What I Miss Most - Okinawa

If you haven't seen Rambling of a Marine Wife's post What I Miss Most- go read it first,  I can almost mirror her post, but I'll try to make mine different. 

If you have been a follower for any period of time you know I love Okinawa, I love Japan, and we are holding out hope we will someday return to Japan. But for now I have to live vicariously through friends who currently live there and share all the pictures of their adventures on facebook. And I have my own pictures, they document probably the most fun and adventurous three two years and 9 months of our lives. I frequently look back at Okinawa with fond memories of good friends, great food, and so many adventures. I wish I had been more active on my blog during that time so I would have more detailed stories to go with those pictures. 

So without further adieu : 

The things I miss most from Okinawa 

(in no particular order) 

Vending Machines EVERYWHERE

Even in the middle of nowhere. I had at least 3 very close to my house, less than a 2 minute walk.  My favorite drinks were, Fanta orange, Aquarius (like a gatorade, but a very mild, refreshing flavor) and Sanpincha (a jasmine-y tea that is also delicious, unsweetened and very refreshing on a hot humid day.) Sanpincha was probably my favorite of all, the best one is in the Yellow CocaCola can with the shisa and hibiscus on it. And in the winter (or in some machines year round) you could get hot coffee too! A cute little can of Georgia Cafe au lait to start your day! 

Georgia Coffee. Yummy/

 Bike rides along the coast

I was lucky and both while living on base and off base I was very close to the ocean. Oh wait, on Okinawa you are always very near the ocean... But I was super close, less than a mile I would say. When we moved off base, and Paul deployed, I picked up bike riding as a way to spend my day (and maybe to get to and from the izykaya without driving.) I would frequently spend HOURS out exploring on my bike, going 20 miles in a day was pretty common. 

The Festivals

One of the things I could never get enough of is all the festivals, it seems like there was always something, somewhere being celebrated. So much fun. 

Food

I could go on for days about the food, oh the amazing and wonderful food, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Greek Gyros, even the Mexican isn't that bad. And seriously the fish was so fresh in most restaurants/sushi joints it was usually caught that day. "Catch of the day" had a whole new, literal, meaning.

Drink (of the adult variety)

Okay, I'm not gonna pretend that Okinawa has an amazing drink selection, you can get most hard liquor, but beer and wine are a little lacking, even on base. But.. I did develop quite a taste for Orion, Okinawa's beer of choice (and locally brewed), and there is always Chu Hi, which, I have no idea what it is, I think it's a mixed carbonated beverage with sochu. I love Chu Hi! and it's a great alternative to beer or mixed drinks. 

Fun!
Okinawa (and I would imagine, most of Japan) is just fun, and silly, and cute. The guy at the farm across the street regularly walked his bull. Where else will you see that? There is so much cute, everywhere you look! Even the garbage truck plays a fun song, that sadly reminds Americans of an ice cream truck, but you don't want to run after this guy. 

Cute cups of something, inside a free gift mug!

My 'hood

Speaking of the farm across the street, I am so sad but this is the only picture I can find, and it's in the middle of a typhoon. This is taken from my bathroom window, and that little yellow stand is a farm stand that was regularly filled with fresh veggies! They also grew sugar cane and had cows too. 

Just down the street there was a woman who ran a little store out of her garage, selling things like beer, sodas, rice, the bare essentials, and occasionally (if you made it at the right time) bento lunches. Much closer than the konbini (convenience store)

Beaches

Most beaches by our house were not "swimming beaches" with beachy sand and stuff, they were very rocky and muddy and full of dead coral and lava rock, so you could do what you wanted, like take your dog for a dip. Or take your fully clothed self for a dip when you ran to hard and far in the heat and you are about to puke (only happened once)

The Late Nights/Early Mornings 

Okay, I partied like a frat boy in Okinawa. Paul and I didn't have kids, we had no responsibilities and we partied, hard, and frequently. I am so happy to be a mom, and to have responsibilities, but sometimes I miss it a little. 

Driving on the "wrong" side

I dunno, for me driving on the left side of the road seemed more natural, it was more comfortable for me. I super dooper miss that. 

It's hard to explain. I frequently get asked "why do you love Okinawa so much?" and I just can't answer. It's everything, every bit of that island I love. You just won't get it, unless you get it. There are a few people I know who get it, where Okinawa is just their happy place. I will always have a place in my heart for that island, and I deeply hope that someday I will be given the opportunity to return. 

