Snorkeling Fun!!

Hey here are some pictures from my snorkeling trip but I didn't really get a lot considering I can't get any underwater.  Some friends were able to get some from their protected cameras.  I hope you enjoy the scenery, I know I loved how gorgeous it was.

The start of our tour and I was a little nervous I may get sick.

The island off in the distance where we would be snorkeling.

It was sooo beautiful.

Me after I got sick of riding on the top with the current.  I had to get some Dramamine from the tour guide and I took a nap...after that I was perfectly fine.

See, I told you I felt good :)

The water was so clear and pretty you could see to the bottom and all the colorful fish just swimming around.

There were some other boats around and this was just another part of the island we went to.

We weren't allowed to go on the beach but it looked really nice.

This was our group and the boat we took.  We had a lot of fun and got pretty burnt.








Hopefully I can get those pictures of stuff underwater but that was my snorkeling trip in a couple pictures. 

Miss you all and less than a month till I come home.  Love lots,
Jake

A weekend in Okinawa

Here is from my tour called the Northern Highlights in which we went to a glass blowing place, the pineapple wine factory, fruit land, and the Orion beer factory.

This was all made from glass so I thought I should get a picture.

This game cost $3 and you throw ping pongs into the bin and try and get it into the cup.  You will the cup and save yourself about $15.

This is the area where they blew the glass and heated it all up.  It takes about 48 hours for the glass to cool down.

This is one of the pieces you could buy in the store.  It has flowers all over it and am sure it cost over a hundred dollars.

This was our lunch in which we got to cook it ourselves.

If you paid $2 dollars you could get this food and the birds would fly onto your arm and eat it.  Pretty bird, pretty bird.....I just thought he was really quiet.

Here is some good ol' pigs face.  I don't know what their fascination is with pigs but it's pretty sick.

Yes, there is a snake in that glass. It is called habu saki in which you take some pretty strong alcohol and mix it with snake venom.  People say if you take a shot of this your liver shuts down.  They say you take a drink from this and your good for the night.

The good stuff.

Yea I am just chilling with my beer in the Orion factory.  It's going to be weird coming home and not being legal in the states.

There were some stines in the factory so I thought papa might want to take a look at those.

On Friday we were separated into teams and we were the poisonous dart frogs.  We had to play dodgeball, have a relay, and pass a banana with our feet.

Sofia sent me some Toy Story gummies so I thought I would share my excitement for this gift.















The summer is coming close to an end but I am trying to enjoy the rest of my time here on the island.

Love lots,
Jake

More from Oki

I got to go to the Tedako Festival on Saturday night and watch some interesting shows.  They also had some good Japanese food and beer that you could get while watching the fireworks.

When we got there they were doing a traditional Japanese dance.

There were a ton of people at this festival.  We seem to stick out from everyone else though.

This was another dance they did...the funny part was the guys in the front wore little cloth and you could see their butts when the wind blew.

They held these for quite some time.  People would be holding onto these poles and would bob up and down and sometimes they would start to fall and they would try and catch them.

The dragon took the stage and was twirling all over the place, it was pretty neat the way they had it move.

HI-YA!  Karate...I was standing on the side doing some of my moves.

I miss the good ol' food from home so I had to get it on a stick.

At one point in the night they said this countdown and the kids let their balloons go.  They weren't normal balloons because they would hover in the air and float back down once all the air was gone.  It was funny though because if you caught another persons then it was yours.  Yummy kid germs!




It was a learning experience going to the festival and I thought it was very interesting.  I hope your having a good time at home with all those terrible storms I am hearing about.
Love you,
Jake

It's getting hot!

Hi everyone,
I have some pictures from my weekend and some camp stuff.  We got to go zip-lining and it was really hot but it was TONS of fun.  I just want to show you some of the courses I went through and I will put other pictures on from the weekend later.

I just thought this was a pretty view while I was walking to the gym one day.

Oh how I love Sofia :)  That is three bags of monster cookies from my baby.

The start of my day at Forest Adventure.

One of the lines that went pretty far.  You fly on those things.

You had to climb stuff like this to get to the zip line and then you could fly.

One of the ways we got from line to line.  It was a little shaky.

My friend Heidi and I about to go on the zip line.

This was a very difficult course we had to take to finish our day at the park.








Yea...I was pretty much drenched by the end of the day.  The harnesses weren't that comfortable either, they were outlining my crouch region quite nicely.







I had an amazing day zip-lining.  We got back to the barracks and later we went to a Japanese festival.  I will provide pictures of that at a later date.

Love you all,
Jake

Okinawa

Sorry I haven't been up to date with all my posts but here are a couple pictures from field trips and weekends.

This is part of pineapple park which shows the process of growing pineapple.  Then after that process you get to taste the food :)

Mr. Marlin and myself enjoying a child's birthday cake and ice cream they brought to camp.

A puffer fish I found on the side of the beach, but I saved it and it puffed up as I put it back in the water. 

A nice hot day spent at the beach.

Yea I would say it's getting a little hot.

The dolphin show at the second largest aquarium in the world.

The fish tank had to be the biggest thing I had ever seen that could hold all that fish.

They had a lot of flowers in the shape of animals.  My kids got on top and wanted a picture.  I wonder if Edward Scissorhands had anything to do with this...








I am enjoying my time here and am always excited to see the new stuff Okinawa has to offer.
Love always,
Jakob

Good Ol' Oki

Here are some pictures from the weekend as well as some of the fourth :)

The city of Naha lit up at night.  It was quite the view.

Thank god for funnel cakes :) 

Heck yes I won an inflatable sword at the fair.

These were some ugly ducks at the dam but they were very friendly.

More of the scenery here in Okinawa.

Oooohhhh...awwww.

A gift from the Koreans back in the 15th century.  This is an important part of Naha and its importance.  It connected us to a building where they worshiped a Buddha.














I hope the weather is okay back at home and everyone is having a good summer.
Love lots,
Jake