Finishing Touches to Joanne's Big Adventure in Okinawa Japan

Months have gone by since my hubby and I returned from our big adventure in Okinawa.  As expected, we jumped right back into our busy lives and I never finished this blog series... :(
I am the Queen of Unfinished projects, as I blogged about before going on this trip, and so when I found myself having to put something aside to keep up with life, I put this blog aside...and I find myself unable to blog about anything else until I finish this series.

Shisa dogs.  They are pretty much everywhere, and they are one of my favorite charms of Okinawa.

and yes, we brought a pair home to guard our own American home, not sure if our neighbors and kids think we're weird or not...but we love them!!

Another fun novelty of Japan is the vending machines that sell hot coffee in a can.

On our last day we visited the Shuri Castle.

  
And we ended our wonderful visit and trip of a lifetime celebrating with our host Jill and Philip.

Our trip home included the final leg of our flights being delayed several times and then at 11:30 pm cancelled.  We were extremely disappointed that we hadn't rented a car at the time of the first delay, but after being awake for pretty much 30 hours I didn't think it was a wise choice.  We were traveling United, and it was during that famous incident where the doctor was removed forcibly from the plane, and we had repeatably been told they were awaiting the cabin crew...but we think due to publicity the cabin crew failed to show up at work and that United was stringing us along.  Long story short, we made friends with another Mainer in line for cancelled info, and we went in on a car together and made the 6 hour drive home.  Here are some of my awesome window photos, taken from Okinawa, Tokyo, and finally New York.


We were staying on a US Air Force base, and our last night was a bit restless with drill alarms going off most of the night.  Hubby didn't sleep well and couldn't wait to exit the country.  This was what was behind us on the runway.

 Below, our Tokyo landing and view of the rice paddy fields

and finally, New York, New York

 
When we finally got to our home, the welcoming committee did not disappoint. :)

Joanne's Big Adventure in Okinawa Day 6, A Maine Photographer

It's been over two months since day 6 of my adventures in Japan, and I am excited to finally be sharing it with you...and I am going to do this with few words and lots of photos.

Day 6 started out cool and drizzly.  The days plans included a trip to "sea glass" beach, not it's real name but definitely it's "known by" name.  My friend Jill had often times told me about sea glass beach, she had talked of how beautiful it was, and how on one end there were these little crabs she called blueberry crabs, that looked pretty much like someone dropped a bucket of blueberries on the beach...hell yes...if you know anything about me at all, you will know that my second form of therapy is picking wild blueberries for hours on end...in fact, my family will not blueberry pick with me...they do not understand why it takes me all day to pick...anyways, visiting sea glass beach was a definite highlight in my mind, and highly anticipated...so when the morning weather was slightly damp, questions were raised on whether or not to abandon the sea glass beach plan.  I vote yes!! We are going to walk the beach, collect sea glass, maybe check out the blueberries...sunshine not required!  I find walking alone on the beach searching for sea glass to be extremely therapeutic (yes, this is my primary form of therapy, I am fortunate to be able to do it whenever I please)...it doesn't take rocket science for me to know that walking on a beach nicknamed "sea glass" beach might possibly provide me with a lifetime of therapy...in fact...I am absolutely banking these memories into a "happy place" vault...for future times when I need to settle for a quiet morning by the fire and I can reflect on the memories of walking on "sea glass" beach in Okinawa.  So yes, I hadn't even been yet, but in my mind I just knew I needed to experience it...rain or shine!!

And experience it, we did.
Breathtaking.  Beautiful...and yes...Blue :)

 ...I don't think I mentioned we had this beautiful paradise all to ourselves.

(the photo info from the gps on my smartphone names this beach location as Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan) Amazing technology we have

After our trip to the beach we went back to American village for some souvenir shopping and stopped at my new favorite coffee shop, Zhyvago Coffee Works Okinawa.

We took another walk along the sea wall...

and had a fabulous dinner at the Four Seasons steak house.