Ohayou Gozaimasu!

It's our first day in Okinawa and I decided to start a blog. The main purpose of this blog is for my family members and friends to hear about all the smaller things that go on in my life. I'm hoping too that this will help others coming to the island figure out what on earth is going on.

The first thing I want to talk about is the transportation of pets to Okinawa. Our cat, Glitch did not make it here with us. I'm heartbroken. Everything was fine paperwork wise but when we got to the airport he lost his marbles and was crying uncontrollably. Five minutes before our flight to Seattle a gate agent came over and said "If you can't get the animal under control we can't board it." Well five minutes seems a little short. We tried everything. Petting, soothing drugging. He howled on. We were moved to a later flight and took him downstairs and waited for my parents to come back to get him. He carried on crying and not sleeping for hours after that. Now that we are here it's hard. Hard seeing people with pets... the petfood aisle... I wish he was with us so much. It's lonely without my kitty.

Let's talk about the plane ride. Don't pack a metric effton of things. Next time I am bringing about a weeks worth of clothes and the most minimum of items. Our bags were overwhelmingly heavy
The initial flight into Japan was the longest and most tiring thing I've ever gone through. I was cold and very uncomfortable in my little airplane seat. I did not sleep, even though I tried and tried. Towards the end of the flight my back was screaming. The food on the flight was decent. My breakfast pancakes were questionable but the sausage was yummy. We also had lots of in flight drinks and a hot lunch, which was a chicken or beef dish.

We landed in Japan, just outside of Tokyo. As we descended I caught my first glimpse of Tokyo. Once we were off the plane we had a two hour layover. Not the kind in a real airport. The kind in a single room with a few vending machines (One that took only yen). The weather there was similar to a unexpected nice day in a Chicago winter so I sat outside for a long time. We boarded the plane and flew an hour to some other place. We sat on the runway for about an hour and a half while we waited for 10 people to get on the plane. Then another couple of hours in the air. Finally we land at Kadena.

Once we are there we get off the plane and my first impression of Okinawa is the wonderful smell of wet earth and the thick air that I love so much. It's a little chilly but still sweater weather.

We take a bus over to a building where we wait forever and a day for our luggage. Of course ours is some of the last ones off the plane. We get through a two second customs procedure and there is an guy on a microphone who announces us. Our sponsors (We got three somehow? Or our sponsor and his friends.) We're taken to some place while driving on the other side of the road and I stared out the window at the myriad of gas stations, pachinko parlors, and minimarts. We get out, they sign our orders and on the way back to the hotel I succumb to black sleep. When I open my eyes we're at the hotel. The sponsor helped us get our stuff inside and I have no idea if I thanked that nice guy or if I just took off my socks and passed out. All I know is that I was up for 30 or so hours. I slept until about 6am.

Frank and I woke up, unpacked, showered and Frank- being the husband that he is and therefore probably the most awesome human being on earth- made coffee and found out what time the PX/Commisary opened. Once it was open we went over and browsed the little gift shops and various stuff for us to buy. The PX was pretty much like Meijers. Our food court has a pizza place, a ManchuWok, a taco bell, and Subway. We got Taco Bell and it was amazing. For once my burrito did not have half cooked crunchy disgusting rice and somehow did not have sour cream even though I forgot to ask.

At the PX, I got a can with a label I couldn't read. Thus begins the science experiment of finding things I like based on color/picture and comparing labels to see if I can figure out what things are.
This can turned out to be some sort of tea.

So far everything is shiny and new. I'm sure that will wear off but until then its been a whole lot of fun.