12 more months in Okinawa!

A lot of time has slipped by since I last updated my blog... I could claim a myriad of excuses (like I needed a loooooong nap) but I won't and instead I will try to keep this thing up to date this time! The plan in this last 12 months of our 6 year tour is to see as many of the sites left on my to do list for Okinawa as I can.

Picture to the left is of Tedake Falls (great river trek adventure and only takes 20 minutes to hike to!)

Sites yet to be seen include:

1. Shuri castle - seriously tried to visit it 2x but somehow managed to get lost both times... sigh, my kingdom for a GPS system!

2. Orion Beer Factory - again my sense of navigation has failed me when it comes to finding this place... Orion is my favorite Japanese beer and finding this factory is my mission - and finding a designated driver to take me there may be the hardest part of this mission!

3. Diving the Kerama Islands - supposedly some of the best diving around. I plan to camp, dive, and soak in the scenery here. Having not strapped on a tank in 2 years I'd better flip through my SCUBA book before I dust off my fins.

4. The Naha Tug of War - I say I'm going to do this every year. Then I start thinking about the crowd. The HUGE unimaginable sweaty crowd (25,000 attendees annually). The parking. The rope burn (The rope weighs some 40 metric tons). In 1997 the event was first logged in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the largest tug-of-war event in the world. But honestly it's one of those things you do that you may not really want to do but you kinda have to do just so you can say "yep, of course I participated in the world's largest tug of war in the world while in Okinawa."

5. Okinawan Bull fights - no don't worry it's not some guy flipping his cape around and stabbing a poor bull, it's two bulls fighting each other. Still sounds somewhat unpleasant. I'm not sure I'm really up for this kind of violence - but again who knows what I may regret someday if I don't do it now while in Japan. Plus it may convince me to become a vegetarian...

So this is the start of my list... I'll keep you posted on what else I come up with! Onward towards adventures unknown!!!