month in review

Okay so I have been a little lazy and not posted on the blog for about a month so sorry to those who have been waiting. Well all the dorm people were in my dorm and we were all sitting and chatting, I was sitting on my bed when all of a sudden the bed seemed to be having a seizure and was shaking a little bit. “Earthquake?” said Thomas. So we all run out side and Juan the chain smoker was having a cigarette and jumps and says did you feel the earthquake! So that was on the 9^th I think.

The next day we all went for a walk to the beach and were sitting at some cool stone chairs at the beach. Then everyone dared me not to speak for 15mins and I will get $10 so I didn’t speak till we got home and got my money. Was quite fun actually and I gots the money hahahahahaa.

About three days later on the 14^th me and Elly experimented with a new way to stay awake in the tower. Basically you just sing out loud and do dance moves to your song and the other person in the other tower has to guess the song hahaha. Yeah it is lame but it keeps you awake and time at work breezes by. That afternoon Elly’s friends from the Mariott came to visit her. Jack her friend from tassie and mark some guy from geelong. So us three and Harson went and had some Korean barbeque for dinner at the resort. Basically you sit outside and the give you all this marinated meat and you cook it your self on the barbeque in front of you. Really tasty but it was really hot. After that me and Elly and Harson hopped in the Shyogo’s car (I guy from work) with Maachan(another guy jetski instructor) and he drove us to Chatan and we went shopping for a Jimbe (traditional Japanese clothing) so we can were it to festivals and parties. So we went to blue seal after and had a very awesome icecream.

The next day was the Rizzan beach staff party. It was at some beach down the road. We had to all go in Kohe’s car, all being Barbie, Kate, Elly, Sui, Harson, Tom and myself. Surprisingly though he had a a lot of room in the car and enough seats. We were quiet surprised to see that the boss (Takara san) and Schedule man (Toyozato san) showed up. We like to refer to him as schedule man as his name is too hard to say and he writes the roster. I like the Bbq because its really relaxed and I like talking to people I don’t know in Japanese. Had a long conversation with Elly and one of the Japanese girls all in Japanese and actually got told we had good Japanese! That’s a first! Anyway ate as much food as I could but it was slow and there was more people so I didn’t really get much, and was introduced to coke and awamori. (awamori is a special type of sake unique to Okinawa) pretty much just tasted like really strong vodka and coke(yuck). It was fun to socialize with the Japanese, although they love they sake and get a bit hammered.

The next day I had a holiday yay! And found out that the police came to the party last night after we left! They thought we had stolen all the beach towels of Rizzan as we had heaps to sit on. Pretty funny but they didn’t believe Yo chan when he said that the party was a Rizzan staff party and by this stage the boss had left, so the police called the hotel! Haha it’s pretty funny because apparently marine are renowned for causing the most trouble out of any of the departments. Hopefully we can still have parties though!

17^th well woke up and went to work, a typhoon was due to hit that night so the winds were quite strong and we got a free holiday went home after an hour of work!!yay!!! so me, Elly, Cat and Thomas decided to travel to Chatan to get a phone! Was a bit of mission but the mission is complete. My email on my phone is cameroninjapan@softbank.ne.jp and I receive emails instantly and can email back instantly too!!! Yay so convenient.

The NEXT DAY

Oh so the typhoon never actually eventuated, it passed us by, so that is still to be experienced. (All buildings on the coast of Okinawa so pretty much the whole island are made of concrete especially for typhoons) We left home at about 11 30. Like usual the place was pretty quiet except for the few regulars. But once we all arrived the place was humming. Was a good night, we showed the bar staff how to do Jaeger Bombs as we Bought some red bull and we knew that peace bar had Jaeger from last time. There is this old guy who is always at the bar, anyway we were talking to him about Australia, then he asks us if we can play the didgeridoo. Which we can’t. Next thing we know he goes away for ten mins and comes back with his own! He played it for us and he was really good, was pretty strange though, a random Japanese guy playing this famous Australian instrument in Okinawa. Well went home early due to work the next morning was a fun night.

