Thanksgiving in Okinawa

We flew the budget Peach airlines from FUK to Naha in Okinawa - carry-ons only with snorkel gear, shorts and a sweatshirt each.  Then when we arrived Okinawa was experiencing TYCOR 4 warning - serious winds.  But the weather on the Island changes quickly and improved the next day.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at a colleague's house - the Okinawa Environmental Director.  It was a traditional feast with lots of wine and chatting for house.  We made good use of the Daiko taxi service where they send a cab and 2 drivers - one to take your car home too! 

In our 6 days, 5 nights we went to the World Class Aquarium with whale sharks, Pineapple Park, Black Friday shopping at the their huge and multiple Exchanges (Jeff golfed while us girls shopped!), kayaking and snorkeling, the Shuri Castle, Botanical Gardens, American Village, a few playgrounds, and Fukushuen Gardens. 

The girls got along fabulously and we all had a great time.  We stayed 3 nights at the West Pack Lodge and 2 nights at the cabins in Torii Station on the beach.  We rented a car - which is a must as everything takes a while to get do - slow island traffic. 

 

 

Sumo Wrestling

November has been a busy month with a 2-week work audit (which went well) followed by a week business trip to Yokosuka for a Leadership Conference, and then Thanksgiving, and a mini-sprint Triathlon where I came in 1st and won a plaque (it's proudly displayed in my office).  Highlights of November were certainly going to the Sumo Finals Tournament in Fukuoka!  The girls thought fat man wrestling in diapers and the pre-theatrics of sizing each other was very entertaining.  I was amazed by how small the stage is and elevated that when they push each other out of bounds, they usually then slide off it and fall on top of each other (ouch!).  We also learned some interesting facts like costume malfunctions fortunately are very rare and the only time that happened is apparently in 2004.  There are a lot of spiritual and religious symbolic gestures in the pre-sizing warm up - and salt is thrown for purity.  During the show each wrestler wears their apron from their home Region and these are laden with jewels and gold threads and cost upward of 2M Yen!  And it was quite obvious when the Kyushu favorite came out as everyone got really excited.