Well i fly out of lil' ol Knoxville Friday morning to spend two weeks working in Okinawa at the navy base(s) over there. We could not swing on-base housing, so we are staying at a hotel about 1/2 hour drive.. close to the airport. We have rental cars. Anyone point out cool stuff to do over there? I was in Sasebo last year, and took a train to Nagasaki to see ground zero where we dropped the A bomb..pretty moving experiance. Looking for fun stuff to do on the weekend..we should have internet so i'll check up on you guys. Oh yeah, real bumer, the Super Bowl will be on.. but it will be 8:30 am Monday morning.. and my wife, whom i just married a month ago is a huge Packers fan.. needles to say, this trip is going over like a fart in church. I missed her birthday and Valentines day last year due to work.. told them, if i go, i will be home before Valentines day this year. So, i get home that Saturday night before.. And now i really feel bad gripping about this after thinking about all of our serivce men overseas who miss entire years with their family,and some who never make it back home. Ok, 2 weeks is a piece of cake.

 

Where are you staying - in Naha? The only place I've been in Okinawa is Kadena AB.

 

Yup, we got a hotel in Naha.. working on Kadena, Camp Shields and White Beach..

 

Hey UJ, have a great trip and make sure you take lots of pics. I hope you make it back by valentines day, lol.

 

Oh yeah, i took a ton of pictures last time. And i will.. i have an awesome 8 hour layover in Minn/St.Paul, but i think we are going to take a cab over to the Mall of America to kill some time... i leave Japan Friday morning at 9am and get home to Knoxville at 10:45 Saturday night... so the next few days after that i will be pretty useless..well, more than usual..lol

 

I was there in '07, and loved it. Beautiful country, friendly and laid back people (especially outside of Naha). I did find it interesting that the farther outside of the US Bases I was, the less likely that people would take green money or Visa, so keep 10,000 yen or so with you.

Driving wasn't too bad; most of the street signes are in english and japanese. I got a rental car too, and the largest one they had was a corolla (which was big for Okinawa), so plan for that. Their cell phones are different from the rest of the world (unless it's changed), so neither CDMA or GSM worked, but Verizon was able to get me a phone that would work before I left.

I stayed in two different hotels while I was there. The hotel restaurants both had buffets with a Japanese side and a western side. I thought it was interesting the kinds of food they thought Americans would like (I had never seen tripe on a buffet before). Also, remember American beer is the import there, so Japanese stuff is cheaper.

 

Yeah, we have three rental cars, luckily i won't have to drive. I have a company AM Ex card to use for expenses, and i remeber last time in Sasebo the ATM's on base would give either US currency or Yen... so i should be fine there too. Probably just use Skype or get an international calling card. I have been told to check out a place called Sams by the Sea, it's a restraunt...and i have been told there is a castle i need to check out too..

 

Hey, i just realized you are right down the road from me too, in Lenoir City!! Small world!!

 

Small world, indeed. Knoxvillian here. So what's the route you'll be taking? Knoxville to ? Enjoy the time in the land of the rising sun.

 

Fly from Knoxville to Detroit, then to Tokyo then a 3 hour flight to Okinawa...

 

Yeah man, us East Tennessee hillbillies are jet setters.

 

Yep, my company doesn't do ANY work locally.. it's all out of state..

 

Knoxville has east Tennessee hillbillies? You're not even in the real mountains yet!

 

Take pics.

 

Will do Raptor!! I know they have a huge ferris wheel we are going to ride..for some reason every city i went to last year over there had at least one huge ferris wheel on the roof of their mall... crazy...