Turning Japanese – part 3
Posted by Gypsy on Oct 16, 2010
With the weather finally relatively nice, it was time to get our butts outside to do some sightseeing. I say relatively nice because while the sun was shining, it was also in the high 90s and humid, so it looked beautiful but felt miserable. We started off by catching the bus to Foster, figuring it would save us a little money on cab fare as the exchange rate has been pretty rough lately. From there, we grabbed a cab to take us to our first stop, the Nakamura House, an 18th century farmhouse that is now a museum. We were actually able to actually walk through the house, which required taking off our shoes first. What I found really cool about this was not only how soft the tatami mats are (I’m totally wanting to do a whole room with them once I have my own place again), but also how smooth and soft the wood was in between rooms and on the steps up to the house. Another feature of the house I dug was the wooden pegs that were used to actually hold the house together. Houses really aren’t made like that anymore.
We also saw some examples of shisa, or shishi, dogs, the traditional Ryukyuan guardians that are often placed at the doors or on the rooftops of houses. The shisa consist of a male and a female, one with its mouth open and the other with its mouth closed. According to legend, the male has his mouth open to expel evil from the home while the female has her mouth closed to keep in the happiness. However, there are some who believe that the closed mouth dog is the male, who keeps evil out, while the female’s mouth is open to share happiness.
After we were done at the Nakamura House, we walked up the hill to Nakagusuku Castle, the first stone castle to be built in Japan. It was built in 1450, but at this point it is in ruins. But the really cool things about Nakagusuku Castle is the view because it is so high up on the island. From the first section of the castle ruins, it is possible to see the Pacific Ocean on one side and the East China Sea on the other. I took a video, which can be seen here, but keep in mind it’s very shaky. As impressive as the view from this vantage point was, I think the next thing Andy and I saw ended up being our favorite part of the castle. Stepping down from the first section, we discovered a stone staircase leading to a well. While we were not looking forward to going back up the stairs, our curiosity got the better of us, we made our descent and were immediately rewarded by a temperature drop of at least ten degrees. I probably could’ve sat down there the rest of the day and been completely content.
By this point my trip to Okinawa was about 60 percent complete and I still hadn’t made it to the beach even though all I could see was beautiful clear water and every day was hot. So it was just our luck that the day we planned on going to Kadena Marina for snorkeling would be the day the storm clouds rolled in. Instead, Andy and I, along with his friend Austin, went to Araha Park to spend some time walking around and taking photos. The rain didn’t hold off forever, though, and we waited it out up at Futenma bowling and seeing a movie.
The next day it was time to check out of our hotel room on Futenma and go back to Naha for the last three days of my trip. Since it was a beautiful day and we had time to kill between checking out of one hotel and into the next, Austin picked us up and we went to Kadena Marina to finally go snorkeling. This was my first time snorkeling and as someone who isn’t a strong swimmer I was pretty nervous. While I did give it my best try, it just didn’t work out for me and I wasn’t having fun at all. Luckily, I have the best husband ever because even though he really wanted to go snorkeling he was totally cool with heading over to the beach area and just swimming and hanging out in the water. After, we head out for a bite to eat before Austin drove us to Naha to check into our hotel.
Flickr sets in this post: Japan August 2010
Turning Japanese – part 2
Posted by Gypsy on Oct 2, 2010
I can’t even describe how awesome it was to wake up that first morning in Japan. I slept like a log and woke up completely rested, on the opposite side of the world, in a country I have always wanted to visit, curled up next to Andy. Perfect morning. We had some problems getting a hotel room on one of the military bases for the whole trip, so we were spending the first two nights and last three nights in Naha. So we had a whole day in Naha to bum around and see what we could find. After sleeping in and having a bit of a lazy morning, we walked down to the mall and shopping district. The mall was really where I had my first experience with the differences in our culture versus the Japanese culture. American malls have various stores, all separated by walls and responsible for their own security. In Japan, the mall looks more like a department store. You can tell that there are different shops, but there are no walls in between them. Since there isn’t a theft problem in Okinawa, there is no need to separate shops with walls and doors. This is actually very economical because it means less space is required.
After our walk through the mall, we wandered down the street to the shopping district. This area is very touristy, but it’s still pretty interesting to walk through and see the different shops and what they have to offer. Since we were getting hungry at this point, we decided to look for somewhere to eat. Here we found a fun little steakhouse and met the awesome T. Shinya, who was our chef for the afternoon. While the soba the night before was good, the steak and vegetables we had for lunch this day was even better. And it was a lot of fun to have him cook for us and put on a little show. Andy and I hadn’t really been to anything like this in the States, though we do have them here, so it was an experience. After lunch we were worn out from walking around. I always thought it was hot and humid in Charleston, but that is nothing compared to Okinawa and after a few hours in it we were both ready for a shower and air conditioning. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, with us mostly relaxing in the room and having dinner at the hotel.
