Today is Thanksgiving...on a Subtropical Island :)
Today is Thanksgiving.
Although I miss celebrating this day of thanks with family and friends (I love you mom, dad, Leah, Eric, Grandma and Grandpa Specht, Grandma O, and everybody else)—I have to admit that I was pretty darn thankful to be here on this beautiful subtropical island today.
Thanksgiving is also a holiday in Japan, although they do not celebrate the Indians and pilgrims or anything like that, it is more that a work day off. Anyway, because of that we did not have a school visit today. Although I have very, very much enjoyed my time at the schools, it was exciting to have the day to spent touring Miyakojima.
They hired a tour bus to take us all over the island and, although they did not originally have time a beach stop planned, the consistent questioning about the beach encouraged a 10 minute stop at the longest white sand beach in Japan. I should remind you that when they say 10 minutes they mean 10 minutes, the fact that we extended this stop to almost 15 minutes was frustrating to our leaders….but it sure felt darn good to stand in that water. However, we also went to an overlook where you could see the South China Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. I am not sure that the color blue/green that I saw today exists anywhere else in the world. It was amazing.
The weather also held out for us today as well, it was a beautifully sunny day and the temperature was in the low 80’s. It was impressive because it did not rain for the first time until a few minutes ago, at about 10pm. In this climate you ALWAYS need to have your sunglasses and your umbrella with you, when it rains it pours and when it is sunny it is glaring. I have used both almost everyday.
Our day was full of tours and visits to different places-I will discuss more of them individually in different blog entries. Overall, I have to say that being in a subtropical environment on Thanksgiving was something new to me and I have to admit that I did not miss the snow.
Although I miss celebrating this day of thanks with family and friends (I love you mom, dad, Leah, Eric, Grandma and Grandpa Specht, Grandma O, and everybody else)—I have to admit that I was pretty darn thankful to be here on this beautiful subtropical island today.
Thanksgiving is also a holiday in Japan, although they do not celebrate the Indians and pilgrims or anything like that, it is more that a work day off. Anyway, because of that we did not have a school visit today. Although I have very, very much enjoyed my time at the schools, it was exciting to have the day to spent touring Miyakojima.
They hired a tour bus to take us all over the island and, although they did not originally have time a beach stop planned, the consistent questioning about the beach encouraged a 10 minute stop at the longest white sand beach in Japan. I should remind you that when they say 10 minutes they mean 10 minutes, the fact that we extended this stop to almost 15 minutes was frustrating to our leaders….but it sure felt darn good to stand in that water. However, we also went to an overlook where you could see the South China Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. I am not sure that the color blue/green that I saw today exists anywhere else in the world. It was amazing.
The weather also held out for us today as well, it was a beautifully sunny day and the temperature was in the low 80’s. It was impressive because it did not rain for the first time until a few minutes ago, at about 10pm. In this climate you ALWAYS need to have your sunglasses and your umbrella with you, when it rains it pours and when it is sunny it is glaring. I have used both almost everyday.
Our day was full of tours and visits to different places-I will discuss more of them individually in different blog entries. Overall, I have to say that being in a subtropical environment on Thanksgiving was something new to me and I have to admit that I did not miss the snow.
posted by Dana Specht @ 5:58 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
BEAUTIFUL PICTURES!!!!
I agree the beach in the pictures seem such a pretty shade of blue/green... and you did seem so happy... Japanese climate is quite different from ours currently... though it's not snowing here yet (thank God!). Enjoy the glaring sun, and short rainfalls while you can, and don't forget to download the beautiful scenery and experiences in your photographic memory (hopefully you have one!) But that's why you have a camera! See you later!
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