Okuma Birthday

For my 57th birthday, Russ planned a trip to Okuma.  Okuma is north of Nago on the East China Sea side of the Island. It's a resort that is run by the Department of Defense as a "get-away" vacation spot for all the many U.S. military stationed on this island. We rented a cabin on the beach for thee days and Russ planned a few day trips away to nearby attractions. Before we left our apartment, Russ baked a cake and brought it with us to make the celebration complete.  We started the day with breakfast in the resort restaurant and then spent a little time on the beach.

We packed a lunch and drove to the other side of the island to Ada Lighthouse and spent the day there on the beach below and then drove up the hill to the lighthouse to explore. On our way back to Okuma we stopped at Fugawa Dam and took a few pictures before continuing on our journey.

We had dinner at the Okuma restaurant and Russ treated me to a steak dinner that was quite yummy. 

We ended the evening with cake in our room. It turned out to be pretty comical when he set off the smoke detectors while lighting the candles. He quickly blew them out for me, I ran and opened the doors and he started fanning the smoke detectors with a nearby magazine. We moved the party outdoors to a picnic table outside our room and then had to rig up a cardboard tent around the cake so the wind wouldn't blow them out before I could. He was determined and we were finally able to do the traditional candle blowout and song. It made the night fun, for sure.

Before we left our apartment in Ishikawa, Russ gave me my first present....a chest that I loved at the local furniture store. I told him I loved it because it was crooked like me so I was thrilled to see it hiding in my office before we left. I also got a new tripod and various other camera equipment as gifts. It was an amazing day of fun and laughter.

The next day we decided to hike along the Hiji River to Hiji Falls. It's about a 1 mile hike with paved pathways and stairs to get to the falls. Along the way we spotted a habu snake sleeping on the side of the stairs. Of course, we had to stop and take photos before quietly slipping by him to finish our hike. On our return trip we were amazed as a school group of Yochin (preschool) children all marched up the stairs beside the snake without him stirring. Habu snakes are venomous snakes unique to the Ryukyu Islands and can grow to about 8 ft long. They say they are very aggressive when in attack mode so we didn't stay around too long to find out.

The hike to the falls was beautiful. There were quite a few stairs to climb and bridges to cross and we spotted a few birds and butterflies along the way that needed to be photographed. The cascade of the falls measures 85 feet high making it the highest waterfall in Okinawa.

Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Most of those that know me well are aware that Russ and I lost a son to stillbirth in 1991. I was almost five months into my pregnancy, went in for a normal appointment and was told my baby had died. I had to deliver him the next day. We named him Timmy although he was originally to be named Kevin Scott. When I saw him all I could think of was tiny Timmy and it just seemed right to give him that name. They determined the cause of death was my being exposed to Fifth Disease in my middle trimester. It was the hardest thing I've had to go through in my life. I don't think I've ever cried so much in my life....until.....

Last year my youngest daughter, Hannah called me in late October. She was 28 weeks pregnant with a baby girl she named Kylee Joy. She told me she hadn't felt her moving in the past few days. I told her to call her Dr. immediately and make an appointment. It was late at night here and I told her I wouldn't sleep until I heard back from her. She called me from the Dr. office crying that same cry I'd cried 24 years ago. She, too, had lost a child and would be called to deliver her the next day. She was experiencing my nightmare and it was oh so hard to watch from the outside when I knew first hand what she was feeling. You can read all about her story in one of my blog posts from a year ago.

We have a friend here named Charla who also lost her first child, Max to stillbirth. She decided to start a non-profit group to give support to others who have lost children either due to miscarriage, stillbirth or SIDS. She planned a memorial service for October 15 and asked me to come. It was held at one of the beaches. We introduced ourselves and told our stories. I told the story of loss as a Mom and a Grandmother. It was nice to be able to talk about it after all these years with people who understood even though I still couldn't talk without tears. At 7:00 p.m. we did the International Wave of Light. Participants from around the world are asked to light a candle at 7 p.m. in their respective time zone. The candle is to be lit for an hour. The result is supposed to be a continuous chain of light spanning the globe for a 24 hour period in remembrance of our lost children who never got a chance to live. We all lit our candles at the beach and it was beautiful. I held a candle for Timmy and one for Kylee.

