The First Week Back... School Thus Far... New Job Prospects

So it has been a week since I arrived stateside. I had a hard time the first few days I was back adjusting back to a normal sleep schedule. When I first got back I slept for three hours, was awake for four then passed out for another four hours. This happened for most of the week. One day I took three naps. But enough about my sleeping. When I got back it was warm. Relatively, that is. It was 40 degrees. It was nice because it let me get used to being cold again after weeks of 60+ degrees. Now it's snowing and we have a Winter Storm Warning through Sunday. 

School started off with a bang. Okay not really. It started on Tuesday at 7:00am with Emergency Apparatus Maintenance. Basically I get to be a diesel mechanic for six weeks. It's kind of cool though, because we get to go through the whole fire truck and fix it. After that we had Electronic Communications. We spent the first two classes learning the International Phonetic Alphabet. To learn it we got to do a word find. Yes, I am in college and yes, I did a word find. I finished my school day with Basic Microsoft Office. I learned about what a computer is which is good too because I was on the fence about it. Wednesday we had PT and Hazmat. I found out I will be certified in the operations level of hazmat. Preventative stuff for the most part. I'll write more on each as I get further into the classes because so far we've just touched on syllabi. 

So Thursday I applied for an EMT-B job in Montana City which is 5 minutes south of Helena. The company is Eagle Ambulance. They do contract stuff with the V.A. Medical Center in Fort Harrison and St. Peter's Hospital. They also do a lot of transport stuff with nursing homes too. They also do 911 calls for parts of Helena. So yeah just a background. I filled out my application and talked to one of the main guys in charge. I got a phone call today saying that I start Monday. It will be sweet. I get to practice my Basic skills and will learn my endorsements that will put me to the equivalent of an EMT-I-85. I'll be able to start IVs and so on. I start that job on Monday. 

Other than that it has been a busy week of trying to get back to normal. I find myself missing Japan more than I thought I would. But thats par for the course. Stay tuned for my first day as a paid EMT! 

An Okinawa Recap... Coming Home.

The Recap


There are times in everyone's life when they are presented with chances to do something out of their comfort zone. Something that can impact them in ways that even they themselves might not fully grasp for sometime. I believe that this trip to Japan was one of those times in my life. When I first got there I was overwhelmed by the concrete jungle with an actual jungle backdrop. The amount of people in one area was daunting. Everything seemed backwards to what I was used to, to what I expected. I spoke no Japanese so when stuff was said to me I just smiled and nodded. By the end I had a few phrases down. I tell you though, that either way going to Japan would have been an experience, but thanks to Maddie and her family it became something entirely more meaningful. Here is what I discovered in the 25 short days I was in Okinawa:

~ I love curry.
~ I still can't get over the colors of the Ocean.
~ I look at our vending machines and just sigh. Hey America, hot beverages and soups can be in vending machines!
~ Animals are 3x the size of American Animals. Fruit bats are the size of small dogs.
~ Shorts in January is nice.
~ You don't need to get to where you need to be as fast as you humanly can. It will still be there at a later time.
~ Being on a ferris wheel during a rainy, windy day causes you to re-evaluate that being a good idea.
~ For American bases you have to have a pass for everything.
~ Taking off your shoes in public places feels nice.
~ Plus many more things that I will continue to eventually talk about as I remember it down the road.

Okinawa was an amazing place. I spent the days I was there without my cell phone. Of course I checked my email, but if I didn't want to, I didn't have to. There was American tv, but we didn't have to watch. I guess it could be said that the same thing could happen here, but it's different. My favorite thing was getting ready in the mornings, jumping in the van, and rolling out to our next adventure. Driving everywhere was also an adventure. We got lost or went down different ways, Tensions were high, but it was mostly directed at the fact that there were no signs, or no signs in english. Usually ending up in all of us getting a good laugh out of it.

Museums were awesome. The castles were amazing. The history that happened in those very spots made me feel small, and not significant. I mean you hear people say that, but hundreds of years worth of battles, love, loss, death, despair, prosperity happened in those very spots about 250 years before the United States was even an idea. The Memorial site for the Battle of Okinawa was the same way in that knowing what happened on that island during World War II leaves you feeling somewhat humbled.