The Next day after work Elly and I had decided to go and stay at Jack and Tien’s at Marriott and go to their pools and spas which are open until late. So we jumped on the 120 about 7 15. Walking into the Marriott makes Rizzan look like crap, the lobby is so nice and everywhere you walk things look very up market and rich. It was really fun in the pools and spas, and water slide YAY!!! The pools are awesome, there is lots of different ones with a deep one, shallow, outdoor spa, waterfall, waterslide, pool side swim up bar. (where Jack used to work) So we tried out all the pool and mucked around playing on shoulders having wars to see which team was the weakest etc was really fun, went on the waterslide which was also good and I must mention is made out of Marble. Would love to go back to the pools in the day, and because Tien works at the reception we can use all the facilities including the indoor spas and gym for 500 yen so 5 dollars, which is sweet. I liked the Marriott marine uniforms they wear red shorts like the surf club patrol ones and yellow rashies, looks good realised if I had accepted the job at Marriott that’s where I would have been working! Still glad I work at Rizzan though, much more relaxed! So after the pools, the girls and the guys split up and we went into the spas, there was all different types al with different names and some were scented, the was also a cold pool and a sauna, the spas were so hot after being outside though and had to get in really slowly. There is no way that I could go in the spas in the day time it would be way to hot and sweaty! But it was nice at night, Finished at about 10 30 and felt lovely and clean! Then we walked back to the dorms and just sat in Jacks room talking, we were too tired for anything else. Then we realised we had no breakfast so we all walked down to Lawsons and got some supplies! Then when we got back we pretty much went straight to sleep!

This was the first time I had slept in yet. So I woke up at 10:30 and had breaky(yoghurt and musli yum) and so begun a very exiting day. Me and Elly ran to the bus to get back to our dorm. There we met grant, kate and Barbie with our rental car. 3 other guys and grant(the driver) used it the night b4 to go out to Naha clubbing(personally I enjoyed the polls and spas at the Mariot better and it was cheaper being only $5). After we arrived in Kokusaidori a main shopping street in Naha we were very hungry so first on the agenda was lunch and we spent agers looking for somewhere to eat. Finally asked someone and he recommended a place on the other side of the main road (koksaidori) and we went there. Was awesome had karage chicken I think was the best meal I have had since arriving and it was only 7 dollars :0 definitely will return. Grant found this t-shirt making shop and he made his own t-shirt. It says American jin janaiyoni. This means “ I am not an American”. As lots of Japanese people won’t talk to or are scared of the Americans, they are very unfriendly to you if the believe you are American, so Grant gets a lot of smiles laughs and comment s when he wears it! Also a few evil stares from American guys! So after lunch we only really had an hour left, so looked around some more shops before all jumping in the car for the trip home. Arrived at home for the Onna-matsuri, Onna is the village I live in and matsuri is festival so it was the villages festival. ME and Elly rode our bikes down to the festival and everyone else walked!!! It was fantastic everyone wears traditional clothes and dancers walk around with different sized drums dancing and creating music and is a really good atmosphere. There are lots of games around and stalls with very interesting looking food. Was really fun I wore me jemba and Harson wore his jemba and Sara wore her kimono, so we all looked fabulous!!! Someone told us there was a reggae night on at peace bar, so we all went of the fireworks to the bar but upon arrival there clearly wasn’t a reggae night. It was a good night though, made some new friends, was entertained by chi chan and her crazy friends who seem to always be yopari(drunk). Rode home nice and early that night.

The next day was the last day of the festival so we all went after we finished work!! Wow it was even better than the night before more peole and the fireworks were absoloutly fantastic. The night before Elly won a skateboard at a game stall, so we got rope and tide it to the back of the bike and juan rode to the festival while I sat on the skateboard. Although upon arrival at the festival I realized that my phone had fallen out during the ride there. So we searched everywhere for it than asked lost property people and hallelujah it was there. Then we all went back to this tent on the wharf where I met these fishermen and chatted with then for agers. There is 3 two guys a father and a son and they own 3 boats and go out every day, the boat was really cool, it was obvious they were friends with Rizzan staff as the chairs on the deck looked very familiar just like the ones at the beach! Also there were a lot of Rizzan towels floating about the place! We tried some seafood, some was raw, some prepared and some cooked, I tried the octopus and didn’t mind it! We started playing wasabi games, pretty much who can eat the most wasabi raw or with octopus! Sam was the winner and was referred to as hero for the rest of the night. Then we started arm wrestles and jan ken pon and other random games for different sorts of consequences. Was good fun!

Nothing but work really happened after that due to the fact that we work 8:30-6 everyday now. So when my holidays arrived I went with Sara, Sam and Kate to Pashanti bar which is an all you can eat cake and sandwhich bar for only $10 and we stuffed ourselves, was really fun than wished the days away waiting for mount Fuji. Besides Fuji this is pretty much all that went down this month and it has been awesome.