After blowing out the candles we waited in line as an artist lettered memorial pictures for each of us. I sent one to Hannah for Kylee and kept one for myself for Kylee and Timmy. On Timmy's birthday I will place it on an easel for the day and do my usual wondering of who he would be and how life would be different if he had lived. After his birthday is over I'll put it away for next year.  Losing a child changes you forever. It's a club I never wanted to be in nor have my daughter join me in but one that I've learned a great deal from.

Riding out the Storms

When you choose to live on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it's almost a given that you are also signing up for all sorts of wild weather. We're in the midst of typhoon season here in Okinawa and after a fairly calm June/July/August, we started seeing more typhoons forming that were heading closer to us. Most would start out in the area of Guam and would look like they were heading towards us in the beginning only to veer off towards the mainland or Taiwan. Sometimes we get windy and rainy days as they pass near us and other times we feel nothing. We watch them on the radar apps on our phones and Russ is usually a little disappointed when they start turning away.

At the end of last week they started tracking Typhoon Chaba as it began moving our way. We were told it was heading directly at us and would most likely be classified as a "super typhoon"  (category five) by the time it reached us. By Saturday they started implementing the T-COR levels. Each level indicates how soon the typhoon is expected to hit us and what we should be doing to prepare for it. You can read about them here.  This is what it looked like on the radar.

We were told it would be the worst typhoon to hit Okinawa in 17 years and that we could see winds at 200+ mph. It was classified as a category 5 super typhoon but was later downgraded to a level 4. It was predicted to reach us early Monday morning and by 10:00 a.m. we would begin feeling winds at 40 mph. So after church services on Sunday we began our preparations for the typhoon. First we moved all of our furniture from the balcony and began closing our storm shutters over most of the windows. We left a few open so we could watch it come in and closed them as the winds got stronger.

I filled both bathtubs, my washing machine and laundry tub with water (for flushing toilets). Then grabbed all my pitchers, large pans and bowls and filled them with water.  I had been emptying ice trays all weekend and had a nice supply of ice saved but also filled my metal mixer bowl with water and froze that in case our electric went out. I planned to put that in the refrigerator section to keep the food cool for a few days. A few of Russ's co-workers mentioned that after a typhoon a few years ago they were without water and electric for a week and almost ran out of water so I figured over-prepared was better than under-prepared.

I gathered candles, matches and flashlights and had them on the kitchen table for easy access if the electric went out. We put the refrigerator to the coldest setting so that it would stay cool longer and did the same with the air conditioners. I had the apartment pretty cold by the time the winds began and at one point pulled out a sweater to keep warm.

The biggest difference between hurricanes that hit the US and typhoons hitting Okinawa is that we have nowhere to evacuate to.We have to hunker down and ride out the storms as they come. The Okinawans build very sturdy homes. Most are reinforced concrete. We've been watching the building of three sets of apartments at the end of our road and they built the frame with metal rods and then poured the concrete over the rods to form the walls. It will take a lot of wind pressure to break those walls down. Our apartment is equipped with the storm shutters (pictured above) that slide along a track to cover all of the windows in the front. The other windows have metal bar frames to protect them from the wind. Their electric/telephone/cable poles are also concrete and many of them have a brace between them to keep them stable. Our apartment sits up on a hill overlooking the Pacific ocean.

Russ and I were a little excited to be experiencing our first real typhoon since moving to Okinawa so we wanted to go out and feel the wind. I had fun taking selfies of my hair flying high in the wind.  We went out about every hour to see how much stronger the winds had gotten. By evening they were pretty strong and were pushing me along. I would go to the end of the balcony and hold onto the rail and let the wind gusts hit me. If I'd put my arms in the air I think the wind would have taken my shirt off. I had to hold it down the entire time I was outside. I think some of the gusts on the balcony were probably hitting about 60 mph in the later hours of the evening. We seemed to get the stronger winds on the Pacific side of the island. I was messaging friends on the East China Sea side and they said the winds were pretty mild there. I got a similar report from friends on Kadena. Russ and I walked to the sea wall about 3:30 that afternoon to see how rough the waters were. We knew this was supposed to be low tide but with the rising of the water tables it looked closer to our normal high tide. The waves were crashing against the rocks with a vengeance and the winds felt stronger without the nearby buildings there to block them

