minute trip, this was a great get-away.

The pool at our hotel. We were the only ones there most of the time...

Hey Elyce, what are you reading?

Me spying on Elyce. 

Sculpture in the garden.

Just a shot of some of the flowers. There were so many flowers and butterflies, it was a little weird. 

I'm not really sure what this says, or what the frog is doing to the bag...

In between all of the cornfields were rows of sunflowers.

Hiroshi-san preparing our teppanyaki. Hiroshi-san was very nice and we enjoyed our conversation with him.

Flambe!

In Japan, you buy your steak by the gram, not the ounce like in the States.

A Pampered Chef, Elyce's Birthday & Cinco de Mayo Party!

Jenny Brooks opened up her home to host a great party with tons of kitchen products, food, and good friends!

Ginoza Stawberry Farms

About 45 minutes north of Chatan is a small nursery that has the best strawberries I've ever eaten! In our household Elyce is the queen of fruit. If she could eat fruit all day, she would. And her favorite fruit are strawberries. However, if you've lived on this island long enough, you've come to realize that the strawberries in the commissary are not very good most of the time and the strawberries in the Japanese grocery stores can be pretty expensive. I remember one time Elyce paid 600 yen for 6 strawberries. At the time that was $1.25 per strawberry! 

So when Carolyn and Jenny invited us to go with them to this strawberry farm, we thought why not. I knew Elyce would love it and I figure I'd get extra credit for going strawberry picking (which is a pretty drastic deviation from the usual manly things I normally do on Saturday mornings). 

Just a little info about the place. 1)You have to set up a reservation to pick the strawberries. 2) It costs 1200 yen per adult, not sure how much for children but it's less. 3) You CAN NOT take any home with you! This was a huge disappointment for us. 4) The staff does not speak English. 

I think I ate about 30 or so strawberries! They were that good. If I would have known we couldn't take any home with us, I would've skipped breakfast!