Splish, Splash....

One thing that you have to know about Okinawa is that it's HOT.  Really hot.  And humid.  Very, very humid.  Some days you walk outside and instantly you're dripping with sweat and your hair has transformed into the 1970's afro dream come true.

How do you like my new look?

Ok, so I'm exaggerating a leeee-tle bit.  But seriously, it's very hot.  And I'm from Florida, so I'm used to the heat AND the humidity, but nothing has prepared me for the sauna in which I live day in and day out.  The kids and I have spent the last few weeks scoping out several pools and one beach in an effort to get out of the house and not pass out from heat exhaustion. 

I'll begin with our beach visit.  We wanted to play it safe so we ventured out to the beach on an Army Base here called Torii Station.  I'm about to commit Okinawa heresy for saying this, but I was not too impressed with the one beach we visited.  I'll start off with the positives...the water was the clearest water I've ever seen and it was a gorgeous beach.  And we found some beautiful shells and pieces of coral.  Emma even found this little guy, who Mary lovingly named Hermie and who was mysteriously "lost" right before we had to go home : 

For all its beauty, this was not a sandy beach.  The beach itself is made primarily of crushed-up coral, so while most of it feels like sand, every now and then you'd step on a piece that wasn't quite crushed up enough and...ouch!  And as you wade into the water you have to be especially vigilant that you don't step on a sharp piece of coral.  Makes it a little hard to frollic carelessly in the ocean.   Not to be outsmarted by coral, I vowed to find some cute little water shoes that would protect our feet from coral abuse.  I had visions of walking around the beach in these cuties: 

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.  Before hitting the "Buy" button, I spoke with a new friend who's been on the island for a while.  She advised me that those cute shoes would get torn up in the coral.  Not only that...apparently there's this lovely creature here called a stone fish, which, well....looks like a stone.  It camoflauges itself very well on the rocks and it's the deadliest fish in the world!  (At which point I thought, "What kind of a death trap has Bill brought us to?  I'm never getting in the water again!)   The cute LL Bean shoes are no match for the stone fish as its deadly spikes would poke right through the bottom of the shoe and it'd be Game Over for the unsuspecting beach goer.  However, there's a way outsmart even the deadly stone fish, but it requires wearing these lovely pieces of footwear that have a thick piece of felt (or some non-penatrative material) on the bottom. 

So, coral and the dangerous stone fish (and the required footwear) were the first two strikes against this beach.  But, as we sat (on a well folded towel) on the sand coral, I realized something was missing.  It was way too quiet.   Then I realized there were no waves at this beach.   No Waves?  What kind of a beach is this?  In my book, it's not a beach unless you're being lulled into peacefulness by the unending rhythm of the waves.  This is just not going to do.  I know there are beaches with waves on this island because surfing is a big thing around here.  So even if I have to strap on my ugly shoes, I will find that beach! 


In addition to the bad beach, we've also visited several pools on the island.  Each military base has one or many pools, each with varying amenities.  We had been told that some of the pools even had HIGH DIVES!  Some of you reading this are too young to remember, but back in day before overzealous lawyers and paranoid pool owners, it was not too uncommon to go to the deep end of a pool and find a board that people used to jump into the water, also known as The Diving Board.   Most of the boards were about 1 meter high (aka the LOW dive) but if you were lucky your pool would have a board about 3 meters high or even higher! (aka the HIGH dive.)  Going off the high dive was a rite of passage for my generation.  Nowadays many pools think they're cool with their fancy, schmancy waterslides, but the slide is no match for the thrill of flying through the air off a high dive.  At any rate, this is Okinawa -- Land of Dangerous Children's Equipment -- so High Dives were par for the course.  When we finally found a pool with a high dive, the kids could not be kept away.  The only requirements for using the diving boards was that the diver had to have passed a swim test, and his or her mother had to have nerves of steel.  Our three older kids had already passed the swim test, so they immediately made a beeline for the high dive.  For your viewing pleasure, here's a brief glimpse of their high dive show.  You'll see one kid who may have a future in diving.  The others... not so much. 

Bill had been off playing with his jungle friends for most of these last two weeks,  but he was finally able to join us yesterday.  Even he couldn't resist the temptation of the diving board and did attempt to relive his glory days of high school diving.  Afterward,  (as he hobbled back to the shallow end of the pool) he described it as a "young man's game" that should only be pursued by those whose shoulders and knees can take the abuse. 

Luckily, the pool will remain open on the weekends until October, so we're looking forward to several more high dive shows.  In the meantime we're frantically preparing ourselves for the next big adventure:  SCHOOL!