 

By mid-morning we were receiving reports that Chaba was moving slightly away from us. Rather than passing directly above us, it would be moving about 70 miles away from us as it passed.  They said we would be spared the strongest part of the winds but that they would directly hit some of our lower islands. The island of Kume was hardest hit with wind gusts up to 134 mph. After the typhoon left us it headed towards Korea with a vengeance. Six people died as a result of the typhoon in Korea, 200 people were left homeless and 229,000 homes were without power. The cities of Busan and Ulsan were the hardest hit as well as a resort island of Jeju. You can see some pictures of the effects of the typhoon in Korea here. 

For us it was a big build up to something super strong but ended up come through fairly mildly leaving the main islands of Okinawa with very little damage. I know many people were praying for us and I truly believe that God heard those prayers and directed the eye of the storm away from us. We got very little rain from it and no flooding. It was fun playing in the wind though. 

Solving the Mystery

Last winter after we moved from the Temporary Living Facility (TLF) to our temporary apartment in Yogi, I started developing some skin problems. It began with a staph infection on my leg after a pedicure  I went to the clinic that we are assigned to on one of the bases and they gave me an antibiotic and a skin cream. After I got that cleared up I began itching all over and my face started getting dry patches that looked like psoriasis or eczema. I then developed bumps on my arm that resembled poison ivy and they itched like crazy. It felt like I had little critters under my skin working their way up my arms. Some nights I just wanted to scratch my arms and legs until they were raw (and a few times I almost did).

I tried everything I could think of to clear it up. I took epsom salt baths. Added in clorox to my bath water to kill any surface germs. Switched body soaps, tried skin creams to keep my skin moist. I put watered down apple cider vinegar on the itchy places and tried wiping my arms and legs with clorox wipes. I tried various essential oils mixed in coconut oil. I tried cortisone creams and anti-fungal sprays. I was getting so very frustrated to be itching so strongly with no solution in sight. It wasn't constant. Some days it would feel normal but then when it flared I would get swollen eyes and dry patches on my eyes, forehead and around my mouth. These would turn scaly and if I pulled the skin off it would leave them feeling raw. My arms and legs were full of sores I'd scratched and re-scratched.

After several months of trying everything I could think of on my skin, I went back to the clinic. They weren't sure what I was dealing with but gave me treatments for scabies (even though I didn't have the contagiousness for that they said they'd try everything), antibiotic creams and stronger steroid antibiotics. They also put me on the list to see the dermatologist whenever he came back to our clinic. After two more appointments they found something that at least cleared up my initial sores on my chest, arms and face. Each time they asked me if I was allergic to any drugs I would tell them I had a reaction to a sulfa drug in my 30's.

In June, I finally got an appointment with the dermatologist and he did some sort of test on my back and it immediately raised up welts that amazed him. He said it was the strongest reaction he'd seen so far. He determined from that test that I'd been having an allergic reaction to something. He said the bumps I described as being like poison ivy were probably hives. So he prescribed medicines for allergies both air and food and then a face cream that he wanted me to put on my face at night like a night cream. The pharmacist told me it had sulfur in it but it wasn't the same as "sulfa" medicines that I'd been avoiding. I was skeptical but decided to try it. Immediately after using the face cream my face had a reaction. My eyes swelled and I got the dry patches again. I gave it several tries to be sure it was the cream and indeed it was so I discontinued using it.

My "Aha" moment came about 6 weeks later when I was driving home from a grocery run at the base. I was listening to the radio and they were talking about car inspections. One of the men in the discussion said, "you really need to get your tires checked regularly because they tend to get little cracks in them from all the salt and SULFUR in the air here.  I got a big smile on my face and spoke to my car saying "That's It!!!!!!  After I got home I did a google search on sulfur in the Okinawa air and sure enough, there is a pollution index that lists daily amounts of sulfur in the air. The area of our temporary apartment, Yogi, is one of the areas they collect their data from since it tends to be a higher sulfar area. It all made sense to me then. I'm allergic to sulfa drugs, then showed a reaction to a face cream with sulfur as its main ingredient so it makes sense to believe that all my skin ailments were caused by the sulfur in the air to which my skin is reacting. I've been taking claritin whenever I feel the itchiness returning and so far it's been working to keep the itching at a milder degree of itchiness.

