Spring is in the Air!

Spring has made it to Okinawa. It's actually been here for a little while, but this past weekend just confirmed it. I love spring. In a perfect world, I would be able to wear, jeans, short sleeves, and sandals all year long.

Source: madatmadi.polyvore.com via Janette on Pinterest

Source: fashionistatrends.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Lisa on Pinterest

It's also gets super hot and humid here. I thought Missouri was humid, but Missouri humidity hasn't got anything on this island! My husband says it's my womanly duty to have long hair (cue major eye roll), so it's almost necessary to keep it up during the summer. 

Source: stylesaint.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Source: longhairstyleshowto.com via Oluva on Pinterest

The best part of this great weather though? Driving around with the windows down, listening to music. There are so many gorgeous places to find here, that it's always a good time to do just that. The kids usually humor me too.

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Typhoon Jelawat Aftermath

Typhoon Jelawat has left us. 

From what I read, at least 65 people were injured and more than 331,000 households were left without power. It came through as a category 3. Considering we had a typhoon 4 weeks ago, then another, Sanba, 2 weeks ago, I think we were all typhooned out and not expecting much. It was worse than the other two combined. 

We woke up Saturday morning to a full on storm. We lost power about 9:30/10:00. It finally started to die down around 5:00 maybe. When I went to bed at 9:30, the power was still off. It came on at some point during the night though. From what I read on Facebook, it seems like everyone lost power at some point, some of us just lost it for most of the day. 

This is our third typhoon season on island. I think this was the worst storm yet and judging by the damage it was the worst. 

I took all of these of Facebook, but this shows what kind of damage we had.

Parking lot of the barracks. The cars were all straight before the storm.

AFN satellite

That would be a trampoline

What makes it even more weird, is that we had an earthquake at 6:54 pm yesterday. Can anyone say freaky?

Just......Whatever

I have a ton of sea shells. I want to do something fun with them, something besides just throwing them in a jar. Any ideas? I haven't been able to find much, besides this, and that's an obvious no. Hopefully, I'll be able to go out after the storm and find some more good ones!

I already found my ball dress! I managed to find it at the second store I went to. It had to be altered a bit, but I'm picking it up tomorrow. Glad to cross that one off my list.

This is headed our way. Third typhoon in five weeks. All on the weekend. WTF?!?!? I was over the last one, two weeks ago. I'm just refusing to admit this one is coming.

Hubby and I can't decide where to move to. We are down to making pros and cons lists. I don't think I've ever made a pros and cons list. Ever.

My bucket list keeps growing. It wouldn't be so bad if I could do things on the weekend, but NO! Stupid weather. I did manage to go to a shrine the other day. I somehow found it when searching for something else. I'm not sure how no one had heard of it.

I have never done a getting to know you post. If there is anything you want to know about me, ask away and I'll answer it in an upcoming post.

Heck, why not? Let's have a giveaway.

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Typhoon Fun Facts

Oh yippee. 

I'm so over typhoons. We just had one 3 weeks ago and now we are going to get another one this weekend. This is a satellite view from yesterday.

This storm seems to be somewhat of an anomaly. Sanba (a place name in Macau or an ancient wooden musical instrument in Okinawa) is an annular typhoon due to the shape of it's eye, indicative of a very strong and stable typhoon that is unaffected by external conditions.  Annular typhoons are smaller, have smaller rain bands, have a large, well-defined eye and they maintain peak intensity longer, even when the weather conditions aren’t good for sustaining a typhoon. There is also no eyewall replacement cycle for an annular typhoon. These types of storms are rare, occurring in about 2% of Western Pacific typhoons. 

If you are interested in how the typhoons are named (I was, so I looked it up!), each of the 14 (I also read 17) nations that typhoons affect submit a list of names for a total of 141 names. The names include animals, flowers, astrological signs and a few personal names.

The top is a typhoon that hit us last August. The bottom is the current typhoon.

 Last thing I read said Sanba was 700 km across and 650 km from north to south with only a 30 km eye. 

I know all this typhoon stuff is not all that interesting, but when it's weather that is hitting you and it can get pretty severe, I find it completely fascinating. Here's the most current satellite pic of the storm. It's currently a Category 5 and expected to hit us as a 4. I'm just wondering how and if this annular storm will be different than any other storm.

Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/273967/news/nation/karen-now-an-annular-super-typhoon-eastern-phl-warned-vs-rough-seas

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Commander-Fleet-Activities-Okinawa/111587702192852?ref=ts

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201217_5day.html

This Week and Some Awesome Weekend Plans!

