Sayonara Japan! 

This past week has been full of emotions ranging from excited to sad. As our journey here in Okinawa comes to an end, all I can say is it is going to be a bittersweet goodbye. Excitement to reunite with friends and family back at home in good ol' America, but extremely difficult and sad to say goodbye to the kids and staff we have spent the past two and a half months with and befriended. Tomorrow is our last day at work, and we have a full day's worth of fun activities planned including a carnival, tie-dye, Camp A presents with dance presentations by our small groups and an end-of-summer slideshow that is bound to make us all tear up. 

Here are a few photos from our last weekend here, a field trip to the Busena resort & our Big Top Party Parade theme. 

View from Pizza in the Sky

Nakijin Castle Ruins from Ryukyu Kingdom

Adorable kids at the Eisa Dance Festival 

Konichiwa!

Big Top Party Parade!

Glass Bottom Boat Field Trip @ Busena Resort

Underwater Observatory 

"We lose ourselves in the things we love, but we find ourselves there too." Through the challenges, obstacles, flexibility and adaptability to the excitement, friendships and ever-lasting magical memories, this quote sums up my experience here in Oki perfectly. While I may not foresee a career in teaching, I have learned so much about myself through working with these children, the staff and being on this fabulous Island. It has truly been an experience of a lifetime and I cannot wait to go out into the field with Camp A once again next summer.

Peace & love from Oki one last time, Sayonara! 

Haiku me a Typhoon? 

Rain, thunder, lightening and a whole lot of wind have taken control over Okinawa and formed the Typhoon name Haiku over the past few days, leaving us with a weekend spent inside. Besides being able to go off base Saturday morning at 5 am to work the Kids Triathalon on Camp Foster and the few hours after that spent shopping at a local Japanese mall, we spent the rest of our weekends on lock-down in the barracks playing card games, having a potluck and joking around for the most part. Work was cancelled this morning as we were in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1 - Caution, and when we went into Storm Watch Recovery later in the day, we only had to go into work for 2 hours. This week is flying by, and I am not looking forward to saying good-bye to our Aquatics staff this Friday night as they head home Saturday, they will all be missed! As for Day Camp Staff, we have one more weekend and then we are off on our separate ways back to the States! 

Here are some random moments captures from this weekend. Peace & love from Typhoon-ing Oki!

Dinner with our friend Scott before he headed back to the US

Making crepes for German/French club at work

Doner Kebabs!

Just some faves

Cutest bagel/coffee shop

Who knew I would eat the best bagel of my life in Japan?

 Zip Lining & Battle Sites!

This past weekend checked off the last big things on my must-do list while here on Okinawa. Zip lining was the most thrilling experience of my life. We were given a 10-minute informational talk on how to attach our harness latches onto the zip line and were then sent off into the forest to maneuver the course on our own. We went through the course twice, the first time being full of shakes and anxiousness, but when it came to round two we began to feel in control swinging through the tree tops, and were able to fully take in the amazing views of the ocean and absolute thrill that it gave us. The last part of the course was the tarzan fall where you jump off a tower and free fall for a few seconds, until being caught by your rope and crashing into a large net in front of you. Some great advice that was given to me for this, which I also feel has defined my summer, was “don’t think twice about it, just do it.” It is absolutely unreal that we are heading out of Japan and back home to our real lives in less than three weeks, with only two weekends left. Our Aquatics staff leaves a week before us, which means the first of the waterworks goodbyes begins this weekend.

 

The Tarzan Swing!

 Delicious food after zip lining at Joyful Cafe!

Sunday we boarded another MCCS bus for a battle sites tour of Okinawa. We were bombarded with a crazy amount of history and information on World War II and specifically the Battle of Okinawa, but it was so great to finally get some in-depth, historical knowledge of the Island we have called home for the past two months. We visited the Kazukai battle site, some Japanese caves and a museum exhibition on Camp Kinser that holds photographs and items from the Battle of Okinawa and remnants that have been buried up right outside of base. After viewing this exhibition, it really put into perspective how grateful I am of the opportunity to not only be in Japan, but to be able to live on this Marine Corps base that has so much history to it and is rarely accessible to the majority of the public. We also visited the Peace Prayer Park, which consists of various memorials and statues along with a museum and some great views of the Pacific Ocean. It is a very large park and has so much to view. We will be going back there this weekend on our mandatory fun trip with the entire Camp Adventure staff on Okinawa.

