Some traditional Okinawan/Japanese food

Cutting up a fish for sashimi
Kelly and I before the marathon
Kelly and I after the marathon!
Kelly, her Grandparents and I at the Tropical Dream Centre
The orchids drawing in their unsuspecting victims
A vine growing across a concrete roof

Goodmorning!

This weekend was a good one. Two main causal agents were running the Okinawa marathon and meeting Kelly’s grandparents. I met the Grandparents first so let’s start there. They arrived in Okinawa about a week ago to visit Kelly and have been experiencing one of Kelly’s world renowned tours of Okinawa. Kelly and her grandparents came to meet me at the port on Friday and I came off the ferry to meet them with armed with a haircut, trimmed beard and a bag of several large and heavy books. Large and heavy books can be useful in a number of diverse situations.

They were very friendly and I liked them immediately, one naturally hopes their impression was similar, then off we all went to gather to the pineapple park. As a side note I share the opinion that Americans are generally very friendly, open and polite, that is to say easy to become congenially acquainted with. They don’t tend to stand on ceremony or be stand-offish. I really like this however I am a cynical and grouchy Brit and sometimes the over the top (subjective I know) exuberance of Americans makes me feel uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable in that I don’t like it, it is great to be optimistic and enthusiastic about everything (within reason of course) but I am uncomfortable acting that way myself. I tend to communicate my positive emotions in devious and subtle ways, so pay attention! I wonder if you can take it as a rule of thumb that when Americans say something one aught to take into account probable overstatement and factor down greatness/awesomeness accordingly. And also when a Brit says something one must factor in understatement and scale up the greatness/wonderfulness.

American English : British English

Awesome = not bad

Well anyway I am going off on a wild tangent and I am not sure I really believe what I just wrote, it was just a thought.

So on with my tale. On Saturday we spent most of the day in America! Technically at least, we were on Kadena airbase. It did feel like we had left Japan, the roads suddenly became about 5 times wider, the buildings more spaced with swathes of immaculately cut lawn in between, men carrying guns. Kelly’s grandparents were extremely generous and paid for everything, Thankyou! They had also brought me a nifty LED headlamp gizmo from the states, much appreciated! Kelly was in heaven shopping at the commissary, mountains of all the food from home she had been missing! She did however show considerable restraint and didn’t buy too much at all. I was half tempted and half sort of disgusted. After Japanese food this just seemed to be endless HUGE portions of fatty, sugary death to your body. You get a lot of that in Japan now, but not on my island and certainly not in the school lunches that I get. This said when I spent a year in America I actually lost weight, although I was in southern California and surfing everyday that I could, but I was eating burgers and Doritos almost everyday too. Scottish food is at least as bad if not worse, although like everywhere there is good food if you look hard enough (ie. generally NOT in supermarkets). Argh I have digressed again. So it was a tip-top day and ended with a pleasant meal at the NCO club again courtesy of the ever generous Grandparents of Kelly.

SUNDAY: RACE DAY

Oh boy. The Okinawa marathon is a hilly little blighter to say the least. We knew that and were somewhat prepared. However several things which we weren’t prepared for tested us even more. At around 10km into the race Kelly got a neck crick. You know when you can’t move your neck cos it bloody hurts to do so! It hasn’t happened while running before and goodness knows why it happened then but it did. I could tell the poor girl was in a lot of pain. She was a real trooper and battled on though! I tried to be motivational and cheer her on as much I could, I again drew on the inspiration of John and told her to run with a smile and wave at the supporters. This she did very bravely but the smile came out more as a little scary grimace. But she did it! I am immensely proud of my gal, she showed she had guts and kicked that marathon right in the goodies. Despite evil towering hills (down-hills are probably worse than up towards the end of the race as they hurt your knees much more) and neck pains she finished this marathon a little faster than the last one! We finished in 4 hours and 24 minutes and some seconds. This time Kelly was one second faster than me and she deserved every nanosecond of it ;)! Way to go Kelly!

As for me the arch of my left foot is bothering me but it is not so bad now, my toes also took a bit of a beating. But that was the last endurance event for a little while. I have been in constant training for over a year now and it is time to let me knees and other connective tissue a chance to heal. Not that I am stopping, are you crazy! But I will switch to bike and swim training for a while. Hopefully I can do some 10Km or 20Km races in the near future and build up some speed.

Well done to Josh, Fidi, Charolette and Helen for also running the marathon and to Perry for rocking the ten Km race that day and for getting a PB at the Tokyo Marathon the week before. Good luck for Miako you crazy buggers! Also thank you to Kelly’s grandparents and Yasmine for cheering us on during the race.

After the marathon we had a slap up meal at macaroni grill (camp foster) where we were joined by the ever genki Ryoko. After facing the ordeal of the steps up to Kelly’s apartment again we iced aching limbs again before collapsing to bed.

Monday we went to the Tropical Dream Centre where we were treated to an amazing display of orchids. An old plant science professor of mine once described them as the Brazen Hussies of the plant world. However that think that is a little unfair and I am quite fond of them. A little gaudy and over the top at times but beautiful none the less.

This week I will have my last English conversation class. I am sad as I have grown quite fond of my class. The ‘thank you for being our teacher’ card they gave me on valentines day I will treasure. They are a good bunch of girls and I don’t think I will have time to get to know the new lot quite so well. I am working on giving them a lesson to remember and so far it involves chocolate so I think I am on the right track.

After doing my night time English conversation class on Monday (I have three such classes) I was invited by a teacher to some shindig so off I went. There were quite a lot of people there and lots of good okinawan/Japanese food. Incase you are curious as to food here I posted some pics. On the table you can see pigs tongue and in the bowl; diakon (like a white turnip), pigs ankle, tofu, seaweed, hotdog sausage and a boiled egg. The pigs ankle is pretty yum, its really soft and you just suck the skin, fat, tendons right off the bone. Yes yes, I know, I eat everything. The other picture if off a chap preparing the sashimi (sliced, raw fish). I have another party to go to tonight, there must be something going on, but as usual I am clueless! Probably to do with the up coming gradations and completion of a school year?