My Own Circle..............

A few weeks ago I did a MWR trip, Morale Welfare and Recreation, through the Navy base to Iki Island. After this horrid rainy season, seriously I would be here for one of the worst ones in years, I needed a beach vacation. The trip was basically all families and then me and a counselor from my office (who just happened to be on it). Iki Island is an island lying between the island of Kyūshū and the Tsushima islands in the Tsushima Strait, the eastern channel of the Korea Strait. It is currently part of Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan. To get to Iki Island we took a bus from main base to Hario, which is the family base about 20 or so minutes away, then we took the bus to the ferry and then a ferry across to the island; it was a long day but so worth it.

It was a fantastic trip! We spent the day at the beach and then had free time at nite then the next day we went to the monkey rock formation and back to the beach. The first day we were there we grabbed all of the umbrellas, I mean parasols because when I said umbrella they looked at me like I had 5 heads and said parasol?!!? There were only about 6 umbrellas and so the next day when we got there the Japanese snatched them all up so there were no more. Since I couldn't sit in the sun all day, according to Bridget my skin is afraid of the sun, I ended up sitting under a hut and then renting a kayak for 20 minutes. I have only been kayaking at the lake and wow what a difference. Also, this water was sooooooooooo blue but it was also so salty. I got some salt in my mouth when I went under and wow that was the saltiest water I have ever experienced; if you have ever gargled with salt water it tasted just like that.

The counselor who went from my office is extremely nice but a little odd; it was hot and about 90 degrees and she was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a sweater. We went out to dinner together and we decided to go to Yakiniku, BBQ. I love it because I always know I can get some good grilled veggies. When we walked in I tried to ask if they had a veggie option since I didn't eat meat and the lady didn't understand. So the counselor then proceeded to say NO and then make pig sounds (with making her nose into a snout), cow sounds, and chicken sounds and then pretended to eat the leaves of the plant. Now, if you know me (well of course you do who else is reading this) you would know that as far as vegetarians go I am not picky and I don't like to make a big deal about it but O.........M..........G............I was mortified and did not hold back the expression with huge eyes and shock on my face. She still quite didn't understand. I was MORTIFIED! Other than that, well that included because now I have a story, it was a fantastic trip and my freckles started to merge together!


Our Boat to Iki Island, our bus went underneath the boat. The Japanese just laid down on the mats throughout the boat and slept.

My umbrella, aka parasol. Seriously, I don't know how they expected this to sit in the sand without a base. Well, it basically didn't and spent half the day falling over.

The kids were finding all different sea creatures in the water!

Look at that water!

Out in town after the beach:

I can't get away from the drums! This group was made up of all young girls, they were amazing.

That's our bus!!!

A little girl from our tour, we have something in common with our names.....her first name is Ivory (her mom is above with the umbrella and her name is Ebony)

Monkey Rock Formation: