About two years ago, give or take a few months, my girlfriend Jill suggested I come visit her and her husband Philip in Okinawa. Okinawa is not on my bucket list. Japan is not on my bucket list. Traveling abroad is not really on my bucket list.
My husband...well let's just say he's not a fan of traveling anywhere that a plane ride is required. It's not the act of flying that bothers him, it's the hassle...all of the security, customs, cramped seats and not being able to move when you want...etc...etc...
So, after giving Jill's suggestion some thought, and picking up a part time job for saving, I asked Matt this question.
"If I am able to save enough money to buy you and I a plane ticket to visit Jill and Philip (her Navy husband) would you go with me?"
He did roll the sentence around his head, nodding a bit as he gave it a bit of thought, and after a brief silence he said something like this, "ya, I suppose I would go with you"
So, I began saving. I took him to the post office and we applied for our passports, and about 6 months ago I told Matt I had the money saved and had made an appointment with a AAA agent to purchase the tickets. I asked my husband if he had any last thoughts. No, he had no final words of wisdom or requests.
Before leaving AAA, I texted my husband and told him the tickets were purchased, and what our date of departure was. It's a 10 mile, 20 minute ride home with the traffic, and Matt had finally googled Okinawa during the time it took me to get from point A to point B.
"That's half way around the world" he said to me as I walked in the door. "Did you make the tickets so that we stop in Hawaii on the way?...so the flight isn't so long...how long is it?...there is no way a plane can fly that long non stop before refueling? ...."
Seriously.
Two weeks ago today Matt and I left on our big adventure. Okinawa is 13 hours ahead of us here on Eastern daylight savings time. We left our home at 4:45 am Tuesday morning, and arrived without delay in Okinawa time at 9:30 pm on Wednesday.
Here are a few photos from our first day of adventure.
A co-worker of my husband spent time in Okinawa 30 years ago. Once he found out we were going he brought a few items to us so we could begin our planning. Here is a 30 year old poster map of Okinawa.
The $200 American value in Japanese Yen
Matt and I in the Portland Jetport at 6am before our first flight out
Beautiful sight from our first flight, reminded me of a scene in an earlier Star Wars movie.
This is one of the bars in the Newark airport. I was a bit impressed.
Map of our first flight, from Newark to Tokyo...interesting flight path...
Time for a selfie in the Tokyo airport.
Let's just say the Japanese take their rest stop/toilet time to a whole new level
Okinawa, we have arrived
Upon arriving at our friends house, we logged into wi-fi, this is how it looked :)
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