Happy 235th Birthday Marines!

Ok folks, here is your mini-history lesson for the day. Yes you read right, I (Andrea) am actually going to talk about history. My history-buff husband is apparently rubbing off on me! As many of you know, the United States Marine Corps was formed in 1775. In 1921 the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. John A. Lejeune issued an order to all Marines that on November 10 each year they would honor the founding of the Marine Corps. Soon, some Marine commands began to not only honor the birthday, but celebrate it.

Last night we celebrated the 235th birthday of the Marine Corps. Here are a few photos from our great night!

Here is John in the center with his Marines

The officers in our unit

And their wives...

With our friends Matt and Laura

Happy birthday Marines!

Tadake Falls

Last weekend we drove up north with some friends to hike through a river to get to a beautiful waterfall. I have never done anything like this so I was a little worried about walking on rocks in the water, especially given my recent history with creatures that live in the water! Fortunately there are no jellyfish in rivers!

It was a fun hike and a pretty good workout!

Boys will be boys!

Someone wasn't thrilled that he wound up in waist deep water and his shirt got wet!

We made it after 45 minutes or so. The falls were more powerful than I imagined!

John and Matt decided to swim across and walk behind the waterfall. Of course they had to do their typical "battle" photo!

Then he and Matt decided to hike even further up the steep hill to check out the top while Laura and I had a snack and saved our leg muscles from being sore the next day!

After our hike back to the car we were ready to eat!

There is a popular blog here on Okinawa where people post about restaurants and things to do on the island. We read about a place called Beach Rock Village that got good reviews, so we went to check it out. It was interesting to say the least.

It was sort of a hippy campsite in the middle of nowhere, but they had food that you could order. They only had pizza left (apparently they only make a few things and once they are out, they're out!). We ordered food and climbed up into the tree house to eat.

By now, the most random things don't really seem to phase us anymore! Having to eat in a tree sounds normal after you have lived in Japan a while! Ha ha!

The food and drinks were put on a pulley system to make getting it into the tree a little easier!

The pizza was pretty good but I don't think we will make a special trip an hour north just to eat at this odd place!

All in all it was a great day with great friends! One activity to check off the list of things we should do before we leave the island!

First Visitor!

My friend and former roommate came out for a visit while John was gone. I can't believe we have been here for 2 1/2 years and she is the first person to visit us! Tsk, tsk! The rest of you only have six months left, so you better get on it!
Anyway, we did all of the typical touristy stuff, like the aquarium...

For those of you who know the the horrors of what I have been through because of a nasty jellyfish sting, this picture was appropriate!

And the pineapple park...

After you have been here a while there are some things that become normal that you forget are totally different in the States. A few of the restaurants here have sort of a vending machine system. You put money into the machine, push the button for the meal you want, and after it spits out a ticket, you hand it to a waiter who will bring your food out in a very short time!

This place has the absolute best fried rice in the world! Yes, I am going to go ahead and make that claim right here on my blog! It comes out in a hot cast iron platter with raw egg on the bottom. You get large spoons to mix it all up and the egg cooks as you are mixing. That slab of butter doesn't help with the waistline, but it is worth it every now and then!

Since Halloween is right around the corner I hosted a costume party with some of my closest girlfriends.

In true Japanese fashion, I went as a Harajuku girl!

I will miss going into one of these crazy clothing stores an be able to pick out practically anything and wear it as a costume!

We also had some fun zip-lining through the trees!

Her last day she experienced her first typhoon! What a send off! Sadly we were shut in the entire day due to Typhoon Chaba, but we made it through and fortunately it brought some cooler weather with it!

We are certainly looking forward to our next visitors: my dad and step-mom who will be here for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for our adventures with them!

Peace Memorial Park

This Saturday we had yet ANOTHER all-day power outage. They are building a new hospital on the base where we live and this summer we have had several power outages while they work on the electricity for the hospital. It is quite frustrating, but hopefully this was the last one. We haven't traveled to the southern part of this island yet, so John and I decided to head down there since we did not want to be stuck in a house without power all day.

We went to the Peace Memorial Park, a memorial for those who lost their lives in the battle of Okinawa.

The Battle of Okinawa was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War and lasted from early April until mid-June in 1945.

Monuments were constructed to honor more than 240,000 people who lost their lives during that battle. Sadly, more civilians were killed in this battle than military members.

Both Japanese and foreigners names (Americans included) are written on the monuments and they all face the "Cornerstone of Peace" with a spectacular view and a water sculpture.

There is a museum on the grounds with an observation tower. Amazing view, huh?

The war ended on August 15, 1945 and in 1982 the Japanese government designated August 15 as a national day of mourning for those who lost their lives and a day to pray for peace.

The purpose of the museum is to encourage everyone to learn a lesson from the past in hopes for a better future.

Eisa Festival

I'm sorry I rarely post things anymore that are "Japanese". After two years, you kind of get used to things and forget to take pictures!

This past weekend we went to the Eisa Festival with our friends Matt and Laura.

This festival is a competition between all the local cities on Okinawa. Each city has Eisa performers to represent them. The team usually dresses in bright, traditional Okinawan costumes. They are judged on their talent, creativity of the routine and enthusiasm.

The types of drums that are used in the festival are the shimedaiko and the paaranku. The shimedaiko is a medium sized drum and the paaranku is a smaller hand drum. One of the other instrument used is the sanshin which is a three string instrument that is made of snake skin and looks like a banjo. Thank you to Wikipedia for helping me explain it all! Ha ha!

Laura and I kept sneaking up on each group to get a picture while they were having professional ones done!

I couldn't help myself, I had to get a picture with this guy and his funky outfit! He even made me put on the scarf he was wearing!

While we were watching the dancers, a Japanese man actually stopped us to ask if he could interview us. He post videos on youtube in an effort to inform the world of Okinawan customs and traditions. His editing skills aren't the greatest, and I am certainly not cut out for a career in broadcast journalism, but it is always fun to see yourself on video!

We are "on" at minute 1:30. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz0DewcAE2k

What a week!

Last week was quite the whirlwind! Now that we are stepping into Fall, all of the things we are involved with are starting up and John's unit has been hard at work with all sorts of exercises going on.

With all of these things going on the last thing we needed interrupted our busy schedules. Enter Typhoon Kompasu! Tuesday we experienced our first typhoon. As most of you know, our home is made of concrete. These houses were made to withstand earthquakes and typhoons and any other natural disaster that comes with living on a small island. John and all of the other Marines here got the day off to "prepare" for the storm. It was nice to finally have a lazy day together. It hit us during that evening and fortunately we only experienced very heavy winds and rain. As you can see in this satellite image, the center of the storm passed directly over the island of Okinawa.

The north part of the island suffered a lot of damage, so were very fortunate that we had only a few tree branches that fell.

While we were stuck inside I decided we should have a crab boil. I have never done this before, but I got the idea from my aunt's food blog http://www.dishinanddishes.com/ and it was a success! It is rare that we can get fresh crab legs here, but I will definitely do this again the next time I come across them!

At the end of the week my boss' daughter got married. I had the pleasure of doing the makeup for the bride and bridesmaids. I certainly miss the old makeup artist days!

Finally we ended our long holiday weekend with a trip to a place called Round One with some of our friends. Basically it is like Dave and Busters, but bigger! You pay one fee and can play any of the games, sports, etc on all FIVE floors!

They had archery

Golf and batting cages

Badminton/volleyball

and our favorite, a mini bike race around the roller skating rink!

It was a fun way to end a very rainy weekend even if John and I lost the race to two little kids!