Apparently Tommy Lee Jones is the sponsor for BOSS vending machines, which can be found all over Japan, on almost every street corner. I happened to frequent these vending machines quite often, due the fact that I was craving sugar and caffeine from a lack of coffee and, well, sweet stuff in general. My uncle Yoshito found it pretty funny how much soda I drank while I was there, which by my standards wasn't even that much!
On our way to go scuba diving, we stopped at Kadena Air Force Base, the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Far East.
Once we arrived at the scuba diving place, we walked around a little bit and found a local fish market/restaurant and this... a 140-lb. tuna fish!
My half sister Sarang, 12, on the far left, and my sister Kayla, 19, in the middle. 
Checking out the catches of the day.
We had to wait around for the only English-speaking instructor. Our "training" was simply a 15-minute presentation with no tests. He is showing us how to breathe through the tube in the picture above. He showed us the hand signals and taught us how to pop our ears underwater, and before we knew it we were on the boat and on our way!
Ready to go!
On my way down. Had some trouble popping my ears so I had to ask the instructor to stop a few times on our descent. And all of the underwater pics are thanks to my uncle!
A whale shark, the largest shark species and biggest fish in the sea!
There are two whale sharks here.
From left to right: Sarang, Yoshito, me and Kayla.
Yes, we got to touch the whale sharks, we were that close!
Me, on the left, and my sister Kayla.
On the boat ride back, happy to be above water!
The now experienced scuba divers.As you can see by the pictures, scuba diving in Okinawa was amazing and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. By the time we were finished, it was lunch time and we were starving, so we of course ate at the local fresh fish market restaurant! And it was by far the best meal I had while in Okinawa.
The menu.
The menu.
My mom had black squid ink soup for lunch (pictured above). This was the only thing I didn't try in Okinawa. A little much for me! My lunch, however was quite delicious (pictured below), and consisted of sweet shrimp, salmon eggs, squid, octopus, salmon, tuna and mackerel... for a whopping $9! A meal like that would have easily cost over $30 if not more in the United States!
My mom, her brother, and the sweet shrimp.After lunch we did a little exploring along the beach, and I'll post those pictures later this week!
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A whale shark is indeed a shark. Sorry. Nice pictures nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I should have researched it a little more before this post, I was just taking my uncle's word via my mom's translation... which apparently didn't translate correctly. :)
ReplyDeleteI think what he was trying to say is that its eating habits and gentle nature are much different from what you think of as "typical" sharks, like the great white, tiger or hammerhead sharks. But thanks for pointing that out to me!
my wife and i are going to okinawa this March, we so very excited!! if you dont think its weird or anything, could you tell me some hints, places, pointers, restaurants,exploring, ect. were going near the Air Force Base. Email me at jackchet@isu.edu Thank you for any help you may have! thank you! my name is chet.
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