 At Kazukai Battle Site 

A flag from the museum of the Battle of Okinawa on Camp Kinser

View out to the Pacific Ocean at Peace Prayer Park

View of the harbor at Tropical Ginowan Beach

We’re ringing in week 7 of Camp A with an “Outrageous Olympic Odyssey” theme, which is only fitting for the London 2012 games having started this weekend. Time is flying by, and I am going to miss the children so incredibly much along with the great new friends I have made here. Leaving Oki is going to be so extremely bittersweet, but until then, going to be making the absolute best out of the next two and a half weeks!

Peace & love from the greatest Island on this planet J

Tadeke Falls & Gardens

This weekend I got to check one of the top things that I have wanted to do here in Okinawa off my list – river trekking to the Tadeke Falls! We drove an hour and a half up north where we were able to enter the river that would lead us to the falls. The trek had its difficulties, the hardest part being the lack of visibility of the rocks in the water, and the occasional ropes that we had to use to carry ourselves over some large rocks. We trekked about a half hour through the river, stopping to swing on tree vines and then reached Tadeke Falls. It was absolutely breathtaking! We were the only ones there in the morning and had the entire swimming area to ourselves. Swimming beneath the falls and climbing behind it was amazing. Surrounding us was the Okinawan forest, it was one of those moments that reminded me of how lucky I am to be able to experience all of this here in Japan. After swimming in the falls we climbed up through an incredibly steep and narrow path of rocks, and proceeded to trek through the forest and down a straight shoot of rocks which led us to the top of the falls, where we could look down into the area that we had just swam in. Looking out at the jungles of Okinawa was absolutely unreal. I am so glad that we got to experience this!

We also visited some traditional Japanese-Chinese gardens this weekend, called Fukushu-en Gardens. They were so beautiful and serene, and had little paths leading to different areas of the gardens. The gardens are there to create a cultural and peaceful bond between the two countries after the battles they fought against each other, leaving a lot of tension between the two nations.

Once again got to eat some more delicious meals at some great restaurants including Cocos Curry, an Udon-noodle cafeteria and some amazing sushi from a little hole in the wall restaurant.

We now have only three more weekends left, and am making the absolute best of every last minute that I spend here in Okinawa, because words cannot describe how much I am going to miss this place and all of the wonderful people that I have met!  

From Naha to Nago 

5 weeks down and 5 to go, we are at the halfway point of our summer! It is absolutely crazy how time flies. I can now count on one hand how many weekends I have left here in Okinawa, and am making the most of it. This weekend we explored through Naha, since it was Bianca's 21st birthday, and got to experience what a Japanese hostel was like. We had a room of bunk beds to ourselves at a place called The Shell House which was right on the main part of Kokusai street. It was nice to stay off base for a night and experience some of Naha's night life. 

Shell house hostel

On Sunday we took a MCCS tour (Marine Corps Community Services) which highlighted all the main spots up north in Nago. Our first stop was the Glass Factory where we got to see people hand blow glass. After that we went to Fruit Land where we had a traditional yakiniku style lunch, which is where you get to grill vegetables and meat on your own stove. Fruit land had lots of tropical vegetation, birds and fruits throughout, my favorite was seeing the banana bunches on the trees. Pineapple Park and the Pineapple Winery were our next stops. We took a tour through the pineapple plantations on a pineapple cart that drove itself. After we got to go wine tasting through the winery and sample various pineapple cookies and cakes. Our last stop for the day was the Orion Beer Factory, which is the name-brand beer here in Okinawa. Our tour was in Japanese only, but it was still really interesting to walk through the factory and then sample the beers at the end. 

Glass Blowing Factory

Yakiniku lunch

Fruits Land

Pineapple Park

We are supposedly getting a typhoon this week, but hopefully it will pass before the weekend, because we're hoping to go river trekking up north at Tadeke Falls. 

Peace & love from Oki as always!