First Beach Day of 2018

On Saturday we woke up and went to Shae’s basketball game. They kicked some serious butt for some nine year olds. After the game we took Ally, Shae, and Ezekiel to the beach with the dogs. It’s about a mile down the road from our house so it’s nice that we have something that close that allows dogs. The water is still a bit chilly so we didn’t swim but Raleigh and Murphy had a blast playing in the water. I left my phone in the car so I didn’t get any pictures. Sometimes it is nice though being able to enjoy those little moments without the distraction of technology! We went over to a little play ground next to th beach and the kids played there for a little while. 

I sat on a bench with the dogs and watched jayson and the three kids play. A group of Japanese softball players came over and wanted to pet the dogs. Their English was considerably better than my Japanese. One of the girls told me that her name was Ariana Grande 😂 another one of the girls who spoke pretty clear English was telling me that one day in the future she’d like visit the US and (of all places) wants to go to Kentucky. I asked why but I don’t think she quite understood. Majority of our conversation consisted of me looking very confused and the six of them laughing and talking to each other in Japanese. 

Once we finished at the park we headed back to the house and gave the dogs baths and took the kids home. Jayson and I headed back home to get ready to head to an event at the Officers Club on base. One of the girls I work with is a very talented singer. She toured in places like Jordan and Dubai performing. So for fun, she was competing in a base karaoke competition. We hung out there and watched her and the other contestants before heading home. As per our usual, we got home and started our Harry Potter marathon (currently watching the Deatly Hallows Part 1). 

On Sunday we had some pretty awful weather. It stormed all day until about 6 pm. I headed out to the JA for some fruits and veg. I still have a hard time buying groceries off base here. I’ve discovered that, for example, it might look like a lime, but it’s not actually a lime... I ran to the commissary and then back home. 

A pretty relaxed weekend for the most part! 

Jill

Cape Zanpa

Yesterday I went out to lunch with some of the girls from work and then we headed over to Cape Zanpa to walk around the light house. The cafe we went to was called Cafe Kafuu. The food was amazing and the view was incredible (as most of them are here).

Mom and dad, you guys would enjoy this walk. It sort of reminded me of Lands End in Cornwall.

The cafe's specialty was pancakes and they were delicious! IHOP has nothing on these!! (Another good pancake place here is Cafe Hanon!) I ordered the Cinnamon French Toast Pancake (I may have gotten that mixed up but it was those words in some order lol) with a side of chorizo. This one is definitely worth a trip back to!

I'll never get sick of these views 💙

Suppose to be a statue of the guy who spotted the ship carrying the potato which helped end the famine in Okinawa.  

Cape Zanpa and the light house! Sadly, as in most cases, pictures just don't do it justice!

A short post is better than no post right?

Jill

P.S. I am working on putting the guest room together so whenever you travelers are ready to come visit, we are ready for you!

The Whitaker's Take Asia

Ok, so I really am awful at this blogging thing...

It's been nearly three years since my last post and A LOT has happened. But if you've seen my Facebook or Insta then you're caught up! We will just skip forward to the now.

We spent an amazing four years living in England getting to travel all over Europe. While all good things must come to an end, we moved our adventures to Asia. We have been living on the tiny island of Okinawa (70 miles long and 7 miles wide) for about eight months now. While there aren't any cafes to sit at and admire the cobble stone streets and European architecture there are some beyond beautiful beaches and amazing food to be had.

Our journey started by getting Raleigh and Murphy (oh yea, we got another dog!) to Japan. They flew from London to Tokyo then on to Oki. They stayed with Jayson's sister (Karen) for a few day until we got there. Once we arrived (after more hours than I would even like to know) we stayed in lodging for about three weeks before moving into our house off base. We live in a town called Chatan. It's mostly know for the area deemed "American Village" (which really isn't all that 'American'). We have some amazing shops and restaurants around us. We are also about 1/2 a mile from a sea wall that surprisingly is a popular surf spot in the area. This was a huge bonus for Jayson since that's really all he wanted. We've also seen tons of people out snorkeling/diving here. We bought a kayak from Jayson's supervisor and he's been enjoying that as well.

We both started working about three weeks after we got here, so things have been pretty busy. We haven't ventured off the island (with the exception of a friends wedding in Albuquerque back in February). We are in the process of planning our first trip for Memorial Day weekend to Tokyo! I'm not really sure where to start with this one... But most of our trips in Europe we winged anyways (my version of winging it at least).

A few events/outings we have done on island include going to the aquarium, the Cherry Blossom Festival in Nago, the Azalea Festival in Higashi, a sumo match, and a soccer game. We did try to go to Mermaids Grotto but the tide was too high to get into the cave. We ended up spending the day in the area snorkeling and kayaking. We do need to invest in a good waterproof camera. The island is surrounded by reefs so there's tons to see! For New Years we spent a few days up on the northern part of the island at Okuma. It's an area owned by the base and they have cabins and camping areas to stay in. On New Years Eve they had a band playing and traditional Japanese dancers perform.

Our first day in Oki we spent it at the beach with Jayson's sister and her family. I couldn't tell you where or what beach this was (too jet lagged to even care). We drove about and hour or so and took a ferry about 15 minutes over to an island with crystal clear blue water!

Checking out Jayson's surf spot!

Some of our teeny tiny house!

These two are from our attempt at going to Mermaids Grotto (Not pictured the stairs the guys had to carry the kayaks down).

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium 🐳  🐡  🐠

My drive home every day!

Sumo Match! 

Okuma for New Years!

Fun fact about the manhole covers in Japan (or at least here in Oki) each town has a different decorated manhole cover! This one was for the City of Nago.

Nago Cherry Blossom Festival 

Sunset from the sea wall by our house and Jayson surfing (or sitting lol)

Del and Kendra's wedding! Congrats you two!

The Azalea Festival in Higashi we went towards the end so a lot of the azaleas had lost their pedals.

That's all I have!

I promise, I will try and keep up with this more!!

Jill