I could go on forever, but I will call it complete for this time. 

I will leave you with a picture of the sunset from my bedroom window.

Sayonara

 さようなら

Homesick

I have been working on a post about Okinawa, kind of a response, or a "here's my list" to Ramblings of a Marine Wife's post:  Top Things I Miss from Okinawa and I must say, I've been having a hard time with it. I love looking at all my pictures, and re-living all my experiences, but It makes me very sad too, very homesick. 

It doesn't help that I have so many friends that have recently arrived or still live on the island. So I see their pictures and updates frequently. I hope every day that Paul comes home from work and says "guess what? We are going back!" I know it's not going to happen, any time soon at least, but my heart says stranger things have happened. Someday we will go back. Someday. 

PCS Adventure Log Part 2

When we last posted, we had just left Virginia and we were on our way back West, working our way towards our new home in Sunny California! 

Our first stop was back in Albuquerque to rescue Aunt Andrea from all the animals! Because 3 dogs and 3 cats, makes her an animal hoarder. 

We then adventured back to Tucson, to spend a couple days with my family before we checked into California! 

Sadly here my camera stopped working correctly and don't really have any pictures until after we got to California. 

PCS Adventure Log Part 1

It's been about 2 months since we started our adventure out of Montana. On April 8th the movers came and packed us out. That was a big day for little Evey, Her first move (from Helena to Butte) she was only about 3 months old, so there was a lot more going on, that she was aware of.
To keep her out of the way we played outside, it was warming up, but as you can see there was still plenty of snow on the ground. 

On April 9th we drove out of Montana and headed South, our first night we spent in Salt Lake City, and then drove on. That second day we stopped at Bryce Canyon. Fun Fact: I'm distantly related to Ebeneezer Bryce, the dude that place is named after. 

Evey was a teeny little monster at Bryce Canyon, so we didn't stay long. She wanted to run up to the edge of the canyon, and mommy wouldn't let her. 

We stayed that night in Page, Az. At not the nicest motel, but that's what you get when you wait until 5pm to book a room in a small town. We got up bright and early the next day, and continued on to Tucson. We made our fun stop that day at Meteor Crater. I have been there once, but I was very young. Paul had never been there. It sounded really cool, but it's really just a big hole in the ground that you pay $15 to look at. At least Paul was free since he is Active Duty, and Evey was free since she is teeny tiny. 

That night we made it to Tucson, after getting caught in Phoenix and Tucson rush hour, and me almost ending up in tears. I don't handle traffic well and after driving all day I was tired and frazzled and Evey was screaming at the top of her little lungs by the time we hit Tucson. No matter how many times I said "we are almost there, We are so close" she would just cry. 

But we made it, and we spent a lovely weekend at my parents, relaxing and avoiding being in the car.  We enjoyed fun in the sun, and considerably warmer temperatures. 

From Tucson we went on to Albuquerque, where we stopped at Aunt Andrea's house and dropped off our monsters. The pets were going to stay with her while we continued our adventure East. Andrea has a Boston of her own, so when we added our two into the mix things got a little crazy at her house. She sure is brave to take on three dogs for us. I know her house was bananas for nearly three weeks. 

Next we continued on East, not many pictures of the drive, it was boring, We did stop a couple times, once in the middle of Oklahoma to let Evey burn off some steam because we decided to push all the way to Arkansas that first night. The second day of our adventure East was equally boring, and that night I had horrible food poisoning or something and was sick all night and most of the next day, BTW being sick and having to check out of a hotel and get into a car is the worst. But I was able to pull it together when Evey got sick too. Needless to say, that day was horrible, but we made it to Grannys in Northern Virginia, and we got a little food in our tummies and slept like angels. I also slept most of the next day, because I was still feeling pretty dead.
We had a wonderfull time at Granny's. Evey got to meet her Aunt Maggie, and her two Uncles, Pat & Ben, she got to spend some wonderful quality time with everyone. She loved spending time with Granny. We had a wonderful Easter and loved picking the flowers in Granny's back yard.

Sadly the time came for us to head back west so we could make our way to our new home in California. 

Check back in a couple days for PCS Adventure Log Part 2!