I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to hear a reasonable solution as to why I was itching so much. I wasn't sure if I'd reacted to something in the ocean or if something was infesting under my skin but it'd been an 8 month mystery that I think I finally solved.

Ryukyu Mura

Kijimuna directing us to the village

In May I made a list of things I wanted to do during the summer months. One of the things on my list was to visit 10 points of interest in Okinawa. I wanted to give myself a goal so I would get out and visit some of the nearby places rather than doing the same ol' things at home.  In mid-August I woke up to a sunny day so I asked my friend Diana if she'd like to go to Ryukyu Mura with me.  There are signs on the main highway road that have statues of Kijimuna on to draw your attention to the park. According to Okinawan mythology, Kijimuna are young, child-like spirits with long red hair. that live in the Banyan trees. They are said to be very mischievous and like to play pranks and trick humans. I'm not quite sure why they've chosen to have these little creatures on their advertisements for the park. For many months I thought it was just a kid's park so I'd ignored the signs. After reading a few posts about the park on facebook I realized it didn't match what I thought it would be. I decided to take a second look and add it to my list of places to see. I'm glad I did. I guess the Kijimuna played a trick on me after all.

Ryukyu Mura (Mura= Village) is like taking a step back in time. It's a recreation of what a typical Okinawan village would look like during the Ryukyu Kingdom days. (before they became a part of Japan). There are various types of old style houses with tiled or thatched roofs and open fire cooking hearths. They are decorated in the manner in which they would have been during the Ryukyu days. Each house was moved to this village from various parts of the island to present an overall view of traditional life in Okinawa. The village has a shrine, old fishing boats called Sabani and an old sugar cane mill with a water buffalo to pull the wheel that squeezes juice from the sugar cane which is then boiled to make brown sugar.

One of two water buffaloes in the village

The Sugar Cane Mill

For a small fee you can participate in learning various Okinawan crafts like pottery, painting shisa dogs, jewelry making, fabric dying, corral lamps and even how to play a Sushin (three stringed instrument). You can have photos taken in kimonos and experience a tea ceremony. Throughout the day they have various programs at each of the houses and the theater. We went to watch the Eisa Taiko Drummers show and then watched a show about Habu snakes. I say watched because we couldn't understand what the man was saying. We gathered that the first snake he showed us looks like a habu and tries to strike at you when threatened but isn't poisonous. He was swinging that one over the audience which made me glad I was on the sidelines. The second snake was a true habu and after talking about it, he then grabbed it by its head. At the end of his show he allowed anyone who wanted to take pictures wear it around their necks. We watched all the young kids doing this and decided to be brave and try it ourselves. I can now say I've met a habu snake up close and personal. Ahhhh!! You can read more about habu snakes here and here.

The employees walked around in traditional Okinawa attire and were quite happy to stop for a picture with a peace sign. Even the trash lady was dressed in a cute outfit and hat. As you exit the village there are many restaurants serving various noodle and curry dishes as well as souvenir shops. I bought a bar of habu soap because it said it was good for healing the skin from signs of aging. (I was mostly intrigued as to whether it would help the skin problems I've had since wintertime--see next blog post) I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the village and think I'd like to go back and see more of the shows and maybe even try a few of the crafts. It's not too far from my home so I'm sure I'll visit it again before we leave the island.

This little emotionless Sanshin player made
me smile because other than when he was
singing he held this pose the entire time.

Cute little trash lady. 

Inside one of the homes

I want a tree house like this one.

Cooking stove with a modern fan thrown in

Sweet lady directing us to the Eisa show

This girl could whistle as good as the men. Rarer to
see a female Taiko drummer I think

After their show they posed for pictures

Had to have a picture reminding me of when I was there.

Old style transportation and a thatched roof house

One of the restaurants in the village

Costumes of some of the workers

Water mill and stone wall

Two people trying to learn to play the Sanshin

Entrance to the Village

Traditional Okinawan costume

Another worker happy to pose for a picture

Entrance to the Habu and Eisa Shows

Pottery Class