 My mother-in-law flew in a couple days ago. I know, I know, but I really like my mother-in-law. Yesterday, we took her to a park so she could finally go down a roller slide. Everyone had a blast! It just so happened that it had rained before we got there and then rained while we where there. She and the kids were soaked and a little muddy. Then, awesome mother that I am, we went to Mister Donut for lunch. We got all these little scratch cards and with enough points, you could get a beach towel. You know we did! 

Today, we met hubby for lunch, attempted to find a couple parks near the base he works at and failed. Since school is supposed to start (but may not, keep reading) on Monday, we went to school to meet Little Man's teacher. Second grade. I'm still not real sure of how that one happened. 

As far as this weekend, be jealous.

I'm going to have an awesome weekend with Typhoon Bolaven. FYI: A bolaven is a plateau in southern Laos. You learn something everyday.

We have yet to have a typhoon this year. It seems like they all either peter out, change their course, or just stay at the tropical storm level. Bolaven is supposed to hit us as a Category 4. That means winds between 131 and 155 mph. The storm is also 700 miles across. I can't even fathom that. It's a Category 3 right now, so it's entirely possible that it will hit us like they are predicting.

This is the projected path as of right now. 

It is supposed to hit us dead on. 

If that wasn't fun enough, there is another storm Tembin, hanging out south of Taiwan. It's in the center in this pic. The storm on the right is Bolaven. Tembin is apparently the Japanese name for the constellation Libra.

That's nice and all, but it wasn't supposed to come near us. Do you see this?

No? How about this? It did a freaking 180 and is headed our way. We are on the outer reaches of it and it's predicited to hit as a tropical storm, but geez. My poor mother-in-law may not have a very exciting vacation.

I'm kinda hoping it's super bad this weekend. I figure if we are going to have a storm and they make us stay home, then it might as well be a heck of a storm! We stocked up on junk food, bought a couple new board games, and are ready to hunker down. The Japanese know what they are doing though and build everything out of concrete. Stuff may blow around outside, but there isn't anything to worry about if you stay inside. We are going shopping in the morning, without children, so the weekend won't be a total loss!

Sunday Updates

I was all pumped for this Haikui. On Friday, it was a tropical storm that was supposed to upgrade to a category 1 typhoon by the time it got to us. Never happened. It's on top of us now and it's still a tropical storm. Business as usual. This typhoon season hasn't been much fun. I know that sounds crazy to say, but once you've been on island a bit, typhoons are kinda fun. We had a 3 day one last year. We lost power one of those days, but it's fun to have to be stuck at home. We stock up on junk food and movies before hand.

Speaking of movies. I'm watching one of all my all time favorites. Pretty sure it's the only movie that I've liked Renee Zellweger in. Oh, how I would have loved to dress like Liv Tyler when I was 15/16. We just didn't get quite that edgy in small town Missouri. I did have a couple pairs of Docs. Bought second hand of course.

If you wouldn't mind, would you please vote for my blog in the Circle of Moms Top Military Moms? Thank you!!

Don't forget to enter to win all the Japanese goodies we put together! I packed it all up the other night and everything I bought won't fit in a large flat rate box. I didn't realize I bought that much! Oh, and make sure you check out Jes and Darlene who are in on this with me!

Little Man will be home in a week! I'm so excited! I miss that kid! I know his sister misses him too. I've got to come up with some super fun things to do before school starts. Hopefully, he and I can get some fun time without his sister too. I want to make sure he gets quality one on one time since she has gotten it all summer!

Typhoon Guchol

Typhoon Guchol is coming.

Well, actually, it appears to be a Super Typhoon.

It's been slowly making it's way up from the Philippines for the past few days. It should be here at some point tomorrow.

From the Kadena Facebook page: 

Okinawa remained in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3 early afternoon Sunday. At closest point of approach to Okinawa, Guchol will be packing Category 5-equivalent 150-mph sustained winds and 185-mph gusts at its center.

Okinawa is the island to the left of the 9 PM Mon dot

This will be our fourth typhoon, the third in this house.

I'm kinda excited!

 

All of our houses are built like concrete bunkers. There are bars over all our windows. 

The house will start creaking and you almost think the windows will burst from the pressure, but it'll be fine.

We'll hang out for a day or two, watch movies, play games, and whatever else to keep occupied. As long as the power doesn't go out anyways!

Iejima - Day 1

This weekend, six other ladies and I went on a little girl's weekend.

It was much needed and in my mind, much deserved.

We headed out early Sunday morning and headed north. There is currently a typhoon in the Pacific, so we were really worried it was going to rain on us all weekend. It wasn't raining when we left, so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. 

