The Zip Lines

My brave friends invited me to join their group going zip lining through Forest Adventure. I had experience running the zip line when I worked at the 4-H camp, so I was excited to show off how well I could handle heights! Unfortunately, I showed up woefully unprepared. I wore long shorts for the harness and brought two water bottles to keep in the car, but it wasn't enough.

"Where is your hat?" my friends asked when I arrived. I laughed a little as I explained we would all be wearing helmets, of course!

"How will you carry your water?" was the next question as everyone else strapped on backpacks. You can't wear those on a zip line, can you?

I was wrong on both counts. Safety was a little more lax at this zip line than the one I worked at. No helmets were available and you could carry whatever you wanted on the zip line with you. My friend Tonie carried a bottle of water for me in her backpack after the guide warned me about the five cases of heat stroke the day before. She pretty much saved me from passing out. It was so, so hot, and, despite the fact we were zip lining in the jungle, there was no shade on the course.

We stood in the sun as the guide explained how to use our carabiners attached to our harness. We had two: one for safety as we climbed up the rope ladders or stood on the platforms and the other was our zip trolley. We went through a practice course about six feet off the ground as our guide watched, but then we were left on our own to strap ourselves in at every station.

There were about eight stations of obstacles or zip lines that took about an hour to complete. I was so hot, there was no hesitation when I got to the top of the line. All I wanted was the slight breeze to cool off! I don't know if I have ever sweat so much in my whole life. When you reached the end of the zip line there was a pile of wood chips. In theory you could land on your feet, but seven out of eight times I hit my back and rolled. The dirt from the landing mixed with the sweat, so by the end I was covered in mud.

Hooking myself to the zip line, sweat running down my face.

There was an additional high ropes course, but I had to sit out with a water bottle at the shaded picnic tables. I felt pretty wimpy as everyone else continued zip lining, but as I looked back on the heights I had climbed I guess for a wimp I was pretty brave.

The Waterfalls and Flowers

As evidenced by my blog, I love new experiences on my island home. However, when I am invited to a day of exploring with my friends Vickie and Tonie, I have to ask for all of the details before I commit. These are two very strong women, for crying out loud they climbed Mt. Fuji earlier this month! They mentioned hiking to a waterfall, and I wanted to make sure I could keep up. I was so glad I didn't let my trepidation of hiking in the jungle hold me back, especially since the waterfall ended up being only a two minute walk from where we parked the car!

We drove north to Nago in search of Todoroki Falls following directions that should have led us to an ice house as a landmark. We weren't exactly sure what an ice house looks like, and at first we ended up parking on top of a mountain in the middle a farm before we realized we may have missed a turn somewhere along the way. We drove back down the mountain, made a left turn we had originally missed, and parked at a building where men were loading ice into a truck. So that's what an ice house looks like!

From the parking lot we could here the rushing water, and all we had to do was walk across a bridge before we could see the falls peeking through the trees. We climbed up some boulders to take a picture, and we discovered the pool at the base of the falls! I would not be brave enough to go swimming on my own, but with the encouragement of my friends I jumped into the freshwater swimming hole as well!

We climbed some more boulders to get even closer to the waterfall. We could even feel the mist on our backs. We simply had to take pictures, the scene was absolutely stunning. We were the only ones there and had the entire view to ourselves. 

After climbing and swimming we were hungry and headed out to a favorite hamburger joint...that was closed on Wednesdays! So we changed courses and headed to a cafe with good reviews online...that was also closed! We were starting to get frustrated and stopped at the first building we saw that had pictures of food on the outside.

It was a huge gift shop, but at least there was a restaurant inside where we ordered taco rice and iced tea. After we ate and could focus a little better, we began to wonder why the gift shop was in the middle of nowhere. As it turns out, we had stumbled onto a tourist attraction. It was a tropical garden in the mountains that you could walk through at your own pace. We purchased tickets and spent a little less than an hour admiring the bright blooms and butterflies. There were other bugs that I did not admire, but I was told I should expect those in nature. I did my best to ignore them and focus on the view.

I cannot wait to see what other activities I find myself doing as I try to keep up with my courageous, active friends!