The food was interesting, a lot of it being in the pretty good to awesome category. I tried sushi for the time. Not the cooked California roll, fake crab stuff that restaurants do here stateside but fresh Yellowtail Tuna. Curry is awesome. I have found a sauce that makes rice more amazing. The sesame seed salad dressing I brought back is very tasty. They have crepe shops where you can get crepes with some sort of sweets in it.

I went to my very first real aquarium. That blew my mind. I wrote about it before and in case you missed it you can view that here.

So as I reflect about the whole trip, I've found that I miss Okinawa. I miss seeing Maddie everyday and I miss hanging out with her family. But I gotta plug along, she'll be back soon enough. It was an amazing escape, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity making a greater impact thanks to the people I spent my time there with. I will remember everything I did, and I will think about being in Okinawa often. It was an amazing experience and something I wouldn't change. No matter how much I try, I don't think I could explain how awesome the trip was. I loved every moment of it. I think about it a lot, and I miss it. Now for the trip back.

The Trip Back...


So the trip back was not too eventful. I had to go through security with my bags just to get to the ticket counter. They set up my planes so I had an aisle seat. I like those because I can stretch out one of my legs. Plus with the long flight back I like being able to get up and walk around without crawling over people. I got into Taiwan and loaded up on the internet. I talked to Maddie and she told me right after I left they were hit with a decent sized earthquake. But she will probably write about that. I sat around for 3 hours waiting for my flight. I got on the plane and decided to try and sleep. That didn't work out well because I kept getting woken up to eat, or the jerk flight attendant kept bumping into me as I was sleeping. The flight wasn't as long as I thought. It was supposed to be around 11 hours but it only took nine hours. We flew up and around Alaska on the way there. On the way back we flew straight across the Pacific. Luckily I didn't know that until after we got close to California. The food was alright but it's definitely not something to write home about.

I got into San Francisco an hour earlier than I was planning. Which was good because Immigration and Customs took forever. Actually waiting for my bags took forever, going through Customs, not so much. Afterwords I met up with a buddy of mine who drove up from San Jose. We went and got food at a North Beach Pizzeria then watched Avatar. That was a brilliantly done movie and I recommend anyone to see it. Then we drove to a Travel Lodge and I passed out. I woke up 3ish hours later to get onto a plane home. I got some good coffee from the gate I flew out of. After that it was pretty straight forward. I flew home. I came home, unpacked and relaxed. I managed to stay awake until 10:30p.

My sleep schedule is sort of screwed up. As you can tell I'm writing this at 4am. Well I woke up the following morning at 3am then made it to 10:30am and passed out again. I'm exhausted.

So yeah, that's about it in a nut shell. It's back to reality. This break went by so quickly it seems as if I was dreaming and I had to wake up. I got to spend 3 fabulous weeks with someone I really care about, and the 1600 pictures tells me it wasn't a dream. I wouldn't change it, not a single moment. So there it is. Okinawa, Japan, a place full of history, a place full of amazement and a place that will be forever in my memory. It's been an interesting ride.

The American Village

So yesterday (Tuesday the 12th) Maddie and I ventured down to the American Village. As I have stated before I don't really know how American it actually is but it was fine. We started our "American" adventure with a trip to A&W. It looked nice from the outside with drive up areas where you could park and order. Then an A&W worker would bring food to you. As neither Maddie nor I can really drive anywhere meaning we have to walk everywhere, we opted to go inside. They had a bunch of burgers and such. They also had different types of food. They had a teriyaki burger and a sweet and sour pork sandwich. I got the Super Mozza Burger that was being advertised. Maddie got the Melty Rich burger that had tartar sauce on it. Good thing she got the double too, because the burgers were TINY. As we were leaving I tried to ring the bell for good service but I failed at that. Yeah, I failed at ringing a bell. Don't ask me how, because I have no idea.

