It's Raining..It's Pouring..The Typhoon is Coming..

TYPHOON MUIFA! 

Swim lessons were cancelled at TCCOR 2, we typhoon-proofed the pool deck, the storm switched to TCCOR-1 early this morning and now it has finally reached TCCOR-1C (Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness-1 Caution) which means that the entire base is on lockdown. No one can enter or leave, and we’re stuck inside for the next couple of days; the perfect opportunity to catch up on movies and eat plenty of Japanese junk food. Just as long as this weather clears up before the weekend, I don’t wanna spend one of my last weekends in Japan inside a hotel room!

I am proud to say that I am now scuba certified! …newest member of the scuba squad. 1 day book work + 1 day of practicing skills in the pool + 2 amazing dives in the ocean. This makes me really not want to head back to Iowa, I’m assuming diving in the Mississippi doesn’t quite compare to the East China Sea or Pacific Ocean. Rather than seeing colorful fish and coral with great visibility, I’m assuming I would see a lot of beer cans from partying campers. After the first dive, I realized that I have dive rage…(kind of like road rage).  However, this is much worse because it’s really difficult to get your point across under water. There were quite a few instances when I could barely keep myself from showing our dive instructor the middle finger or yanking on my director’s mask when she knocked my regulator out of my mouth; all nonverbal ways of showing hostility at a depth of 40 feet.

Karaoke: Okinawan style is a little more interesting than back home. You come with a group of friends and get an entire room to yourself with a computerized karaoke system and television. Someone needs to bring this method back to the States. We spent a night out at karaoke with the Kadena lifeguards, and they're a pretty impressive group of karaoke-ers. If it was an event at the Okinawa Guard Games, I have no doubt that Kadena would take home the gold.

So..Yoko has been absent from our room for the last three days; no clean towels and my bed hasn’t been made. I'm starting to get worried about her and this is just a taste of what it’s going to be like when I get home. I’ve grown accustomed to maid service so in 3 weeks when I head back to the real world, it’s going to be a rude awakening. 1 session of swim lessons, 1 week of teaching GuardStart, and a whole lot of packing til I'll be catching the plane home.