The Hours of Karaoke

I always thought of karaoke as a late-night activity performed before an entire room of strangers. However, the experience is completely different in Japan! One afternoon some girlfriends and I decided to try Big Box Karaoke without knowing exactly what to expect. We had a little trouble with communication since the man at the counter did not speak any English, and we did not know what we wanted! I finally looked up how to say "first time" in Japanese, and coupled with our blank looks he must have determined he would have to try and explain the process. He pointed to the price sheet. It was 500 yen (around $5) per person for three hours minimum. That was very reasonable, but we knew we couldn't spend three hours singing to each other! That was where we were wrong...

We were each handed a cup that we could fill at the soda machine and a thick book of all the "foreign" song selections. We were then escorted down the hall to our private room. Each room had couches for seating, a small table with a food menu, a phone, and the whole setup for karaoke. We took a good amount of time just getting settled. There was air conditioning in the room, but we had to figure out how to work the remote with only symbols as descriptions. Luckily, the tablet that controlled the audio/visual system had an English option. Phew! The phone was used to call in your food orders, but due to the language barrier we just took the menu to the man outside so we could point when we ordered a snack. It was finally time to pick out some songs and start singing!

That was our next problem. The book of song options was gigantic! It was like reading a phonebook! Even though English options were just part of the book, there were still plenty to choose from. We decided to go alphabetically by artist. We sang 90's hits from Backstreet Boys and Brittany Spears, country classics by Faith Hill, and even *tried* some Jay-Z for fun. We were there for all three hours and we only made it to the the letter J alphabetically. So obviously we will have to go back! I enjoyed singing without having to worry about making a fool of myself in front of strangers. I just made a fool of myself in front of my friends trying to rap, and that was what made it so much fun!

The Six Month Update

Technically, we have been living in Okinawa for seven months and five days. We are entering our first summer and simultaneously our first typhoon season. I am now comfortable with speaking Japanese phrases, using chopsticks, and driving on the left side of the road. I feel very accomplished and happy on my island home. While Matt arrived on Okinawa knowing his mission and work location, I had a lot of free time that needed filling. I had spent five months preparing for this move (see previous blog posts), and now it was time to settle. While I have kept everyone up-to-date on my weekend escapades, now that I have reached the six month mark I thought I would share how I fill my time in between adventures.

First of all, I have a job! I was unemployed for over a year before Okinawa, so I am happy to be entering into the workforce slowly with part-time work. I am a desk clerk at Kadena Air Force Base ITT, which stands for Information, Tickets, and Travel. I sign up customers for local and guided international tours and sell tickets for attractions on Okinawa. I enjoy knowing before all my friends what festivals or events are being held and where. I have the inside scoop!

Second of all, I enjoy eating at small cafes off-base. A lot. Whether with Matt on weekends or my girlfriends on my off days, I have really tasted some excellent and novel dishes. I have expanded my palate to include sashimi (raw fish) and unagi (freshwater eel).

Lastly, I have a reputation with my friends as the girl who brings cakes to events. I happily spend hours on each cake: baking, making buttercream icing from scratch, piping flowers. I now have quite the repertoire.

Baby Shower Cake

Easter Cake

Purple Birthday Cake

Lots of cakes and fish and tickets in my life in order to tide me over until the next exploration, which I will be sure to include in a post very soon!

The Secret Vacation Part 4: The Exploration of Yoron

This is another post by Amanda's husband, Matt. Amanda has been talking a lot about our surprise vacation, so I am going to talk about my favorite part wherever we travel: exploring. Amanda planned most of the vacation: where we were going, how we were getting there, where we would stay... But once we got there she left the schedule wide open for us to fill with whatever fun we found.

Yoron Island offered many things to do, but the resort itself offered a whole slew of awesome activities. Of course, with it being a tropical island surrounded by coral reefs and beautiful beaches there is always the option to lay out and enjoy the sun. My and Amanda's genetic disposition make this an option for about twenty minutes tops, so we had to get creative with our free time.

