All because of the 'Y' Plate

So there we were, leaving the 'Moon" bar around midnight last night with another couple. We turn onto a one way street and we see a cop hiding in the shadows. They immediatley begin to follow us. We follow along this one way street for about five minutes and then I make another turn onto a two way street, as soon as they get on the street, lights go on and they are pulling us over. Mind you, we have done nothing in the way of breaking any traffic laws...   

Allow me to give you some insight as to how, other than looking at who is driving, the way we Americans stand out. On our plates there is a 'Y' before the numbers and on the local plates there is a Kanji symbol, dead giveaway especially at night.  I pull over the car and the Japanese policeman is very nice asking me "Yes, you were drinking?  to which I answer"No", then he looks over at Brad and can tell he has been drinking, so he says, you have been drinking yes, Brad replies....'us three have been drinking, yes' trying not to snicker under his breath.  So the policeman gets out his breathalizer and I blow into it of course not coming up with a thing. As polite as he was, it was just funny how convienient it was they were to pull us over for not doing anything wrong other than of course having a 'Y' plate!

Happy New Year to you all!

Our first documentary

Check out this 30 second tour of our house on Christmas Eve. (It's basically from the front door, and into the family/dining room)

Thanksgiving weekend....Hong Kong Style

As some of you might have figured out from the last post, we spent our Turkey Day in the oh so bustling and money making metropolis most call Hong Kong. We spent three days & four nights and now that we've been there, done that, we're not sure how soon we'd recommend it for those who have it ranked up high on the to-do list. BUT if you are aiming to see how many knock-off purses, watches, jewelry, and "tailor-made" suits you can own...this is the trip for you.

Being as Hong Kong was once owned by the British, the cities/islands that make up the area are pretty westernized and most people speak english (although I think more often than not we got ignored because no one wanted to deal with us), ohh yeah, the other thing they do have is the attitude of the western world, not very nice!! Busy, Busy, Busy is what they would have their licenses plates say. The amount of traffic and noise is truly a sight to see. We learned that you have to get your name on a waiting list when you are like 6 to be able to own a car.....,WAAAY too many people in one space.

The food was Amazing! We had Chinese, Thai, Italian, Greek, American, you name it, we had it. Our hotel was really nice....twin beds and just enough room to walk around the bed and lie down...and we were in a "superior deluxe" four star hotel. Our favorite things to do were on top of 'The Peak", a very nice view of the whole city and the trolley ride. We tried to see Asia's biggest Buddha (something like 200 feet tall) but we didn't manage our schedule very well, so we had to forego that one.

All in all another great trip with a great group of friends. Where to next you might ask??? I think we would like to see the real China and explore a little more culture. Until next time....

Tis the season (already?)

It all started the day after Halloween when I walked into the BX (a store very similar to Wal/K-mart) and the orange and browns of fall/halloween had been replaced with red, green, and silver. Apparently being a day ahead of the rest of the Western world isn't good enough, we need an even bigger jump on Christmas (the commercial part anyway)...this probably highlights my shopping ignorance, but isn't that a bit early? Anyhoo...

We also had the pleasure of celebrating an early Thanksgiving dinner with some of our Okinawan family last weekend. This same group of friends will be spending "Turkey Day" proper traveling to Hong Kong and our chances of finding turkey and the fixings will probably be slim to none, so we figured we'd celebrate early since we had the time.

We topped off dinner with our annual review of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and the ladies all decided it was time to decorate. So, Ang spent this Sunday dragging out 6 super-sized rubber maid tubs of Christmas gear along with the tree and setting it all up. (and yes, we had some christmas tunes on to set the mood right). So thanks to her efforts, the house looks great and we're officially kicking off our holiday season in style...(along with all the other Christmas junkies out there)

A Long Short Week...

You'd think a short week would be the next greatest thing since sliced bread right? Well, for those not in the know, the mighty Eagle jet has been grounded for a little over a week and a half now, so what would normally be a short, 4 day week of work has turned into another long week of not flying! In what seems to be a strange twist of fate, Ang's work has gone crazy lately since the people that work in her Center keep deciding they don't want to show up to work. Maturity and responsibility are overrated anyway. So the good news is that while her work is busy, I seem to have a little extra free time on my hands to get things done for now...so life's all good.

In kiteboarding news, I was able to finally get up on the board for a few good tries on Monday and I even rode upwind a little (no small feat in my humble opinion). Unfortunately, we weren't able to end the day on a high note as my friend Mark lost his wedding ring while we were out in the water... Keep your eyes peeled for a titanium wedding ring washing up on a beach near you!

