Resort Hotel Bel Paraiso Nakijin-son

... 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 ...

... we saw how Okinawans lived in the past (obviously). The Okinawans lived in squat wooden houses on shelly lawns. What's interesting about this island is that it was not always a part of Japan- that only happened in the last century. It had its own special Ryukuan culture, as evidenced by many things around the island that are different from Japan's other islands. One of Okinawa's most special features is the shisa dog. Shisa dogs are ...

On Friday, I woke up on the couch at around 6 am when Riley woke up, but was way too tired to get up, so I went back to sleep. My mom tried to rouse me to watch Riley's last swim lesson, and later to go work out, but it was impossible. When I finally did wake up, the sky had turned ominous, but it didn't matter because our only scheduled event was pedicures. Julia had booked us appointments at Cocok's (pronounced Coco's), where we were to get foot massages as well. I was nervous ...

... with about one hour to go before my flight was set to depart, let alone board. I sprinted to the check-in gate, which was empty because everyone else had gone through. Yikes! But for some reason the airport was deserted, and I was sitting at the gate, bored, within 15 minutes of arriving. I've had really good luck with being on time so far this trip (knock on wood).

One thing I did not turn out to be lucky with for this ...

... down the street. I got a glimps of a Peace Rally that the locals were having around the base. It was interesting, I just wish I knew what they were saying, or maybe not. Ava and I did a girls day, well just a couple of hours, and got our toes done at the infamous CoCo's. Don't they look nice! We tried to go to a water park, but come to find out they are only open on the weekends. Luckily it is inside of a huge park called ...

... realize how far away i am from everyone and everything i know, but im not sad at all. It's beautifull here, and the people are really nice so far.
Kurtis brought me some food from this place called Mos burger. It was sooooo good! I guess is mostly made of soy and 25% ground beef. It was yummy! Tonight we are going to take harley and Liam on this huge faris wheel down by sunset beach. Should be super fun!
The only thing im sad about is the ...

... came out for an extra long weekend. She came out to step in to be Trevor's Godmother for his conversion to Catholic. We were able to get out and see some new things and a repeat of some things like Shurji Castle and Jack's (our favorite place to eat!). Shortly after Easter we had to ...

Nitta Seifuku and his son, Nitta Kazuma picked us up at our hotel and drove us to Camp Courtney to Nitta's karate class. He teaches on the Camp every Tuesday and Thursday. Nitta Seifuku is a 10th degree black belt Grand Master of Okinawa Shorinryu Karate.

Another good day, unfortunately there are not as many pictures due to rain. In the morning we had a meeting with Pastor Bachigalupo. We were so busy we forgot to take pictures! We do have some pictures for the rest of the day. The evening activity was training with a few of Kiyan Tooru Sensei's students at Ginowan gym. It was great, but guess what we forgot pictures there too. Too busy talking.

So it has been far too long since I posted last. Been a wee bit busy! Sorry! But mom is barking again so here are some pictures and snips of what I've been up to for the last month and a half. Because if i were to give you all the details- well you'd probably hate me for rambling too much! My grandparents came. We had a lovely time exploring the island and meeting people. They really enjoyed their time here. I was spoiled rotten ...