Smugglers

Smugglers is an Irish pub near Kokusaidori. They serve one of my favorite drinks there, a black and tan. It's nice to have little pieces of home to visit here in Okinawa. Several of the staff speak English as there are many English speaking patrons.

I have a JET friend whose boyfriend plays in an Irish band. I found out they were going to play at Smugglers, so I went to check them out. They were a five member band, mainly Japanese or of Japanese descent. This was the last time they were going to play together. One of the members was taking a one or two month trip to Tokyo and the boyfriend is leaving in July to return to Canada. I was very lucky in getting to see the last performance of this group as a whole. I hope they can find new members so they can continue playing. They were truly amazing. Watching them play made me want to take up the violin again. I played for nine years and then haven't picked it up seriously since my first year in college. I'll have to find the time when I return home.

Ikei Island

I know I haven't seen much of the world, but I must say Okinawa has some truly incredible, beautiful beaches. If I weren't so afraid of driving here I think I would have liked to have gotten a car just to drive around and visit as many beaches as I could here--and I'm not really a beach person. I do love seeing beautiful things in nature and this is the place to do that.

By the way, if you're wondering why a non-beach person chose Okinawa, I'm also a Cheimaphobic or Cheimatophobic, a person who has a fear of the cold. (For more phobia names, check out phobialist.com.) When I applied for JET I asked for a place that had mild winters. I didn't care how hot the summers were, and that's how I was placed in Okinawa.

I was invited to a BBQ and beach party at a friend's house. Really, it was her grandmother's house, I think. Apparently, to have a house on Ikei Island is something special, and after having been there, I can see why. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the house, it was low tide so I wasn't able to go snorkeling. I was able to see some new things I hadn't seen before in other tide pools, so that was nice. Oh, and if you go, be careful. It's very slippery. The beach was nice. the company was fun. And the food. When I was told it was going to be a BBQ, I assumed they meant Japanese BBQ, like yakiniku, which I also love. It was a very nice surprise when I found out they meant Western BBQ with BBQ sauce and ribs and hamburgers. It was too delicious! I ate and drank waaaaay more than what's good for me, but I don't care, It was so good. I was definitely a nice break from my everyday fare.

Moon Beach

A few friends and I got together to go to Moon Beach. I got to try snorkeling for the first time. I loved it! I am so glad I spent the thousand yen on water shoes, though. Totally worth it. We had this tiny beautiful beach all to ourselves mostly. There were a few intruders. The most annoying was this group of three guys. They kept insulting each other by calling each other girls.When will that stop? When will men realize that's a compliment? ;)

Fortunately they didn't hang around for too long. The only other interlopers were quiet tourists, mostly Japanese, who stayed for a little bit then left. While we were there we also shot some footage for the OkiJET DVD. If you get to see a copy, be sure to watch all the way to the end of the credits. I really had fun making the DVD. I wish we had had more time.

We stayed until sunset so we could take pictures as suggested by one friend. She got totally aggravated, though, when nature didn't go along with the plan and moved clouds in the way of her glorious sunset. It was still awesome, I think. I'm really going to miss the tide pools.

Happy Anniversary!

That's all I have to say about that. :D