We bought tickets to catch the 9:00 ferry to Iejima. The ferry was a lot bigger than I expected. It was huge! 

 We stayed at the YYY Resort. It's a smaller resort, but it's the only one on the island. 

The bar poolside

The grounds

Our cottages

We got checked in and headed out for our first adventure.  A scavenger hunt! The island is only about 5 miles by 2 miles, so it is easy to bike around. We split up in teams and headed out. The list was made out with the idea that we would be able to see a lot of the local attractions. The map we had wasn't the greatest, so we asked locals for directions, even flagging down a few cars. In the three hours we had for the hunt, we saw monuments, caves, the old U.S. flightline, a viewpoint, a tourist park, the Ernie Pyle monument, stopped at a beer garden for lunch, and just took in the gorgeous scenery. 

Headed towards Mt. Gusuku

One of our items said to take a picture jumping on a flightline. Accomplished!

Ernie Pyle Monument

We had an awesome time. There was very little traffic, so we had no problem navigating our bikes. When we got back and compared our list and items with the other team, we surprisingly had the same number of items, so we called it a draw.

We were all so nasty after biking around the island, so we hopped in the jacuzzi for a while. After dinner, we took a long walk and checked out the beach and a campground. We finished the night up with a trip to the sauna and jacuzzi again, then some ruthless board games! Surprisingly, we made it through the whole day with it only drizzling on us.

Crazy Weather

Isn't weather a funny thing?

I ran across a news article about a couple continuing on with their wedding, even though the tornadoes were coming. Best wedding pictures ever!

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018281373_tornadopics25.html

Being from the midwest, tornadoes don't really bother me. I don't recall every having actually sat in the basement when one was going by overhead, but I do recall more tornado watches and warnings than I can remember. We always had a basement, so we just all hung out there until the storm passed. In addition to fire drills at school, there were earthquake and tornado drills. I also grew up relatively close to a fault line. We had a few smaller earthquakes, nothing too big though. Earthquakes are pretty common in Okinawa too. I have no experience whatsoever with hurricanes though.

Typhoon season is coming! Our typhoon season runs from June to November. There have been 3 good ones in the time we've been here. The first one last year was Memorial weekend. Coming here, most people don't know what to expect and they get a little freaked out. Hurricanes and typhoons are pretty much the same thing though, with one big difference in my mind. When a hurricane hits the East Coast, it tends to die out over land. When a typhoon hits Okinawa, it doesn't die out. The island isn't big enough! It just passes over and keeps going!

Typhoon Muifa - August 2011

Okinawans are smart though. Buildings here are concrete. Windows all have bars on them. Everything is built to withstand the storms. It kinda makes me wonder why we still rebuild wood frame buildings on parts of the East Coast. We know those hurricanes will keep coming!

After hunkering down through one typhoon, a lot of people no longer fear them. The military drills it in our head to be prepared and they have a good system to let you know how far out the storm is, when to stay inside, and when it's safe to go out again. We've learned to stock up on movies, snacks, and easy meals (like tuna kits). We watch all the movies and take advantage of the electronics, then when the power goes out, we read, play games, or listen to the windows sound like they are going to explode from the pressure (they won't, don't worry). I think that a typhoon is like a really good midwestern thunderstorm, minus the thunder and lightning, and it could possibly last for days, so totally like a thunderstorm (I know, but I still think they are alike)!!

Typhoons are now time off work to sit in your house and do nothing and eat junk. Bring on typhoon season!

The End is Near

The solar eclipse hit the island at 7:13 this morning.

Source: https://plus.google.com/113027837615023628132/posts

We had an earthquake at 12:22 p.m. It was only a 3.0 though.

Source: http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html

Typhoon season starts June 1, but Guam already has the beginnings of a tropical storm. It won't make it to here, but it's a good heads up!

What's next?

We have so many earthquakes here, that is isn't a big deal. The typhoons aren't bad either. We hole up in the house for a day or three and spend a lot of family time together.  Everything at once kinda makes you wonder....for 3 seconds anyways, then you go back to browsing Facebook.

Well, Typhoon Muifa Ended

Ok, so it wasn't never ending (I keep singing The Neverending Story song in my head) cause it just ended. We are in recovery now. We still can't go anywhere, but they are out assessing the damage.

These are not my pictures obviously.  I haven't left the house and I don't live on base. I mostly got them off Facebook. Apparently, parts of Kadena are flooded. A lot of people on and off base are still without power. Many people have said they've had leaks in their house and we aren't talking water dripping. It could have been a lot worse though!