Walking In The Forest

Took the kids walking today. just a nice little path. Had to step over a few creatures, but all is well........

A Place of Honor Where Heroes Lie

I had been trying to dive the USS Emmons for quite some time. Our dives were cancelled numerous times due to the weather. But, it was fitting for my last dive on this island to be the USS Emmons. It was a dive that will stay in my heart.

USS Emmons lies 147 feet on the bottom of the East China Sea where it sank during WW2 It was a heavily decorated ship that had fought in various places and most recently to it's sinking in Normandy before it was re outfitted to sweep mines off Okinawa waters where the Japanese were dug in, in caves and tunnels. On Easter morning, April 1, 1945, 1300 ships surrounded Okinawa, the Okinawan's referred to it as the Typhoon of Steel. The ships began pounding the island. On April 6th the Japanese launched their largest air attack ever. 400 planes with around 223 of them from the Special Attack Forces known as "Tokko-tai" or more commonly known by us as Kamikazes. The Kamikaze suicide pilots came out of desperation as a last attempt to stop the American's. It is crazy that the Japanese leaders were fine with sacrificig their best pilots to a certain death! Kamikaze actually means divine wind which also has a historical as well as romantic meaning to the Japanese people. The term refers to 2 typhoons that saved Japan from invasion in 1274 and 1281. On April 6th the Uss Emmons was patrolling the waters with her sister ship the Rodman. They had been together since Africa as well as the super risky Murmansk runs they did in the North Atlantic. Just a little after 3 that afternoon about 20 to 30 enemy planes were heading to them. The Emmons made it thru that attack without being hit but the Rodman was hit by a suicide bomber. Around 4:30 pm the second wave hit them. The Emmons circled the Rodman giving fire support. Just one right after the other came at the Emmons and she was hit almost consecutively by 5 suicide bombers. Many of the crew were injured and had been thrown overboard in the explosions. It looked like the Emmons might drift into enemy waters and so it was decided to sink her. She laid silently for 55 years. In September 2000 the Japanese Coast Guard discovered her. Now you are able to go down below to see this place of honor where heroes rest. It was an experiance i will never forget.

I will attempt to make a slide show, however, several of the photos are on my facebook.

Leaving Okinawa

Sayonara from the Okicrew as we trade in our East China sea for the Atlantic Ocean and jungles for woods!

The Beach Tower

If you can get a non availability when leaving Okinawa, stay at the Beach Tower!!! It was simply awesome! Wish we oculd have had more time to enjoy it!!! But, it definatley made the hell of checking out more bearable knowing we could spend a few hours every evening relaxing in the pools and having our feet nibbled on by the Fish Doctors!

TLF Day Three

UUUUHHHHGGG! Is all i have to say for today!!! We failed our housing inspection! I paid to have the house cleaned but they haven't cleaned it yet because they want to rip out the 50 year old carpet and put wood flooring in.....The Inspector found a little turtle (back of a chevron, not a REAL turtle)in one of the government dresser drawers, a sticker on another dresser (which was the government siticker w their barcode on it) I refused to try to razor that off and convinced the Okinawan Inspector that i could never have access to that type of sticker to put on the side of the dresser. The last thing was the yard. We did the same part of the yard we have done for 6 years! Somehow, todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy, we are now responsible for all the grass BEHIND the shrubs that mark the back of our backyard, if ya know the 330, there is a grassy area that runs on the other side of the jogging trail along the chain link fence that somehow we are NOW responsible for TODAY when we have NO yard equipment left! OOOHHHHHH! Ed was livid. We rounded up stuff from the neighbors and spent a chunk of time doing yard work! NOT what we wanted to be doing!!! So, once that was finished we passed. Ed zipped out to take Jasper to the kennel and off to Hansen for his farewell. I left at 1120 to zip to Jusco to make copies of keys so we could get the final paperwork from housing that we're officially passed in inspection and could leave island, grabbed some veggie tempura while waiting for keys, hadn't had breakfast yet! Dropped off keys at housing and got official paperwork to allow us to leave island, dropped off hotel key to Vicki at school so she and Carli could walk to hotel and swim and stuff, mad dash to Torri to be there by noon for my Whale Shark dive and then home by 445! Ed stayed with us tonight! He can't sleep at the kennel with Jasper! He joined us at the pools and off to bed we went! What an exhausting day but soooo glad to be all done with housing!!!

