ocean expo

Shaggy, my old roomie from Yono, is here for a visit so we did a little bit of site seeing near Nago city this afternoon. Unfortunately Matt and I have had very little time to sort out our drivers licenses so we had to cab it which was a little pricey but well worth the cost.

We went to Ocean Expo Park which was rather breathtaking. First we went to the aquarium which was the largest I had ever seen. The tanks were huge and we got to walk through one of those glass tunnels! I’ve always wanted to walk through one of those things so I can now scratch that off the list. There were whale sharkes, mantas, stingrays, turtles, video cameras, digital cameras, camera phones, you name it!

We had lunch in the cafeteria where we had a front row view of these creatures from the deep blue sea. There’s nothing like spooning some soft mango ice cream into your mouth while a giant whale shark drifts by barely two feet away from you.

After spending about 3 hours underwater we headed to Emerald Beach. I finally felt we had arrived in the Okinawa our students told us about. Move over Hawaii!!! I have to keep reminding myself that I live here, in Japan, on a tropical island…yup. We took off our shoes and walked in the white sand to the sight of, as the scissor sisters put it, a “creamsicle sky” (insert groovy bass line).

Now here I am, back at the apartment with another work week ahead of me. It’s tough having these teeny tiny hints of vacation sprinkled a few hours here and there. The only thing I can compare it too is going on the road with your band, playing one great show and having to go home the next day. I just want to keep going. I just want to keep lying in the sand, listening to the ocean and not have to worry about being at work the next day. It’s time for a holiday, I haven’t had one since last summer and it’s beginning to wear on me. It’s tough having to be genki all of the time, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is attempt any socializing whatsoever.

There’s a light at the end of this coming very soon, I just have to keep thinking about momma’s visit, the arrival of my sassy redheaded girlie on December 24^th and 10 days off over the Christmas holidays!! 10 whole days off with no work…at all…nothing…phew!