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.

Side Note: Toilets...

Okay, so I forgot in my last post to state that I walked into another Japanese innovation in my travels. Something so advanced, something that is a facet of everyday life. The thunder mug, the john, the infamous toilet... This toilet had more buttons on it than most tv remotes. Exaggeration yes, far off no. It has buttons that make noises so when someone breaks wind people can't hear it. Oh also, the seats themselves are heated! Now here is the dilemma, I myself prefer a simple toilet, do your thing, flush, go about your business. But I can see where the heated seat would be nice. I mean no one likes to in the middle of winter be the first person in the morning to sit on the kamode. I mean it's so cold the shock itself has you on the ceiling. So yeah, good idea. 

Okinawa Week One

So the flying was pretty uneventful. I ran into Patrick Stewart as I was heading to my next gate in Salt Lake City. For those of you who don't know, he is most famous for playing Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Xavier in the X-men movie trilogy. I smiled and said hello, he said hello back but that was about it. Then I spent the next seven hours waiting for my flight. In that time I had a beer, some pizza and watched Monday Night Football. Then I got hit with some bad news. Salt Lake had an hour weather delay meaning that they were limiting the flights coming in and out. The culprit... fog... So our plane was late coming in and if it had to be de-iced I would get into San Francisco at 11:40pm. My plane left at 12:05am. So yeah, 25 minutes to get to the airline counter and through security. Luckily they didn't need to de-ice the plane. So the flight was only a half an hour late. That still put me into the terminal in San Francisco at 11:15pm. I still had to run like hell from Domestic flights to International flights and so on. I barely made the plane. I sat next to a little Japanese woman who glared at me a lot. But that is okay, I tried to sleep through out the trip but, I was woken up every hour for food or something ridiculous. They give you two full meals on the plane. That was sweet. Then I got into Taiwan, waited an hour then flew to Okinawa. Customs and quarantine weren't bad. Once I stepped out of that area Maddie and her mom were there waiting for me.

We then went to the car where I was hit with my first bit of culture. The steering wheel of the car was on the right side. They also drove on the opposite side of the road. Once I got over the fear that we were in the wrong lane and thus were going to get hit, I started taking in the sights. I was a bit overwhelmed with everything. Gone was the sparse areas of Montana where you could drive for 10 minutes and be in the middle of nowhere. In its place were mass amounts of urban sprawl. We drove through the city of Naha on our way to Camp Foster. The thing is, I really have no distinct idea of where one city ends and another begins. It all just seems to be a blend of flashing lights, signs written in Japanese, mixed with various areas of stores and hotels. Afterwards we met up with Maddie's dad and got my passes to get back on base. We then ate at Coco's Curry. It was really good considering it was my first curry experience. Afterwards we got settled in and hung out. The next night we went to the Botanical Gardens to view the lights. It was neat to see all the lights. Christmas we spent here inside the house as it was raining. In fact it didn't stop raining all day. I'm not talking the constant wet drizzle we get in the U.S. but down pouring.

The next day we stopped by a pottery village and checked out all the hand made pottery. Afterwards we checked out, Cape Zampa. The water was rough and it was crashing on the rocks. That was neat to see and feel as the wind blew the spray up at us. Also they have vending machines for everything. It's amazing. They even have hot drinks in them. The fire hydrants are weird too. Basically there is a sign and then a lid in the ground that you pull out.

During the weekend we went to Cape Hedo at the northern point of the island. Again the waters were rough and crashing. The waters are an awesome blue color and watching them crash on the rocks is just something else. Over on the other side we saw a bunch of little fish swimming about. Then we went back a different way through the jungles. There was a bike race or something going on because there were a ton of road bikes that we had to pass.

Monday Maddie and I then checked out Jusco which is like a mallish type place with department stores in it. We also stopped by American Village. I don't know how it's American really but I just went with it. Tuesday we checked out the 100 yen shop which is closely related to a dollar store. They had some silly stuff. Wednesday, Maddie, her mom and I went to Kokusai Street. Basically it's a street of shops and restaurants. They have Habu Sake. Basically they take the habu snakes which is a poisonous viper here on the island that they stick in sake. Apparently it ferments or something and the poison gives it a real kick.

Tonight is New Years Eve. We are going to Peace Prayer Park to see the light show there. They are also lighting a torch. So that will be awesome to see.

Anywho, I have to apologize, everything I have talked about is not in detail, because I've had a lot to experience my first week here. I'll write in more detail later. Stay tuned! Oh and a Happy New Year!!!

Winding Down the Semester

So the end of the semester was like most with one twist. Papers, finals and stress galore plus the added benefit of the Silver Nozzle Competition. What that is, as was explained to us, is a competition where fire teams of three compete against each other for their names being engraved on the Silver Nozzle we have. We would compete in first floor search. This however was not the twist. The twist was that it would be done in the main entrance of the College. It wasn't graded for school but more of a benchmark to see how far along we have come and so on. For some of us, the change was significant and for others, not so much. The one rule we had 100% no give on was nozzle control. Open the hose in the school, you get disqualified. As Dave our instructor said. no one had that problem before.