On the second day of my trip, we moved to MCAS Futenma, where we would be staying for the majority of my time on the island. After checking out of the hotel, they called us an on-base cab, which took us right to the hotel. The rest of the week is really a blur. It rained every single day, so there wasn’t much we could around the island. Instead, we took the bus to Camp Kinser, where I got to see Andy’s barracks, meet some of his coworkers, and get some groceries for the hotel room; and to Camp Foster, which is the nicest of the three bases. We also made the trek to Kadena Air Base, which is where my dad was based when he was stationed on Okinawa.
Near the end of my first week two awesome things happened. First, the weather finally started to let up and gave us some sunny skies (though it still remained very hot and humid) and second, Charles finally returned from training in Twenty-Nine Palms. Charles left San Diego about a month before we did and was getting ready for an Afghanistan deployment, so I definitely wanted to make sure we spent time with him while I was there. Plus, this is Charles’s second tour in Okinawa, so I knew he’d know the best places for us to visit while I was there. Unfortunately, the first couple days all the guys who came back were restricted to base. This meant Andy and I had to go to Foster to hang out with him and Paul, though we were able to escape for curry at Coco’s Ichibanya before word of the restriction was officially passed. (Shhh, don’t tell their chain of command.)
After lunch there was still a question of whether or not the guys were on restriction, so Paul, Andy, and I set off for American Village. American Village is basically a little resort area with a small beach, tons of shopping and restaurants (many of them American), and a giant Coca Cola ferris wheel. This was where Andy and I finally got a photo together before heading back to base to hang out a little.
Unfortunately, the restriction wasn’t lifted before Paul was set to go on leave, so his last night there we had to eat at the Macaroni Grill on base. However, where you eat really doesn’t matter as long as it’s with the right people and the four of us were still able to have a great time. The guys spent most of dinner harassing other guys from the unit who were also dining there, while I alternated between apologizing to the waitress for their rowdiness and trying not to encourage them by laughing.
Unfortunately, the next day Charles was still on restriction and we were still on our own. However, with the weather finally nice I was done sitting in hotel rooms doing nothing. So Andy and I set off on our own adventure…
Flickr sets in this post: Japan August 2010.
Turning Japanese – part 1
Posted by Gypsy on Sep 26, 2010
I’ve now been home from Japan for about 5 weeks, so I figured it was finally time to get around to writing a blog post about my trip. I fully intended on doing this much earlier, but as so often happens life gets in the way. Or I just get lazy. It’s really a mixture of the two.
I was a little nervous about my flight to Japan. I’m generally a nervous flyer, but normally have no issues once the plane reaches 10,000 feet, which is when the flight attendants get up to start preparing beverage service and passengers are allowed to turn on electronics. However, a 14-hour flight that takes place mostly over a vast ocean where there is no place to land in case of emergency is a completely different story. My first flight was leaving around 6 a.m., which meant getting up very early. Luckily, I was flying out of Charleston, which meant I didn’t have to get to the airport until 5 a.m. and I still had time for a little breakfast before my flight. Once I got to Houston I had some time to prepare for my second flight, which would take me into Tokyo. I had already bought a neck pillow to help me sleep on the flight, but had forgotten about getting an eye mask as well. Realizing it would be daylight for the entire flight, I went ahead and grabbed one to match my pillow. After grabbing a second breakfast, calling my mom, and picking up a little bit of reading material, it was finally time to board the plane.
As a side note, I’ve always made it clear that I’m not a fan of the legacy carriers. I just tend to have far better experiences on Jet Blue and Air Tran than I’ve ever had on Delta and Continental. However, when it comes to international service, Continental really brings their A game. The seats are nice and roomy, wrapped pillows and blankets are provided, and the in-seat entertainment was top-notch. Even the food was pretty good. Beyond that, I was pretty impressed by the size of the plane as it was the biggest I could ever remember flying in. Snagging a nice aisle seat in the middle group of three, I got comfortable and settled in for 14 hours of total free time. As I rarely sleep on planes, I only got about 2 hours of sleep during the flight. The rest of the time I watched a bunch of movies and started reading The Passage by Justin Cronin.
We landed in Tokyo around 1 p.m., leaving me about five hours to kill before my next flight. The first hour was spent finding my bag, going through immigration, traveling to the other terminal, and checking into my third and final flight of the day. By this point I had been traveling for 20 hours and was starting to feel a little rough. However, Tokyo’s Narita airport thinks of everything, including shower rooms that only cost 500 yen (about $7) for 30 minutes. Even on little sleep a shower and clean clothes can make all the difference. The rest of the time before my flight was spent surfing the Internet and relaxing. Though I was a little hungry, I was also ill-prepared to deal with the language barrier in my sleep deprived state and opted to just grab some Pocky and a Coke at the shop in the terminal. After what seemed like eons, time moving slowly because I was finally mere hours away from seeing Andy, we hopped on busses that would take us to our Japan Airlines plane. At this point I was so exhausted I passed out the moment my seat belt was buckled. I awoke once, briefly, to eat an interesting cookie-type thing and a Coke, before quickly passing out again.