Hitting the water & harnessing the wind

Thanks to my friend Mark, I've found a new hobby called kiteboarding. It's great because it gets you out onto the water (a time tested, proven method to combat island fever) and it also happens to be a blast to try. It's not a cheap sport to get into (just ask Angie), but that also works in sort of an advantage to limit the number of people who do it. Like anything else, it's easy to get hurt doing it, but that just contributes to the adrenaline rush that fuels the fun, right? The basics are a kite, a harness, and a board...and of course the wind, but that part's free! That's another huge advantage, once you buy your gear, there's no lift ticket, or park entrance fee involved, you just need a little bit of clear beach, some good wind, and a friend to help you launch. You can even do this on snow (with a snowboard) or on land with other gear. The water is quite a bit more forgiving though, so I'll be sticking to the current method for now. I've been out trying this for the past 3-4 weekends and I've certainly had my share of falls and drags, along with drinking/inhaling plenty of saltwater, but the few times I've gotten up on the board have been way cool. I've definitely got the bug, so I'll keep you posted once I'm finally up and riding with a little confidence...

Getting spoiled airplane style...

After several anxious minutes and more than a couple of trips to the counter, we managed to score an upgrade on our flight from Chicago to Tokyo. Talk about a change...we swap our boarding passes and immediately board the flight (we've now become important enough not to wait in line). As soon as we board (not even seated yet) they're offering us drinks from a tray with apple, orange juice, and champagne. Then as we start to get settled, I overhear a flight attendant apologizing profusely to someone for running out of slippers already. This seemed strange to me but as we looked around, the rule in business seemed to be, sit down, buckle your seat belt and kick off your shoes (it's time to relax!). I then realized that with your seat belt fastened you can't reach the seat back in front of you...sounds painful doesn't it...there's almost enough room between rows for people to walk like an aisle. This of course is designed for the 20 way adjustable seat that is some kind of morph between an airline seat and a Lay-z-Boy. To continue getting settled, we check out the "amenities"...our own pillow and blanket, noise-reducing headphones, personal tv screen with 8 channels of movies, 20 channels of radio, and a pack of stuff like a sleeping mask, lotion and kleen-ex. By that time it was time for round 2 of what would end up as non-stop drink service. I felt pretty cool until I tried to get my book out of the seat pocket in front of me and manage to spill water and wine on myself (such an ametuer). Good thing we had 12 hours to get dried out!

Bottom line is we were blessed to have been in the right place at the right time, with the ability to afford a treat like this, but holy jeeze, I'm not sure if we'll be able to handle going back to cattle car style next time...

The "Perfect" Typhoon

Well, we've managed to survive yet another typhoon, this time it was Typhoon "Nari". It's closest point of approach to the island was about 20 miles to our southwest, and the center of the storm had 90 knot winds with gusts to 135. We actually only saw 65 knot winds on island, and true to form, our concrete bunker survived with no major damage (just a couple of nicks on our door plaque we forgot to bring in...). The craziest part of the storm was the lack of notice leading up to it. We usually get a couple of days of warning, but this one just kind of popped up about a day and a half out. As you can imagine, instead of preparing in advance, it seems like most people wait until the last minute to stock up (since it only takes a minute). The picture in this blog is of the commissary (grocery store) on the Friday afternoon before the storm...

Luckily, we didn't have to wade into that craziness. After that though, it literally was like the perfect typhoon. The few days before it were still really nice out, and even on Friday it didn't start raining until late afternoon. The strongest part passed us at 9:00pm, so we ended up sleeping through the worst part of it, and we managed to keep our power throughout. (that's a pretty nice accomplishment, considering we lose power on days were there's not a cloud in the sky). To top it off, Saturday morning started off with sunshine and besides a couple of small branches from the trees, you almost wouldn't have even known we'd had a typhoon.

Rainy Weekend...

Well, it has done nothing but rain the past few days here. Will not complain too much, but really, does it have to be the rain drops that are the size of a ping pong ball! Anyhoo....since it is raining and I am indoors cleaning and not willing to test the whole umbrella theory I have time to update you all.
I know we have not been too current with this, but hey, we are trying. Last weekend we went to a really neat Eisha Dance show along Kokusai Street, which is a street South of Base that is known for the crowds of people and a lot of shopping. This festival included 10,000 of the dancers. They would perform for those stading along the street and then walk up a few blocks and perform again for another 'set' of the crowd. It truly was an amazing site to see and to hear. I tried to download the video to picasa but I am pretty sure it was not successful. I will have Bradley mess with it when he returns from Guam. It really is such a traditional thing to see.

Not much new going on here other than work and more work. We are still trying to explore some of the island, but right now I am pretty sure we have explored 60 % of it already, so we have scaled back a little and we are just entertaining ourselves with the festivals that go on around the area.

