March, Part 4: Shopping around/ E5 Exam/ Birthday!

Wednesday, March 12. This was the day before Nathan's E5 exam, and as he wanted to get in some last minute studying, we kept our activities to a minimum. We did go out for a little while in the afternoon to stretch our legs, stopping at the Ikea of Okinawa, Nitori, to get some things for the house. We also got some scarves and a vest at a clothing chain called Mac House, our first time going in one. And lastly, we wandered through a chain called Don Quixote, a giant store that has, well, basically everything. Clothes, blankets, shoes, jewelry, kitchen appliances, TVs, and everything else they could throw in, following typical Japanese style. This was a low-key day, most of it being spent with Nathan in front of his computer.

Thursday, March 13. My 23rd birthday! Nathan left around 5am to drive the hour to Camp Shields, straight across the island from White Beach. I slept ad hung out in the cabin until he came back, bearing flowers, cake, and gifts. We spent the afternoon in American Village. The whole day was a blast.

Dr. Suess Converses. He knows me so well.

 New year, new hair, compliments of Nathan's Salon.

 Dr. Fish. They eat away old skin and tickle like mad.

 Dinner was shabu shabu, named for the swishing sound the meat makes as you cook it in the broth.

The view from the Ferris wheel

Frozen yogurt at Partyland. They have exotic flavors like royal milk tea, mango, and aceola, plus Okinawan cookies and other local toppings.

Nathan's

 Mine

 Super fun birthday :)

March, Part 3: Japanese Underground Naval HQ/ Prefectural Museum of Natural History/ Mos Burger

Tuesday, March 10. We drove down to Naha to the Japanese Underground Naval Headquarters. This was a series of tunnels hand-dug beneath the ground that served as a Japanese base during WWII. Because of the nature of the tunnels, we were not able to get an decent pictures. In essence, the base was comprised of several main tunnels that branched out into rooms. Without the signs telling you where to walk, it would have been disorienting for quite some time. It was a somber visit, nearly crouching in some of the low places, looking at the chips in the wall where Japanese peasants had used hand tools to carve them, stopping in a room with damaged walls from a grenade in an act of suicide. It reminded us what Okinawa had been through in the war, even though now you would hardly know. 

The view from a tower outside the tunnels.

Our next stop was the Okinawa  Prefectural Museum of Natural History. In a similar fashion to the Smithsonians, the Okinawa Prefectural Museums are separated into categories. Although much smaller, we only visited on this trip, the Natural History museum. It felt very similar to it's equivalent in the Smithsonian, covering the history of the people as well as the wildlife hundreds of years back. Most of the signs were in Japanese, but there was still plenty to look at, though many of the areas banned photos.

We had dinner at a local chain we had been wanting to try called Mos Burger. It was typical in what you would imagine a chain burger place would be like, but being on a Japanese island, the menu was indeed different. There were many of the normal items, but some, my shrimp patty burger and Nathan's burger with some sort of cabbage salad on it, for example, were new. And of course, these were enjoyed with a favorite drink, melon soda, which is supposedly a flavor of Fanta that isn't available in the US. I tried a cherry drink that reminded me of an Italian soda as it was very light. Add in onion rings, fries, and milkshakes, and it's not too different than a burger joint back home, but with just the right amount of foreign to make it interesting.

March, Part 2: White Beach, Southeast Botanical Gardens

The Sunday afternoon following our anniversary, we packed our bags and our snacks

and headed to White Beach, a peninsula south of us on the eastern side of the island. We stayed in a tiny log cabin, very similar to the one we stayed in during our first two weeks of marriage. It was a fun way to spend the week following our anniversary. We used the advantage of being half an hour further south to visit some of the sites farther down.

On Monday, our first stop was Southeast Botanical Gardens. In summary, it was a two part garden walk, full of flowers, trees, tropical plants, ponds, and lots of other neat things to see, all outdoors. 

There was a whole, um, patch, of these cows. You could paint them for a day if you liked. 

He was a spying goose.

The shoelace-hungry goat. He got mine as well.

There were a couple of these guys in a cage, which we were allowed into.

Along with the very snooty capybara.

After the gardens, we went to a local honey shop, where we bought the local flavor, alone with blueberry pomegranate flavored varieties. Definitely a place we will go again. 

Our last stop was a small nursery in the backyard of someone's home. And of course, we brought home a baby.

March, Part 1: CREDO Marriage Retreat, First Anniversary

We took leave (military for vacation time) in March, 18 days of it. It was both a busy and restful time as we alternated between days in and days out. 

First, we went on a CREDO  (Chaplains Religious Enrichment Development Operation) retreat. Basically just a military hosted retreat run by chaplains, though, because it is military, not an openly religious event. We drove to Foster on Wednesday morning, March 5th, the retreat lasting until Friday afternoon. After a short briefing, we boarded a bus with 14 other couples, as this particular one was a marriage retreat. We rode for half an hour to the five-star Kafuu Resort in Onna, pretty much straight across the island from where we live. Since we live off-base, the ocean-view Japanese style rooms were familiar to us. 

 They gave us silk pajamas

We spent most of the few days in sessions, which we both enjoyed. Taught from a non-religious point of view, we worked our way through personality tests, root causes of surface reactions, communication strategies, and things of that nature. Being one of the youngest couples, we didn't have years of problems to sort through, but it was good to get a grounding in helpful habits for later years. 

We ate almost entirely Japanese cuisine, finding some new favorites, most notably the shikuwasa juice (made from a small green citrus) that was in our meeting room at all times. There were a few fun activities outside the classes, including a fancy dinner.

We loved getting to make clay shishi dogs

And we found a small building outside in the garden, and had fun playing with the items inside.

The CREDO retreat was a fun, relaxing way to kick off our leave, and good time spent together just before our anniversary.

Our first anniversary was Saturday, March 8th. We celebrated by going to a jewelry store called Grand Blue and getting rings for our right hands. Since we ordered our wedding rings online, picking rings together in person was new and special.

The pattern, called Minsa, is from old Okinawan tradition. In times past, a woman would weave this pattern onto a sash or scarf and give it to the man who was courting her as a way of expressing her attachment. Now, women will give a ring with this pattern to a man after he proposes and gives her a ring, as an engagement token for him. Rings with this pattern are also used as anniversary rings. The five dots represent life, and the four dots represent forever. In English, the meaning is "Yours Forever More."

We followed this with dinner at an Italian restaurant (just like on our wedding day) which, oddly enough, was also called Grand Blue. Even though it was Italian, it still served some traditional Japanese items, such as the plate of raw fish I didn't know I was getting (but ate anyway!). We loved the setting, sitting way up in a hill, eating in low lighting while it poured rain outside. The building seemed to have been converted from a house, which added to the charm. In all, the days leading up to our anniversary and the day itself were very special, celebrating one year together.