We then walked over to the actual American Village area where they had the ferris wheel. We had been planning to go on that since before I got to Okinawa. So we ventured onto it. We bought tickets for 500 yen a piece or about 5 dollars American. Now let me set up the scene for you guys at home,. Yesterday, it was overcast. Dark overcast. There was wind that pelted you with water droplets. When I say wind I mean gusty. As you will see from the pictures it was windy enough to create nasty surf conditions. But anyway, from the bottom of the ferris wheel the weather didn't seem so bad. From inside a box half the size of a ski resort gondola it seemed scary as hell. The wind shook us a little bit and while we were fine the wind shaking us about kind of made us nervous. The view was pretty amazing, the China Sea with it's teal blues and greens of color was covered in vicious whitecaps that invited injury to anyone stupid enough to venture out into the water. I don't know how high up were were, but the ferris wheel stands on top of a 3 story mall at its base. So including that we were up pretty high.

After we got back down and vowed never to do that again we went and shopped a little bit. Being my last few days in Okinawa I wanted a keychain or some other touristy item to secure the memories made on this trip. What can I say, I'm a sucker for being a tourist. Anyway, we were walking along and saw these Doctorfish as it was advertised. Fish that when you stick your feet in the water will eat the dead skin and what not off your feet. Maddie and I were reluctant to try it at first but we figured, where else in the world are we going to do it and why not. At first it tickled. The fish were bitting and sucking on our feet and it eventually started to feel like a massage. Maddie didn't like the big fish on her and would shoo them away with the flick of her feet. Some of the fish pinched a little. Afterwards our feet felt soft and tingly. It was an interesting experience.

We then walked along these areas of different shops. They did have more American brands so I guess that's why the call it the American Village. Maddie found a candy store where I got these packets that when you add water they look like beer. They weren't beer. One tasted like pineapple. Afterwards we went to Yogurt Land. Basically it was the Golden Corral of frozen yogurts. You go in, pick your flavor. Put it in either the large bowl or the extra large bowl and add toppings. They had a variety of yogurt flavors. I got tiramisu and Maddie got a mix of double cookies and coconut. Then came the toppings. I added caramel, oreos, cheesecake and Maddie added cheesecake, oreos, nuts and caramel. I spilled mine accidentally. Nobody saw though so I was in the clear.

After buying an Okinawan t-shirt, computer mouse pads you could put photos and such into and doing the photo picture booth thing, we went home and got ready to do the Water Aerobics. Tonight we are going to do sushi and try another different restaurant out. Can't wait. Stay tuned for when I get back to the states to wind down my very first international trip. A trip of a lifetime, a trip to Okinawa!

The Peace Prayer Park and Storming More Castles

Saturday and Sunday we spent a lot of time hitting up some historical sites. Saturday we went to the Peace Prayer Park. It is the memorial site for those who died in the Battle of Okinawa. 240,000 was the last count. They had a fountain that had a torch in the middle of it that represented Okinawa. They also have marble stones with the names of everyone who died there.Then they had a bunch of monuments. That night we went to Thai in the Sky, I know, I know, we've eaten at a lot of restaurants in the sky. They've both had killer views though. The Indonesian Beef Curry, was a level three spice factor. It was angry. It tasted so good but it was so hot. Maddie decided that she was going to have green curry. It had a rating of seven peppers. Blistering can't describe how angry it was. After we ate, we went home and relaxed a bit.

Sunday we hit up two different castle ruins. Unlike the last castle that was restored and all fancy looking, these were more stones and ruins. They were neat. The first castle, Katsuren Castle, was used up until 1458 when it was destroyed because Amawari, the aji (castle lord) decided he was going to attack the main castle and usurp the throne. This however did not work and lead to the destruction of Katsuren. It was neat to see. They  mostly had just stairs and walls but knowing the history and knowing that it happened right under my feet was kind of daunting. The top of the castle had a good 360 degree view which afforded good views all the way around.

The second castle we went to was the castle that Amawari successfully captured in his campaign to take over Okinawa. This one had more archways and ruins to it meaning that it was more intact. We walked through and it had some amazing views.One of the walls had a gecko in it that Maddie had her head about an inch away from. I wasn't there at that point but she said she screamed.  This castle had a view of the "haunted hotel/resort" behind it. Apparently japanese workers started randomly dying when making this hotel and being a very superstitious lot they stopped working on it. A mainland Japan company decided to take over and finish it, but they started randomly dying to, so it never was finished. It looked abandoned and erie so we left it alone. That was about it for that day. It had been an exhausting weekend so we took it easy for that evening.