The first thing we did was get Thai massages. I've never had a massage before, but this was no average massage. Instead of laying there and getting rubbed on, the masseuse very actively contorts your body and stretches and pops thing you otherwise could not on your own. He was able to pop parts of my back that have been bothering me since Quantico.

That night Amanda and I went on a "twinkling night cruise." The language barrier sometimes makes it unclear what you're going to get, but we went for it anyways. It was a glass bottom boat night cruise which allowed you to see the bioluminescent plankton that live in the reef.

The second day we spent exploring Yoron Island outside of the resort. Pricia had a bank of rental scooters. The two-person 100 cc scooters were no longer available, and Amanda was uncomfortable with driving one herself. So we squeezed both of us on a one-person, very tiny, 50 cc scooter.

Fifty cubic centimeters of fury!

Using a map that was entirely in Japanese and translated by my understanding of pictures, we set about exploring the island at a roaring 13 kilometers per hour. Most of the attractions on the map were mom and pop tourist traps. For example, one thing we wanted to explore was a cave. When looking for it we drove past it three times before following signs we thought might have said cave into what was definitely somebody's backyard. We found a tool shed with a man in it who informed us that tickets to see the cave were 500 yen a piece. He then handed us a flashlight that would have made 1990 proud and pointed us to the cave. The cave was nice and cool, and interesting because instead of limestone it was made of clay. What was also interesting was the homemade wiring job on the lights. We explored  the cave until I came across the grounding system for the lights which was under three inches of water in a puddle that ran from one side of the cave to the other. For those not savvy on electrical wiring, just know that is bad. We decided that was enough spelunking for one day and made a hasty retreat back to the toolshed. We also used our trusty weed-eater powered scooter to visit a Shinto shrine, castle ruins, amd some beautiful beaches famous throughout Japan. And the island's only traffic light. It was one of those yellow blinking ones without the green or red options.

This cave seems totally legit and not scary at all!

All in all, exploring this quaint little island was quite the adventure. We had a map I couldn't read, a vehicle I'd never driven before, a pocket full of yen, and not enough sunscreen. It was a vacation to remember!

The Secret Vacation Part 3: The Greek Island in the Pacific

I will finally reveal the secret vacation destination! We took a holiday to (drumroll please) Yoron Island! Yoron Island is part of the Amami Island chain north of the main island of Okinawa. This island is completely surrounded by a coral reef which results in shallow, bright blue water right off the coast.

The most interesting aspect of Yoron Island to me was the Greek influence. Yoron Island, Japan is considered the sister island to Mykonos, Greece due to similarities in landscape and views. This little island in the Pacific took the title of twin to Mykonos to heart and decorated the island in white monuments and murals. The resort in particular was done completely in blue tile and white buildings reminiscent of Greece. The combination of blue water and white architecture was stunning!

The Secret Vacation Part 2: The Resort

After two hours and forty minutes on the ferry Matt and I arrived at our island vacation destination, the location of which I will reveal in my next post. The suspense!!! I first have to describe our novel experience at a Japanese-style resort. I had booked two nights in the superior deluxe room at the Pricia Resort. While very luxurious, we experienced first-hand the idiosyncrasies of staying at a hotel in a different country. A special key was needed to turn on the electricity, so we could not leave it on when we left the room. The air conditioning units were controlled by a remote with all the buttons in Japanese. The toilet was electric with a warmed seat. In the traditional style, all the beds at the hotel were twin-sized with rock-hard pillows. We spent a few minutes just trying to figure out our living arrangements for the next two nights!

We were in the first floor apartment.

House slippers for the interior. They did not fit Matt.

Our twin beds with provided pajamas!

Slippers for the exterior (our back yard). Still did not fit Matt.

Despite our confusion, we loved our room due to the AMAZING back yard. We had our own beach chairs and hot tub complete with an ocean view!

A one minute walk from our room brought us to a Mediterranean-style restaurant (with a Japanese twist accidentally) where we ate every lunch and dinner for our stay. The resort was not crowded, so every visit we were able to sit at the same outside table and enjoy the view.

The view at lunch.

The view at dinner.

And what resort would be complete without a private beach?