For all the excitement I had felt leading up to this trip, as soon as I landed in Naha, the main city on Okinawa, I started getting nervous. It’s the same feeling I had when Andy came home from Iraq because it’s always a little awkward after so much time apart. Luckily my hunger and exhaustion overruled that nervousness and as soon as I grabbed my bag I hugged Andy and hopped in the car for the ride to the hotel. Even though it was 11 p.m. and I’d been traveling for about 30 hours, I needed to eat. Since we had no idea what was open this late, we went downstairs, found a taxi and told the driver we wanted soba, Japanese noodles. The best thing I can compare where we ended up to is a canteen. It was an open place with a bar to sit at and an old woman and her daughter cooking behind it. The taxi driver helped us order, which involved putting money in a machine and hitting a selection, but it’s hard to choose a meal when you can’t read the menu. Out came a ticket, which we gave to the woman, and minutes later we had this delicious meal that completely made my night. After that, I was spent and we walked back to our hotel (only getting lost a little along the way), where I crawled into bed almost immediately to finally get some real sleep and be ready to start the first full day of my trip fresh.
Flickr sets in this post: Japan August 2010.
Weddings and babies
Posted by Gypsy on Jun 9, 2010
Well, one wedding and one baby, but that just sounded ridiculous. I’m horribly behind on blogging but rather than just keep getting further and further behind I’ve decided to just start from now and get to the past stuff when I can. I’ll try and remember to put a note on those posts so they can be in the right order, though I can’t make any guarantees.
Living in Charleston has one big negative: it’s insanely expensive to fly anywhere from here. Luckily, most of my family and friends are on the east coast, so I have the option of driving to most of the places I want to go. The added bonus is I’ll also have my own transportation wherever I go. So it was with excitement that I set off for home a couple weeks ago to join in the various preparation festivities for my brother’s wedding. I arrived late Thursday night, which was perfect timing to help with last minute stuff on Friday, including finishing the bouquets and favors, and having the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
It’s amazing to me how relaxed Saturday was compared to how crazy Friday was. Though that is really the best atmosphere for a wedding. I got up early, but only so I could go for a run. The rest of the day was spent relaxing until it was time to get ready. We arrived at the church about an hour before the ceremony and this is when what was probably my favorite part of the whole trip happened. Since there was nothing for me to do, I went back to say hi to Jason and see how he was doing. I actually got a good 30 minutes of just chilling back there with my little brother, which was just awesome. Most visits we are all so busy and with so many people to see and things to do that there is no time to just hang out. So it was really nice to have that little bit of time before the ceremony to just chat.
The ceremony was absolutely lovely and very elegant. I should’ve known our families could only hold it together for so long. I think the tone of the evening was made clear when we arrived to see that rather than number the tables they were named after various Transformers. This theme continued when Jake, the Best Man, decided to do his speech in a Bumblebee helmet, complete with a voice altering feature.
The rest of the evening was pretty much normal for a wedding. Thanks to free beer on tap both dad’s ended up pretty drunk. There was also a lot of dancing (even I danced, though in my defense I was guilted into it by a drunk friend of Amanda’s) and a great time was had by all. Though I have to admit to being very happy to go home and crash after such an exciting day.
And seriously, how adorable are the new Mr. and Mrs. Frost:
The rest of my time home was spent hanging out with my family. The day after the wedding included a cook-out at Amanda’s parents’ house to spend time with the newlyweds as they would be leaving on Monday. Mom and I went to the local racino for some slots (where we didn’t really win anything) and to the Amish market (where I got my usual, though smaller, pecan pie and fried dough). We also had some fun times with friends and enjoyed the amazing weather.
The laziness didn’t stop when I left New York, though. Since it was quite the drive back to Charleston, and Joe and Nicole had some family visiting, I decided to extend my vacation by stoping in Virginia to see Wendy. Way back in January, just two days before my birthday, Wendy gave birth to the most adorable baby girl on the planet. As it had been two years since I last saw Wendy, I had never met little Zoe or Wendy’s husband Jamy. It was time to remedy that. It should be noted that Wendy and Jamy have six other children (in addition to Zoe) between the two of them. Thankfully, only the oldest, Jarret, was around for the weekend. While I’m sure all their children are absolutely lovely, that is still a lot of kids.
This blog would probably be a whole lot more interesting if I had tons of tales to tell of crazy adventures while I was there, but honestly last weekend was probably the laziest I’ve had in a long time and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I spent most of the weekend catching up with Wendy, making faces at Zoe, and teaching her how to stick her tongue out at people. (It’s my favorite bad habit to teach children.) And taking bunches of photos. Between Jamy and me, we took well over 100 photos on my camera. Then again, with a baby you have to take a ton of photos just to ensure a few good ones come out.
Unfortunately, all vacations eventually have to end and come Monday I was back on the road to Charleston. I had an amazing time and am I’m very much looking forward to my next visit home in September. And I can also be sure that I will not be going another two years before seeing Wendy again. Especially since I have to drive right by her house in September anyway.
