An Okinawan Drive

Here's a video we took while we were driving from MCB Camp Courtney to Kadena AFB the day after Typhoon Mufia hit. Enjoy! And I hope you don't get sea sick.

It didn't take us nearly as long to get used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road as I thought it would. Because you're driving from the right side, it's only natural that your body is towards the inside lane. So it's easy to remember which lane to drive in. For me, the hard part to remember is that your blinker and windshield wipers are switched in Japanese cars. I am forever turning on the windshield wipers when I want to make a turn. Also parking lots can be tricky, because there's no real lane and especially if there is no one else around to remind you which side you should be on.
But by far the hardest part of driving in Okinawa is navigating the roads. Two things totally drive me insane-first, there are rarely any street names or signs. Some have numbers, and sometimes they are posted, but usually not. And secondly, the road numbers change for no reason. For example, if you start out on 74 and stay straight you'll end up on 85, with no idea how it happened, then 85 will turn into 23. I know! Completely confusing. But the island is small, and it IS an island, so if you go too far you'll just hit water and turn around. After five months I feel pretty confident that I can get almost anywhere on the island. I've been from one end to the other and back. It's only about 70-ish miles but takes several hours with all the winding, narrow roads and the speed limit of about 35 mph (50kmh). But getting lost and going exploring is so much fun!

Five Months Later...

My last post was written on March 12th, from the West Pac Lodge where we were staying until we got our house here in Japan. To say I've been slacking would be an understatement! So much has happened in the last five months we've been here, but somehow I managed to completely forget about this blog. Partially because our computer hard drive had to be replaced and I left my old laptop in the States. But no more excuses, we fixed David's laptop and I got a new one!

What's been happening since we landed here? Well, there's no way I could write about all of it, so I'll just make a list!

• Moved into our house on McT. I don't hate it, I don't love it.
• Bought my car, a Diahtsu Terious, complete with rhinestones on the steering wheel.
• Bought David's car, a Honda SMX.
• Crashed David's car, totalled it, but he's still going to drive it until the JCI is up in a couple years.
• Started new fertility meds and became serious about having a baby in the next year.
• David turned 27!!!!
• Celebrated 7 years of marriage. Seriously. I know. SEVEN years. Where did all that time go?
• David started and completed Sgt's Course with a GPA of 95!
• He also earned his green and brown Marine Corps Martial Arts belts!!
• Made tons of new friends, and love our new Church Branch.
• Went on a mini-vacation to Okuma
• Had 2 super typhoons (Songda and Mufia) and one not so super typhoon.
• David had a trip to Korea planned-but it was cancelled.
• David had a trip to San Antonio planned-but it was cancelled. (See a pattern here?)
• David was told he'll be going to Afghanistan soon.
• We're starting our Temple Prep classes on Thursday to be Sealed!!!

And those are just the major events of the first half of 2011. Maybe (hopefully) from here on out I'll be more diligent about keeping up with the blog.

-Jodie