Hai Sai.

Okinawa rocked, it rocked hard. The whole trip was planned excellently by Shin san and we got a run of incredible luck to boot. Just to start off on why it was so awesome you can just look at the picture above, that was the view from the balcony of our room at the Hotel Miyuki Ill have more on that later. The trip first began with a test of will and a feat of strenth i.e. surviving going into Tokyo on the metro during rush hour in the morning. That was horrible, its crap being crammed into on of the tightest spaces of your life with a couple hundred other people but having to do it with baggage just tops the experience off. I was slopped at a 45% angle for most of it with only the tips of my toes touching the ground it was grand. Well the whole Higashi Funabashi crew plus Andy because he lives so close were able to make unscathed and (semi) on time, with only one near fainting accident between all of us. The group took a 747 ANA flight to Naha airport from Haneda which took about 3 hours, a pretty smooth flight. First stop in Okinawa was the 国際道 or international street. Not much time for the cool crap shops but one guy was flipping out and trying to motion me across the street so he could cut my head off or something, that's all I can gather from his hand motions. Lunch, beautiful, Sam's restaurant we had steak. Sam's is a Teppanyaki restaurant almost like Benihanas but more food. Our chef did drop the bag once or twice but the food was awesome so we didn't bust his chops. Back on the bus , where we were entertained by "Bus Guide-o San," Guide-o san was a tour guide who would not stop talking she would just rattle on about this or that with frequent breaks for bus kareoke where she would sing us traditional Okinawan tunes. Oh and just for the record our bus drivers name was Mr. Miyagi. We tried to get Daniel San to do a crane kick on the roof of the bus for him but he did not cooperate, that ass. Anyways then next stop was the red castle of Okinawa, Shuri Castle. Very unique and beautiful, lots of Shi-sa- which are sweet. Then back on the bus and off to the Hotel Miyuki, our new home for the trip. The room for the trip was Lars, Seth, Zach, and myself, a good crew no scabes each with our own stregnths and specialties. When I walked into the hotel for the first time I was floored immediately by the view out the lobbies back window. The hotels beach and the ocean were so crisp and clear it was amazing. The sky was slightly overcast with blue poking through and the water was an radiant sparkling blue and green. We got very lucky with the weather, initially the forecast for the entire trip was thunderstorms. We hit clouds and sunshine the first day with temperature in the 72 degree area, second day bright blue sunshine and clear sky with comparable temps, third day more sun, last day a bit overcast with light sprinkling. The whole trip was so perfect and relaxing but more on the next three days later. I will try to post the pictures of the trip soon, but by try I really mean try to try.