Typhoon Muifa, August 2011

Soooooo......what can I say about a typhoon?  Well, I experienced some of Hurricane Ivan several years back while I was in Georgia, but this tyhpoon (pronounced "moo-ee-fa") was CRAZY!!  We had winds of up to 98mph, but that wasn't the crazy part.  The craziness was that it lasted over three days.  Plus, it got more intense once the eye passed us!  Overall, the island received over 40 inches of rain from this one storm. We are forever grateful for the Okinawan builders, however.  Our house is new, and pretty much a "luxury bunker" for a typhoon.  This place was built for this!  We didn't sleep much, because the winds and debris flying around was so loud, but we didn't sustain any damage.  However, our friends suffered a lot of flooding and such--especially on base.  Following are some pictures showing some of the damage.  Enjoy!

 This is a 9 foot high fence!

And now for something completely different.....I was bored during the typhoon and made Okinawan Soba--SO YUMMY!!!!!

Shuri Castle

On July 2nd this year, we traveled to see the Shuri Castle near Naha.  It has a fascinating history, but to make things quick and easy...This was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom built in the 14th century.  It is now designated a World Heritage Site.  In 1945 it was almost completely destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa.  The Japanese military had set up their headquarters underground at the castle, and for three days the American Battleship USS Mississippi shelled it.  It was used for other purposes throughout the years, and then in 1992 it was reconstructed on top of the original site using records, photographs, and memory.  We spent almost the entire day there and STILL didn't see everything!  It was amazing and beautiful to be a part of.  I plan on visiting this site again!  Sorry for the amount of pics, but we just had so many interesting photo ops!! Enjoy!

 This vending machine was so dang cool...you could buy an umbrella for about ten bucks for sun or rain!

 The emperor's throne!

 Okinawan Soba = most delicious food here.  Divine!

 Soba freak!

Park by our house

Sooooo....this is a WAY COOL park just down the street from our home.  A lot of locals use it for exercise, meditating, catching bugs, or just being out in the beauty here.  It was HUGE and BEAUTIFUL!  Except for the creepy spiders that were everywhere--they were TERRIFYING!!!  Enjoy the pics!

America Fest at Kadena Air Base

This was the 4th of July celebration that the Air Force put on.  It went for two days and had tons of food, entertainment, and LOTS of planes, jets, etc., to look at.  I'm posting all the aircraft here and we'll see how many of them my brothers can identify (cause I sure can't)!!

 Blurry pics of the band "12 Stones."  They and the country singer "Jesse James" played both nights.