Harborview Naha

... the snake-like journey up to the northern part of the island. This could have been a boring experience but it turned out to be quite an enlightening one as the tour guide provided a lot of commentary that provided context on all of the places that we were about to visit. Of interest during the journey was passing by (and through) the large U.S. military bases that still cover the landscape of Okinawa. I could comment on this in a politically sensitive manner but I will not ...

... have supper there and were greeted by two Russian women who had moved here from Vladivostok to start this restaurant. Okinawa is definitely a very strange place to open a Russian restaurant. Given the difference in weather between Vladivostok and Okinawa, I can see though why these women learned Japanese and made the switch. We had the full course Russian meal consisting of -- what else -- borscht and pyrogies! It was just like being back in Saskatchewan!

... next couple of days as we go on two guided tours. One will be up to the north end of the island to an aquarium and a pineapple farm. I am sure that once we get outside of Naha City that we will see the true tropical paradise aspects of this island. We will also be spending some time outside of the city on the south of the island. There is a lot of World War Two history here as this south end of the island is ...

... did all of our shopping in fast forward. On our way home, we stopped at the military exchange, the small American-style mall on base. My mom and I went inside to buy silk robes, like the one Julia gave me for Christmas. We also got books for our respective plane rides, and then went to dinner at Macaroni Grill nearby. It was absolutely delicious, and Riley was very funny. While Julia packed at home, my mom and I took Riley ...

... not just Okinawa but many other Pacific islands such as Micronesia, the Philippines, Tonga, and Yap. There were a lot of really cool things to see there, like the stone money tablets of Yap and recreations of ancient fishing vessels. I was mad that there was no gift shop! After that, it was still hot out and we came across a flat fountain with a water show. Riley went over to investigate and got nailed in the face by a jet of water ...

... to the car, it stopped raining, of course. Obviously after all of that I needed a nap, so I took one up in the guest room. When I woke up, we had an excellent dinner of pasta and root beer floats before heading to the mall. The Okinawan mall was different than other malls I've seen, with a more open floor plan while still having sort of individual shops. Right as we walked in there was a cartoon animal to ride on, which Riley saw and immediately wanted, so we had problems ...

... bear in mind that I was by far the tallest girl on the flight. At least the views were nice as I came into Okinawa! I could not wait to get off that plane.

Mom, Julia, and Riley were waiting for me at the gate, and I could not believe how big Riley had gotten! Apparently she was hiding in the lockers and attempted to stuff Julia in a locker too. Nice. We headed right to dinner at a place called Tsubaki-ya (an Izakaya type ...

So, I thought that April was busy. May was our first month on our own with Trevor deployed. Though I hate to explore without him. We (me and the kids) needed some distractions. I signed Ava up for a gymnastics class and a ballet class. Of course I forgot my camera most classes I did get a few pictures. The kids made some nice presents for me for Mother's Day, thanks to their provider Jen! We made a trip to my schools' Luau and the kids ...

... routes in the forest were paved with stones and surrounded by attractive tropical trees, but some parts of the routes were slippery and it is better to use a cane sometimes which you can borrow for free at the starting point. In the most important site, two large rocks were naturally put together to make a route to the altar, where we can see the Pacific Sea through the bush. Seifa-Utaki had less visitors than the other attractions in ...

... warm and humid (as you would expect) and that island feeling was in the air. The kind ladies at the information booth helped me figure out what bus would get me closest to my hostal and off I went...I managed to navigate all of that fine, with the bus driver letting me know what stop to get off at. I had some trouble locating where it was so I asked some girls on the street and they walked me down to where it was *supposed* to be. Well, it wasn`t there at all. The building it ...