4th of July in Japan!

Last week was the 4th of July week, and we didn't have to work on Wednesday! Our curfew on Tuesday night was changed to 1pm.. since we didn't have work the next morning. We met up with a few of our Marine friends, and went to dinner. Then we went to Kadena, an air force base, and watched an awesome firework show! There were thousands of people gathered there, and the show was really awesome! The entire show seemed like a finale, I was amazed. After the fireworks, the boys wanted to take us to a Japanese karaoke place. Well, it was definitely an experience. Basically you rent a room for however many people you are with and get unlimited songs, drinks, and food. It was really fun! Us girls aren't scared to sing and we had a good ol' time singing for the boys. It was so much fun. The next day, on the 4th.. we had a full day of adoptions planned. Adoptions in Camp Adventure are where staff or parents ask to take certain Camp A staff to go and do activities or cook them dinner, etc. We got adopted by a little girl named Addison. The lunch her parents cooked for all of us was so delicious, and then we went snorkeling. The tide was very long, so it was kinda dangerous. I sliced my heal open on some coral, and a few of the girls got stabbed by a sea urchen. Breanna got a piece of urchen stuck in her finger, and so did Addison's mom. Scary! It was still fun, and we saw a lot of fish. After that, we went back to Addison's house and her mom has baked a homemade cake and even had homemade vanilla ice cream. It was the best. thing. ever. After that, we headed to Miss Tammy's house. Miss Tammy is a tech at the children's center, and she is kinda in charge of everything. They were having a soul food style bbq grillout. There was chicken, ribs, mac n cheese and a lot more. It was so good.. definitely a huge difference from the Japanese food we had been eating for weeks before that. 

This past weekend was a pretty chill one. We had a lot planned, but ended up just hanging out and beachin' it up. Which was totally okay with me! Breanna, Shelby, Kenzie and I stayed all weekend at Andy and Justin's beach house because we love it there so much. Me and Breanna shared the comfortable guest bed.. which was so much better than the beds in the barracks! :) On Saturday, we went snorkeling and saw some really awesome fish. I also started collecting sea glass. Back in the states, sea glass isn't very common.. but basically it is glass .. such as bottles or jars .. that has been broken down in the ocean and worn down so much that it is small and smooth like a colorful rock. Sea glass can most commonly be found in white, brown, light blue, green but I even found 1 dark blue piece, and 1 red piece. It was pretty awesome, and it's also pretty easy to find because it is very pretty colors! We visited a few other beaches and went out to dinner at a few places. I sent my first package home to Mom & Dad and it contains a lot of really cool stuff from Okinawa! I hope they like it! Tomorrow is Friday, and the last day of the 4th week of camp! Crazy to think that I am now halfway done with my trip.. and it's very bittersweet because the time is definitely flying by. We only have 5 weekends left to do and see everything that we want to do.. which isn't very long at all! 

This weekend we are staying in a Hostel in Naha (The biggest Okinawan city) on Friday the 13th.. creepy. Then we will be shopping around, and checking out the city since it's supposed to be pretty awesome. Apparently Kokosai street has a lot of fun shops and good restaurant so that will be really exciting to explore! Then, on Saturday morning.. if the weather is nice.. we are taking a 2 hour ferry ride to the Karama Islands. We will be staying in Tokoshiki and camping out on the beach which I am very excited about. I'm sure it will be VERY hot, and also lots of bugs but it's gonna be totally worth it! I will make sure to post a blog about everything that happens.