Other than that Maddie and I have been just hanging out and spending time with each other before I leave back to the States. Apparently traveling in the states is going to be a lot more fun thanks to random terrorists and government lack of efficiency. No this is not me showing my political standpoint, just stating what happened. Maddie and I hit up the American Village yesterday and I will write on that here in a little bit. So stay tuned.

New Looks, Markets and Island Touring

So it's 2010. A time for bringing in the new. As you can see Smoke Before Fire has had some plastic surgery. I was looking at my posts the other day and I realized that I kind of had a lot going on the site. So I decided to de-clutter it a little bit. Here when I get stateside I'll finish up the site I have with my information. Anywho, these past four days have been rather busy. I don't think we stopped going all weekend. But that is alright, it was my last weekend here in Okinawa.

Friday we decided to visit the Awase Fish Market and the Vegetable Market. The fish market was kind of cool because it had a lot of fresh fish, but I've been told that they usually have a lot more. There were squid and octopus tentacles. They even had giant prawn to buy. We bought fresh tuna and had tuna steaks that night. I even witnessed trail mix with dried fish in it. Afterwards we drove on over to the Vegetable Market. There were a bunch of older folk there getting stuff. When the men wanted something, they clapped at the people who worked there. They would also stuff as many bean sprouts into a bag as possible. They did so because it was a set price per bag.

Later that day we went on a tour of some islands west of Okinawa. They were neat. We tried to find a castle there but it turned out there was just a monument where it used to be. After that we ended up going to this really nice beach that had giant shells on it. I'll take a picture of those and post them here this week. But yeah, it was a nice time to just walk along the beach and search for shells.

Next time I'll write on hitting up the Peace Prayer Park in the day time and the castle storming we did yesterday. So stay tuned!

The Churami Aquarium

So yesterday we had to get up early. We had a big day ahead of us. We were going to the Churami Aquarium, second biggest aquarium in the world. We got there around ten thirty or so after hitting up the local family mart. We bought our tickets there because it was cheaper. That and we got coupons. There was also a winning ticket that one a thermos cup that doubled as a water bottle from the aquarium gift shop. That was cool. Saved 570 yen. Once we got there we went in and the view was amazing. Stairs after stairs leading down to one of those sidewalk fountains that squirted water in various patterns. In the background was an island with a rock that looked like a volcano. The water being a teal blue crashing onto the beaches. It was windy and overcast and you could feel rain droplets every so often but it didn't downpour. We thought we were lost but ended up talking to a lady that didn't speak very much English and she pointed us in the right direction.

The entrance was pretty standard.The first exhibit was a petting zoo type area where you could feel starfish and other sea creatures. Afterwards we started in the upper coral reef area. There were blue fish. Angel Fish that ranged from striped white and black to yellow. As we walked further down we got more and more into the deeper reef areas. There was a sea turtle, sharks, humphead wrasses, blowfish, etc. In fact, to save time I will just give a general overview list of the fish I saw in these tanks.

• Bicolor parrot fish
• Sapphire Devil
• Horned Starfish
• A lazy shark of sorts (there is an official name but I forget)
• Plus a whole bunch of other fish
  that would take a long time to name

We then got lower into the reefs. We saw giant lobsters that appeared to be over two feet in length. They were Painted Spiny Lobsters. Then we saw various smaller tanks that had crabs, clown fish, lionfish, sea horses and various other fish.

The next room is what makes the aquarium to be able to boast as being the second biggest in the world. It has the second largest single pane viewing class in the world. It was thick, about 600 plus millimeters thick. They had giant Manta rays, and whale sharks. That was amazing to see. There was an area where you could go under the tank and look up at the fish swimming over head.

Then we hit the end of the trail through there by going into the gift shop. I was going to get something from there but as always the only things they have in gift shops. Trinkets and stuffed animals. I don't mind looking at the stuff, but it's kind of hard to buy the stuff. Especially when I have all the pictures I've taken to make up for it.So far the picture count is 1,600 or so. Anywho, we hit up some food then went to the dolphin tanks where they were doing a dolphin show. We saw that and those mammals can shoot up high in the air. Afterwards we went to see the sea-turtles. They were draining the sea-turtle tanks to clean them but not before one of the turtles swam over to check me out. Then we checked out the Manatees. They were cool. One just liked to do barrel roll after barrel roll around the tank.

