Enjoying our Sea Wall

One of the things that drew us to our Ishikawa apartment was the nearness to the beach. We just have an eighth of a mile downhill walk from our apartment to the beach and after crossing the busy road in front of our building, we are on the sea wall. Since our move, Russ has begun the habit of getting up early and walking on the seawall before work and sometimes fitting in another walk after work. When it's not raining, I try to either take my bike down or go for a walk mid-morning. We have always loved the peacefulness of the sea. We find solace in the music of the waves. It is a great place to pray, think things through and enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Ocean.

The sea wall has several sections where it seems to end but you have to go back to the sidewalk at the highway, cross over a little bridge and then turn back into the next section of seawall. Some parts have rocked or cement steps that lead to the water that are partially covered at high tide but at low tide open up to the many rocky areas that can be climbed and sat upon. I love finding a tall,large rock with waves crashing below it and climbing out to sit and listen to the sound of the ocean as I pray. I'm sure once the rainy and cooler days are over I'll be on those rocks enjoying my latest book, too. There are a few areas that have benches or tables set up for enjoying a lunch at the beach. Several sections open up into beach areas with coral, shells and sea glass to be found. You can walk for over an hour along the coastline on these sea walls.

Russ has taken his bike out a few times and explored farther down the coastline via the sidewalks at the highway and has found unlimited riding areas. I'm sure that before we leave here he'll know the area well and have found all the best riding paths. Whether running, walking or biking he's out there almost daily enjoying the beach. So far it seems like most days we have it all to ourselves. I'm assuming once the weather turns to warm that we will see many more people occupying the beaches. The seclusion of it for now is nice. I promised a few pictures of our sea wall to go along with the house pictures from last week so here's a few.

I love how blue the water is on a sunny day. The water reflects the color of the sky

Some areas are a little overgrown

You can see some of the areas have rock walls and others have rock steps with the water
coming to them at high tide

Low tide. You can see how high the water is during high tide

Several sections have walkways that lead into the ocean for fishermen to fish from. 

Some of the rocks that can be climbed out into the ocean at low tide

My traveling companion. Loving my new bike on the sea wall.

Our sea wall riding/walking path

Parked my bike on one of the cement docks for a water break. Great place for a picnic

Another stair-stepped wall for sitting and enjoying the view

One of the areas where you have to go out to the road to cross the bridge to the next section

Sakura and Naki-jin Castle Ruins

One of our favorite times of year in Japan is the Cherry Blossom (Sakura) season. The Japanese people usually plan a day or two for a Hanami party. They set aside a day for enjoying the beauty of the Cherry Blossoms. One of our first experiences upon moving to Iwakuni in the 90's was an office sponsored hanami party. We were amazed by all the trees in Kintai Park there and took many pictures of the kids with the blossoms.

We didn't want to miss the chance to see the blossoms here so in February we started looking for areas that had cherry trees. After doing some research Russ determined that the Naki-jin Castle ruins outside of Nago was a popular place to view Cherry Blossoms. Since we've had such a rainy spring, the cherry blossoms were later in arriving. When we found a nice break in the rainy weather, Russ took a Thursday off of work and we made the drive northward to find some blossoms.

Our first stop was at Nangusuku Park (Nago Central Park). It was a beautiful hillside overlooking the East China Sea and the drive to where we parked was beautiful. The blossoms weren't quite in full bloom yet but we found plenty for pictures. We figured they were full about two weeks after our trip. We parked and walked up the road further and found some gorgeous areas for pictures. Here's a few of my favorites from this park. We even found a cool spider that I spent awhile trying to photograph. His web kept blowing in the wind and going in and out of focus. I finally remembered that I have a focus lock on my camera and that was how I finally got an "in focus" shot of him.

I love playing with aperture with my camera

There were walkways down the hillsides and picnic
areas for hanami parties

Sometimes one lone blossom can be just as picturesque
as the whole tree

A few of the fuller blossomed trees

Our friend the spider who captivated quite a bit of
my photography time at this park

He was catching all the bees. No wonder the population
of bees is lower

After spending about an hour at Nangusuku Park we drove to Naki-jin Castle Ruins Park which is north of Nago. The park was quite crowded with sakura viewers. I think it must have been a holiday for the Japanese because there were quite a few families there which is usually rarer in the middle of the week. Finding photo ops without others in the background was nearly impossible here but with patience I was able to get quite a few shots I liked.

Naki-jin Castle was a 14th century castle that is located on the Motobu peninsula on a rocky hillside facing over the east China Sea. The castle saw three generations of rulers before being attacked and destroyed by the armies of Chuzan in 1416. Today you can view what remains of the castle walls and realize what a majestic castle it once was. It reminded me quite a bit of Hadrean's Wall in the UK. It was a huge picturesque setting decorated throughout the hillside with the Hikan cherry trees. They say it's known for having the first cherry blossoms in Japan each year.  Even though the trees weren't in full blossom they were still breathtakingly beautiful. It was close to sunset when we were walking through this park so the lighting on the blossoms was different than the first park.  I could have spent hours in this park photographing all the views. Through all my years in Japan I've come to love sakura season the most. I love that the Japanese people see the value of enjoying the beauty of the spring blossoms and take the time to stop their busy lives long enough to enjoy the beauty of the sakura.