TLF Day Two

Why change a good thing? Ed stayed the night at our old house with Jasper, he just can't bring himself to let Jasper sleep by himself and the kids and Carli and i just repeated last night! It was raining, but we still had fun!

Tank VS Mongoose!

There are endless stories about our cool cat Tank! I guess he was feeling neglected in my blogger or he is sensing confinement to a kennel and wanted to exit Kishaba with one last battle, complete with battle wounds! Tank is a hunter, that is all he knows. The hood is going to notice a sharp increase in Shrews after he flys to America, a land he has never been to before. Huummmm..., i wonder if he needs imigration papers, as he is an Okinawan Feline, complete with the crooked tail! Soo, anyways, back to Tank and his quest for remaining King of the Hood! There was some serious howling comming from Tank, those long terrifying Meeeeeeeeyyyyyooooowwwwwwwwwwwwsssssss. Those of you that have heard him in fights, well ya know just how long and drawn out these battle cries are. Those of you that haven't had the honor of hearing Tank fight creatures of the jungles and intruding dogs and felines in his territorry, just trust me when i say it sounds quite dreadful! Come to find out he was batteling a mongoose in the bushes. There was all kinds of battle cries from both and not really sure who won or if they came to a draw, but the Mongoose went one way and Tank the other. He's got some slices and punctures. His ears always seem to have atleast one hole in them from his fights. He is hell bent on protecting the neighborhood! We've just never known him to fight a mongoose before. We love our mongooses as they keep the Habu's away. Hopefully that is Tank's last battle on Okinawa! He needs to look somewhat healthy for his screening on Friday at the vet here and Sunday for the health check at Naha before we fly on Monday!!! I should have used one of his hunting pixs, but i just love this one!

My Slip Slops!

I had my slip slops custom made by this totally talented chick out here on Oki! I love them! She even did my hair in pig tails as that is how you will usually see me down under! So now i have my island girl ones and my dive okinawa ones....

TLF Day One

It is official, we are now in TLF! Was trying to get into the West Pac but due to endless mess ups on Admin not being able to get us our air plane tickets until just this last Thursday, there was nothing available at the West Pac, so darn, we are at The Beach Tower, just like the coolest place to stay!!! We went and dropped off our bags at our room. The kids loved it, all Japanese style with the tatami floors and stuff. We walked to Jusco to eat at the food court. Vicki got rice at one place, Ed picked a rice dish at another place, I picked up some veggie tempura, and Ty & Ry had, yep, you guessed correctly, Mc Donalds!!! After dinner we went to the bakery for the kids to pick some after swimming snacks and then Mr Doughnut to pick out breakfast! We stopped at a cool shop and everyone picked out a pair of cool Oki socks. Gonna really miss all the fun socks!!! We left Vicki and Ryan at the hotel and we headed back to the house. Ty wanted to play with some friends for awhile and I had stuff to do. We kidnapped Carli and Ed dropped us off at the hotel around 8 pm. Ed stayed at the house another night so his dog wouldn’t be by himself, I think he also needed a break from me. I have a way of bringing out the worst in him. The kids and I went to the Spa. First we let the Doctor Fish nibble away at our dead skin. Ryan and Vicki do NOT like this! Carli & I love it, and Ty thinks it is pretty cool too! Next we went out to the big pool, than the Jacuzzi which had pinkish red colors this time, kinda like what a CSI episode would look like if a murder took place in the water! Than off to the mineral pool, the sauna, and just back and forth between everything! Soooo fun with the kids being older and I actually get to relax watching them! Wow! When we were all done, I was waiting for Ty and Ryan to come out of the mens locker room. They came out somewhat distraught and informed me that there were naked people everywhere in there! I reminded them about the bath house that was in there and that is part of their culture to take baths together in giant tubs. We came in at 9 and watched Bones, the kids had their snacks they picked at the bakery and now they are in bed, and I am about to tuck myself in! Day One of six if over, the time is going toooooo fast!!! Good Night.