We hit up the dream center, which was a big flower area. Think lots of green houses with a lot, and by a lot I mean flowers covered everything. But I will probably come back here and link to Maddie's blog when she writes more about it. Not that it wasn't awesome, but she's into flowers and such a bit more.

We finished off the day with a Restaurant that was called Pizza in the Sky. It was a nice little place with an amazing view. Basically, when you ordered pizza, or salad, you got the salad of the day, or the pizza of the day. No ordering your own toppings and so forth. The pizza was made with loads of cheese and various meats. It even had corn on it, which was my first time with that vegetable on a pizza. It was really tasty. I also got to try sake for the first time. It was an apricot sake, and it was really strong, but tasted really good. Sometimes it had a cough medicine after taste to it, but I managed to drink most of it with help from Maddie and her parents.

We drove home and passed out early that night because we were exhausted from a day of walking.

I have more to post in the next few days on the Awase Fish Market, the Vegetable Market and castle storming and I could do it now, but I think it would be best if I broke it into chunks. So stay tuned.

New Year's Eve, Beach Walking and Storming Castles

Well it's official. 2010 is here and whether you say twenty-ten or two thousand ten one thing is for certain, 2009 is gone. I don't know where it went, but it sure felt as if it didn't stay long. I could do a year in review for everyone or stuff to expect in the upcoming year but I'll spare you. We all know how 2009 was with the economy, celebrity deaths, politics, etc. No need to be reminded of it in detail. I don't know what 2010 has in store. I'll get 3/4 of school out of the way. People will be coming and going and a bunch of people will be getting married. So yeah, not including the stuff I can't predict, busy year.

For us ushering in 2010 was different. We had heard that there was going to be a fireworks show boasting 10,000 fireworks but we decided to bag that for something a little more cultural. We went to the Peace Prayer Park which is a memorial site for those who lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa during WWII. There was a movie about it, in Japanese then speeches. Then during the lighting of the 7 candles they had there a lady sang. Afterwards everyone went outside to where they lowered a flaming wreathe to a torch down below. People lined up to light mini torches then went up to the main torch and stood in a circle. After everyone was in the circle they counted down to Midnight then lit the center torch. Singing and merry making commenced after that while others rang a giant bell.

The next day we went to a beach during low tide to check out the tide pools and look for shells. We saw a lot of sea urchins and sea cucumbers. What was really cool was the two crabs we saw. One had hairy-like legs and the other one was green and spotted and blended in with the algae. However, with the blue moon being New Years Day, the tides were pretty extreme so the tide was coming in, in a rapid pace. We then went to Cape Manzamo and looked around. The views of the waters around here are amazing .When the sun hits the water just right you get some awesome colors of blue.

We tried to hit some tide pools on the 2nd but we missed low tide. It was okay though because we hung out and walked on the beach. In the water there were about 10 - 15 people kite surfing. With the winds blowing they were moving along pretty fast. One guy lost his board. That was sad.

Sunday, we went to Shuri Castle which was the castle used by the royal family. Being that there were still New Year's celebrations going on there were a lot of people there. They had a stage with various Japanese dances going on and it interesting to see the different styles. After that we went into the castle. We had to take our shoes off as to not track dirt and such through out the castle. There were various parts of the castle we weren't allowed to take pictures of. We went through the gardens and throne room. They had a glass floor in spots to see down to where some of the original foundation was. They even had the original fountain head dating back from the early 1500's pouring water into the spring there. A lot of history going on. * There was a point too where you could over look the surrounding areas. It was used to monitor the seas for sea traffic and potential threats to the empire.

Other than that, we're doing the beach thing some more and hanging out. We are going to the Peace Prayer Park during the day this week so I can see the monuments and such. We are also going to the Ocean Expo Park this week, which I've heard is the second biggest aquarium in the world. So yeah pretty stoked to do that. But I need to get going it's time to clean shells and what not. Stay tuned for more Oceanic adventures of our international edition of Smoke Before Fire!

* - Paragraphs and descriptions don't do the actual viewing and experiences justice. To fully understand how epic it is, one must visit the sites and experience everything themselves.