Loved this tree growing out of a rock

You can tell the rain caught up to us in this one.

Had to snap quick to catch this bee on the blossoms.

Sugar cane bundles drying

Finally Settling In

Four months later than we anticipated waiting, we have finally moved into our new home in Kin town, Okinawa. We found this apartment back in October and fell in love with it but we were told it wouldn't be available until December. December changed to March and then back to February before all the details were worked out and we were permitted to move in. We lived in a temporary apartment, owned by the same man who owns this one from December 1 until late February. Our household goods remained in storage and we were living with limited furniture and dishes since we've been here. They were delivered to us finally on February 24th. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I was to see our stuff again after 6 months. I've spent the past three weeks unpacking boxes and decorating the house. My back slowed me down a few times but I kept working until it said "enough". The apartment is finally all together and we are enjoying our new location.

Back in 2004 before our move to Colorado, I did a scrapbook page about our home in England. I was reading what I wrote on that page and it sort of sums up the transition from "house to home" so well that I thought I'd share it here.

From the scrapbook page -

What makes a house a home? This is an age-old question that probably has a different answer for each person. I have two places that I call "home"...the house that I grew up in and the house we currently live in. As we begin preparations to make our eleventh move since our marriage in 1983, I find myself reflecting on each of the homes we've had and comparing what it was that made them "home" while we were there. The most obvious answer is that my family was there and wherever I'm living with my family is always home. As I think about it, though, I realize that there's more to it than that. Home is a place where you feel secure, a place where you can be yourself and a place that holds some memories for you. A house is just a house until it experiences that magical touch of "family" within it's walls. It then makes that transition between house and home as it's decorated and it absorbs the smells from meals cooked in its kitchen, baths taken in its bathroom and laundry in its laundry area. It then absorbs all the everyday noises of family with the laughter and tears of everyday life, the sounds of televisions and stereos and the ringing of telephones and knocks on its doors.  The process is gradual and I never quite know when it actually happens but somewhere between that first move-in day and our first year there, the house takes on its own personality, we start to feel comfortable and we know that we are "home" once again.

We are in the midst of that process right now. Oh, how I'd love to have the laughter of my kids and grandkids in this house. We're hopeful a few of them will come.  This is now the 14th home we've lived in together (which includes our three month temporary apartment). Each one has it's own memories associated with it. I've loved everywhere I've been and have never been one to cling to a "place".  We both enjoy the changes that new locations bring to us. We always leave knowing that we've learned something from the people we've met there. We've grown in so many ways from all the changes. Some may think it to be insane to move so much but the insanity of it has made us into better people than we would have been if we'd remained in one place. My high school graduation song was written by a classmate and it talked about "sailing new oceans and leaving old shores".  I guess that theme song could sum up our traveling lives. Many of you who read this blog have blessed our lives along the way and we're so thankful for our friends in many places.

And now, since I've had so many requests to see the new place, the rest of this post will give you a little tour through pictures. It was definitely worth the wait. We will enjoy living so close to the beach this summer. I'll write another post soon to show you the seawall that is just down the hill from us. We have a guest room waiting for any of you who would like to come and visit us and experience a little bit of Japan.  Free lodging and a few meals included. You can't beat it.

View from the entry way.

We love our view as we walk into the living/dining area

View from the kitchen to the living room

Entry way

View from the bar area looking in. We made the bar into
a coffee/tea area. Would rather not have it there because
it makes arranging furniture difficult.

Master Bedroom - has a great ocean view as well....and
a nice walk-in closet.

The View from our balcony.

Pictures of the Grandkids to brighten every morning

So happy to hear Russ's piano playing again. 

Tonsu in the entryway

Our balcony.

Main bathroom shelf

Main bathroom

My Craft Room/Office

Kitchen decor

Wishing I could spoil some grandkids in this kitchen.

Entry way shoe shelf

Russ's Office Desk

Books make a place feel like home

Doing Dishes with this view is pretty cool.

The Commons area for summer parties complete with a grill.

Hope you've enjoyed visiting our new home. It feels good to finally be settled and unpacked. We have fiber optic internet service here so calling on facetime or skype will be more reliable. It's been a rainy spring here and we are looking forward to nicer weather soon to allow us to explore the area on our bikes. I've taken one trek into town and explored a few stores and I've visited my local Daiso (100 yen store) and hardware store. We are close to two smaller bases and I've located those for grocery shopping, gas, post office and smaller BX's. You can see from this map that we are located in the skinny section of the island. (near Ishikawa) The other star marks where Russ works. It's more rural in this area. We are near where much of the farming is done on the island. There are several farmer's markets not too far from here that I hope to explore this week. Sayonara for now.