Brad is scuba diving a lot, which he is loving. He just went to the Karama Islands a couple weekends ago where he got to do three seperate dives. These islands are one of the top ten best scuba diving locations. Wish I had pictures, right Brad!! Some friends took some picutres I just need to have them send some to us so I can post them for you. He said he saw A LOT of fish, shark, turtles, and I am sure a lot more. I will have him post more about it.

Hope August is treating everyone well. More soon.....

Super Typhoon

Apparently, Typhoon Man-Yi was crazy enough to be classified a Super Typhoon and it was the strongest one to pass through in 4 years. Word on the street is that the storm passed 21 NM to our west (pretty darn close) and had sustained winds of 144 mph with 173 mph gusts! We actually only saw sustained winds of around 105 mph, but that was enough to do some damage to the trees (some even torn up by their roots, others just lost limbs). It seems strange, but there's no thunder or lightning in the storm, just lots and lots of wind and rain. Luckily, other than a drip or two inside the windows, we had no other major issues. We were "locked down" in our homes for about 17 1/2 hours and lost power 3 times, but each time was only a couple of hours, so it wasn't all that bad. These houses aren't much to look at on the outside, but a typhoon just makes you appreciate why they build everything out of concrete. All in all, we faired pretty well for our first typhoon, and as far as Okinawa in general, there were no fatalities, just several injuries. We'll keep our eyes peeled for any noteworthy pictures and continue to keep you posted on our adventurous first island summer...

The weather is here...(almost)

Welcome to TC-3...for those of you not on island, that's Tropical Cyclone Condition 3. That's right folks, it's typhoon season! Please join us in welcoming Tropical Cyclone "Man-Yi". Right now, it's got winds of 75 knots, with gust of 105. The good news is that we're expected to get a direct hit, so we've got that going for us, which is nice. Anyhoo, we're busy buttoning down the house, so we'll continue to keep you posted on how things are going (assuming we have power of course...)

Happy Fourth of July

Well, this will be our first attempt at keeping in touch with all of you family and friends. We know we have not really been
great at that over the past year (some might argue longer), so hey, thought we would try something new.
We had our first trip off island over the long holiday weekend. Instead of fireworks, we visited mainland Japan through a tour on base with 8 of our good friends in the squadron. The tour included a climb up Mt. Fuji, Japan's tallest moutain sitting at 12,388ft tall. We woke at 2:00AM to catch a bus ride for almost 3 hours to start the climb at 5AM. It took us 6 hours to reach the top and 4 to go down, but what a spectacular view. It was nice to be able to get out and hike again and also to wear hat and gloves! I was super excited to see snow again.

After our full day of hiking we spent the rest of the weekend exploring only a few of the many things the area had to offer.
We started our first free day with a cab ride to Shibuya district which is the famous 'Time Square' of Japan. It is in most movies and is where the Hachiko Statue is located (you can see it in the pictures). That afternoon, we were able to do a half day tour that included a river boat ride, a visit to a Buddhist and Shinto shrine, and a final stop at the Imperial Palace,....you can not really see the Palace, just A LOT of trees hiding it, but nonetheless, we did see the grounds. Afterwards we headed to one of the most fun baseball games Brad or I have been to. Tokyo Swallows vs the Tokyo Giants. They served your traditional hot dogs, beer, and then the non traditional curry, sushi, and yakisoba noodles. The crowd was amazingly supportive with bands and cheering sections, they even whipped out their umbrellas whenever they would hit a home run.....wish we could have understood what that meant.....anywhoo.....that was a highlight of the whole trip I do believe.

The next day we went to the Tsukiji fish market and ate some wonderful sushi....well, I did not try it, but Brad and everyone else enjoyed it.....I am working on the whole raw fish thing, one thing at a time right! After eating a yummy bowl of rice for myself, we headed on to the zoo in Ueno Park. This zoo is amazing. Clean, great price, tons of animals to go see. You could spend a whole day there, wish we had the time.

The last thing to finish off our trip happened while waiting to board our flight back to Okinawa. Let me let you in on a little thing here that we call engrish. This is a Japanese take on english fashion.....let's just say some things get lost in translation. I have a shirt that has a pineapple on it that says "GRASS...Taste of Summer".....I am still trying to figure that one out....anyhoo, as we are sitting in the terminal Brad says to me....ANG Look over there. I look and see a 3-4 year old running around playing with a t-shirt that says "Never Say Die M----- F-----"! Really, could not believe it! So then we contemplated on attempting to let the family in on what their chid was wearing, but it probably would have been a lost cause (they either didn't speak english or spoke enough to not care...).

After a short, yet long weekend we headed back 'home' on Sunday. It was great to be immersed in the culture for that length of time, since it really makes you appreciate having the convience of living on base as well as having a few Americanized things for our comfort.

Sorry so lengthy, kudos if you got this far. We will try our hardest to continue with short blurbs about our day/week and update our picasa web album so you all can see how our life is treating us.