We rolled up into the parking lot and the hose guy would drag the hose up to the door. We then sounded for victims and pounded for floor integrity. We had to tape a towel to the halligan tool because the floor in the main area of the campus is marble. Forceful pounding and marble don't mix in case you didn't know. Anyway, we made entrance and searched, checking for victims. We found the victim down the end of the first hall. He was a 280lb fire fighter. There is one thing that I learned in the beginning of classes back in September, 280lbs of weight is heavy. There is another thing that I learned in the end of classes here this last Wednesday, 280lbs is still heavy.

We got the victim packaged up and the tool guy started dragging him. As we were pulling him out, the tool guy made it 10 ft before he got tired from dragging the guy. After that it went down hill for our group, Team 4.  Our nozzle guy lost nozzle control. Water sprayed everywhere down the hallway. There was a giant puddle. In our defense the floor needed cleaning. After that I had to take over in dragging the dummy. Now this is where some of us discover how far we've come or not. When I first started, I could not drag 175lb dummy out of a building, much less a 280lb person.

At the competition, I got behind the guy and started pulling. It hurt. My muscles screamed from lack of oxygen and over-exertion. I started sucking air from my mask. I almost got over-excited. But I calmed myself, started to control my breathing and started getting into a beat and pulling the guy out. By the time we were half way back down the 100ft hallway, the tool guy was low on air, as well as the hose guy. We all started at full tanks. By the time we were 80% of the way, they both had to take off their masks. We managed to get the victim out of the building and walk back to the truck before my low air alarm started buzzing. I was amazed. I managed to keep to under a tank of air.

Well needless to say, we got disqualified. It's okay though, because I improved in every way possible. I can control my breathing, I have the endurance I need to move a person out of a building. I can step in and help as needed. It was nice to do.

After that I had to turn in my proposal in for English. Got an A in that, as well as my other classes. So for my first semester in the Fire & Rescue Program I have a 4.0. The test in Incident Command seemed hard but I did way better than I thought I would. I got a Pass in Physical Training because I improved in all four of my baselines. So I feel somewhat accomplished and relieved.

Today we had a party with money we put into the swear jar. We had 58 dollars total. I had one dollar. One kid had $20.75. Dave our instructor, gave us his retirement speech as today is his last day, and sent us off. It was a pretty epic way to end the semester.

Now all I have to look forward to is hanging out in Bozeman for the weekend, then my trip to Japan. I leave Monday. I can't wait. Which reminds me, I need to continue packing. Stay tuned for our international version of Smoke Before Fire. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Obstacle Course, Club Duties and Truck Driving...

So it's taken me a while to get back to the blog to update everyone on my adventures in Fire Fighting. It's been a busy few weeks. One of my co-workers gave me his cold. So I've been dealing with that. We have a lot in store for this blog, I've been busy. Alright, here we go.

So Wednesday of last week was filled with fun. We were in the class room that day and learned about venting and tiers of Incident Command and how they apply to fires; Such as tier two fires becoming tier three fires. Basically that means that when a tier two fire becomes big enough they call in an incident commander who has more experience and can handle the stresses of bigger crews, bigger fires, etc. Thus it becomes a tier 3 fire. While one instructor went over that sort of stuff, the other instructor blindfolded a few of us and explained to us which end of the fire hose faces towards the truck. The male coupling faces towards the truck. We then based on that were told to follow the hose through a hose maze sort of deal. We crawled over a fork lift, crawled under the fire truck and around the drive bay.

After that we had english then PT. PT was a blast. We did part of the CPAT (Candidate Physical Ability Test) for it. We carry hose up, down, and back up flights of stairs. Then we lifted more hose up through a second story window. After that we ran back down stairs and pulled an extension ladder so that it was fully extended it and then let it back down without losing control of the ladder. Then we had to drag the 175lb mannequin about 100 feet then dragged hose and pulled 50 more feet of hose. We were timed to see how fast we could do it. I got 2 minutes 1 second. The fastest time was 1 minute 15 seconds, but that kid took a supplement to increase his stamina and he was jacked on enough caffeine to drop a bull rhino. But average was about two minutes so I was pretty happy about that.

Thursday we had our first meeting of the Fire & Rescue Club. We met at Jorgenson's because the club president works there. We went over the constitution and figured out a little. As the treasurer I am in charge of the clubs finances. I get to buy stuff when needed. After that we closed the meeting.

Friday was sweet because it was the day that we started to learn driving the fire truck and ambulance. I started off with the Ambulance. That wasn't too bad. Basically driving a giant van. We went to the fair grounds so that way I wouldn't maim any people or ducks*. Afterwards I drove the fire truck. That was pretty sweet. It's big but it corners well. The air brakes are a little touchy. I had to back it up and get it close to this parked truck. I did pretty well.

Other than that not much is going on. We have one full week of school left. Then finals week. After that I will be on my way to Japan. I'm really excited. I can't wait. Stay tuned for competition news next week then Jack Does Japan!