Fall 2012

We are coming up on the halfway point of our journey through Japan. November 10, 2012 will mark 18 months that we have been in Japan....that is fitting as that is the Marine Corps Birthday.
We have both been really busy with work, and both of us have returned to school full time. Jon is 2 classes away from his Bachelor's degree in Meteorological Studies, and Tracy just started her Master's in Nursing.
We do have plans for the Thanksgiving Holiday this year. We will be flying over to Seoul, Korea for the week to do some sight-seeing, and just to get away. Should be fun. We will definitely post pictures of our trip!

Sunrise on Mt. Fuji

We mae it to the top for sunrise. It was very windy and feezing (2c = 35f)

Getting closer to the top....you can see the headlamps of all the hikers ahead of us

It did not take long before the lights were off, and the sun was up

The sun starting to rise through a Torii gate

Good Morning Japan

Nothing like viewing the sunrise from 12,000+ feet

 

Mt. Fujisan Valley below

Good Morning Mt. Fuji

Sunrise on the mountain

The summit station

 

Headed for the summit of Mt. Fuji

Finally, the main reason we came up to Tokyo....to hike Mt. Fuji. We talked to the travel concierge at our hotel, who basically told us the best time to hike Mt. Fuji is overnight, so that we could be there for the sunrise, not to mention the only transportation is late at night. So we booked out trip to leave downtown Tokyo at 7:30pm, and arrive at Mt. Fuji at 9:45pm.

 

Walking around downtown Tokyo waiting for our bus

Just one of the many malls in Tokyo

The map of Mt. Fuji

Ok, it is now 9:50pm, and we are heading out on our hike....here's to a long night

The city of Tokyo in the distance....nope thats not snow...that is volcanic ash falling

Station 6...where you can get your hiking stick burned, oxygen and snacks

Somewhere on the mountain around 1:00am...started getting really cold and windy

Just keep climbing.....2.7km left to go....uphill

 

 

8th Station

Taking a little break...most people took a break at each station for a bit.

One to rest and refuel, and also to adjust to the altitude

View of Tokyo from the 8th station

Starting to look a little lighter out in the distance

 

3:30am the sun is setting in CA and rising in Japan

We are almost to the summit....the Torii gate is one of the last passages to the top

At this time, the trail is starting to get busier with hikers. A lot of hikers will sleep at little huts along the trail so that they are rested to get to the summit. Yea, that was not what we did. We pushed through all night, and made it to the top before sunset.

 

Tokyo Bound

We are Tokyo bound one way or another. The game plan was to catch the Patriot Express out of Iwakuni on Saturday for Yokota. Well thanks to both Typhoon Bolaven and maintenance issues on the Patriot Express, it never left Seattle for Japan.

Plan #2, was then to catch a C-12 (the only flight now on Saturday) out of Iwakuni, that was also bound for Yokota. Guess what...that's not going to happen. We showed up at the terminal to find out that the C-12 has a General on it....do you thin he wants "space avaialbe" passengers on his plane....NO!

Plan #3, call a friend for a ride to the Shinkansen (bullet train) station. Pay Y39,000 (approx $500) and go to Tokyo. The plan, catch Shin Iwakuni to Hiroshima (16 minute ride), change trains, and then catch the Tokyo bound shin (4 hours).

 

Shin Iwakuni....this is our ride for 16 minutes.

Hiroshima is approximately 60 miles away...you do the math

Comfy in our seats....let the journey begin.

I am guessing this is the model number....who knows

Shin #2 at Hiroshima Station

This train is bound for Tokyo

Jon just had to have his picture taken with the shin

Kind of hard to take pictures of outside as we are going too fast.

 

We made it to the Tokyo Station where we had to connect to the local train to the Fussa Station, which is closes to Yokota Air base, our stop for the night.

Next up, we travel to the heart of Tokyo for 4 days at the New Sanno.

 

All of this just to hike Mt. Fuji!

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Yes, the picture is hazy or blurry, nope not operator error, it's a typhoon. Since all of the bases are on lockdown, and we stayed at a local hotel, we decided to visit the largest aquarium in Japan. Guess what, everyone else in Okinawa had the same idea...what's a little rain and water.

This is the view from the top floor of the aquarium looking out to the sea...awesome!

Yep, that's a shark. There were about 5 or 6 of them in this tank.

Not too sure what these were, but they were pretty cool looking.

Huge Nurse Shark hiding in the rocks

Giant lobster...there is actually 2

Whale Shark....we thought there would only be 1....nope there are 3. They are the largest fish in the ocean.

Huge Manta Rays....these things had to have a span of 12 feet

Under the tank looking up at a whale shark....that head is massive

Whale Shark....these guys are massive

They move very smoothly in the water

The rain stopped....for a minute. This beach is right off the aquarium, used for releasing rehabilitated sea creatures back into the water.

We managed to walk from the larger indoor aquarium to the smaller aquariums, where we found my favorite creatures.....MANATEES!

 

So cute....

Who can't resist this face

So cute!

Sea Turtles.....there had to be about 100 in this tank

 

So we had a "Finding Nemo" moment....talking about sea turtles with an australian accent

 

A trip to the "other" island....Okinawa

Jon left Iwakuni for Okinawa on June 16, 2012 for a 7 week Sgts course. So I decided to jump on a flight from Iwakuni to Okinawa on a Friday afternoon, and spend the next week with him on the island. When I landed, there was a huge storm. This is what I woke up to the next morning.

Torii Beach....the beach was pretty beat up from the storm the night before.

A photo of us out for a morning stroll along the beach. What you don't see is that we are each holding a Venti Drip from Starbucks....Okinawa has one on every corner, Iwakuni ZERO!

Cool little place we found...kinda like 'la boufadora' in Mexico

The waves were huge this morning, as the storm had just passed, and a typhoon was on its way in

Cool beach we found with really cool rock formations

View of Okinawa City from our hotel...we were on the 9th floor.

From Ikei Beach

The water was really clear...think Carribean Blue

You can see the Typhoon moving in...getting darker

This hotel has been closed for who knows how long. It's hard to see in the picture, but the roof has missing tiles....I am guessing from a Typhoon. The waves at this time were huge.

 

We had a great time in Okinawa. On the day of the Typhoon, all military bases were on lockdown per Typhoon protocol. Since we did not stay on base, we went out and played during the Typhoon. Next blog will be the Churaumi Aquarium.

Unfortunately, we do not have any pictures of Jon's graduation from Sgts Course....never fails, the camera battery died!