Merii Kurisumasu!

Well, we sure hope Santa can find us! This Christmas the Hosea family is on Okinawa, Japan. I say “on” because we are living on an island. Okinawa is the largest of the 161 islands that constitute the Ryukyu Islands with a population of approximately 1.4 million. There are 44 inhabited and 117 uninhabited islands. Okinawa is the name for the island of Okinawa (Okinawa Shima), the name of the 47th prefecture of Japan (Okinawa Ken). The capital city is Naha. The kanji characters for Okinawa mean "offshore rope". Okinawa can be found between mainland Japan and Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean and is considered an International resort destination. It is found in the same latitude zone as Hawaii, Florida and the Bahamas and is the only prefecture that is located in a subtropical climate zone near what I call the Tropic of Skin Cancer. The average annual temperature is 72.3 F. Winter averages 60.8 F and never gets below 50 F. Don’t let that AVERAGE temp fool you. It is so hot and humid here it makes sticking your head in the oven feel comfortable. High temps can be in the upper-90s and lower-100s. Okinawa is 60 miles long, 2 to 28 miles wide and is accessible by air or sea. The island is a 2 ½ hour flight from Tokyo and 2 from Osaka. The Okinawans grow sugarcane, sweet potatoes and rice and live to be 135. LOL Their longevity really is amazing. We live a mere ½ mile from the beach close enough to walk to but too close in the case of a tsunami. I could just go on and on about Okinawa but…I save the best for my blog. The link to that is www.okinawamama.blogspot.com.

We’ve been pretty busy since we got here on July 24th. We were in temporary housing for 15 days until we moved into housing. Lonnie has been working non-stop as a staff nurse in the ICU. Needless to say they are short-staffed and he has been working more than anything else…other than sleeping. Once a week for two years he is taking a class for the Marine Corps Command & Staff College. They’re teaching him about wars…past and present. Taking the class while we’re here is “supposed” to prevent him from having to take it later while having us at a duty station for only one year instead of three. I am still playing stay-at-home mom. Jenna is in the middle of her 2nd year of preschool. We had a hard time deciding where she should go to school but she started the East-West Montessori School in September and loves it! It’s an international school so Americans & Japanese both attend. The teacher and her assistant are fluent in Japanese and English. Three times a month Jenna has Japanese class after school. She has learned a lot of the language just from being in her regular class. We were at the exchange once and she was singing a song. It was the first time I had heard her sing in Japanese. I asked her what she was singing because I couldn’t understand her. She said she didn’t know. The funny thing is that two Japanese ladies just looked at her and smiled when they passed us. Mmm hmm. THEY knew what she was saying! I have been encouraging Jenna to use the words she knows. The gate guards at Camp Lester are all Japanese. I tell her to say “arigato gozaimasu” (that’s ‘thank you’) to them when we go through the gate. Sometimes she doesn’t say it and when I ask her why she says, “I’m too shy!” Right. Other times, on her terms, she wants me to roll down her window and she yells it out. The guards LOVE it! They just smile and laugh and wave at her. It’s so cute. She is the most outgoing child. She runs out the backdoor to the playground and before she’s even off of the porch she’s yelling, “Hi! My name is Jenna!”

Since I am the passionate one for languages I am the one that will really be leaning Japanese. In January I will be starting a 3 month intensive class. It’s 3 two hour classes a week. I can’t wait! At the beginning of December our church started an early service. I am the pianist for that service. We go to Koza Baptist Church which is the only Southern Baptist church on the island. It is a 99% military congregation so people are always coming and going. The new church was built and they started having services there in June. The service is full and parking has fast become a big problem. So many people just keep on coming so we really needed an early service. The big new thing with me this past year is that I’ve become a runner! The picture on the card is from my first race. That was an 8K (4.97 miles). The last race I ran was a 10K (6.2 miles) and I ran the whole thing without stopping to walk…barely. Thank goodness I had my best friend, Jenn, the world’s best motivator to cheer me along. I’ve come a long way from walking with a cane a year ago! In between those races I ran two 5Ks (3.1 miles). I actually won 2nd place in my category in one of those races. Lonnie asked if I was the only one running. Droll…very droll. The only person running…and I still win 2nd. How many of you knew I married a comedian?

I have to mention that the Japanese people are so nice. Their politeness and warmth far outweigh anything you see back in the States. Our first trip to McDonald’s totally took us by surprise. Those people were so happy to see us! I don’t know how many people called out to us when we walked in. When we were leaving there were 7 or 8 employees just bowing and thanking us. It was crazy! Most of the time when we went out to eat in the States you can’t even get anyone to look you in the eye and forget about smiling. And, what’s “thank you”? The uniforms they wear are like what you used to see in our McDonald’s back in the early 80’s. They have cute little skirts with pumps, button-down shirts, pressed pants. There are no stains or bleach marks. And they wear those cute little paper hats! The Japanese let their children run around by themselves. You can see a child Jenna’s age out by themselves and you know what? Nobody’s going to come along and take them. I can leave my car doors unlocked with my iPod, purse, camera, attaché case with all of our millions in it and no one’s going to take it…unless… Yeah. Whenever we’re on base I lock everything up or take things out because, unfortunately, if anyone’s going to take anything…it’s going to be an American. Sad but true.


Lastly, we are living on base in what I affectionately call, The Bunker. These houses are built to withstand tropical cyclone winds that can easily exceed 100 mph. We live on Camp Lester where the military hospital is along with a lot of housing and one of the middle schools. That’s about it. It’s a very small base. It’s really considered to be part of Camp Foster. When we come out of the main gate if we go 1 mile to the left we’re at Camp Foster. If we go right for 2 miles we’re at Kadena Air Base. But, more importantly, if we go straight out the gate Starbuck’s is right on that corner! There are 15 bases on the island. The main Army one is Torii Air Station. The Air Force has Kadena Air Base. The Marines monopolize everything else with Camps Buckner, Bush, Butler, Courtney, Foster, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and Camps Hansen, Kinser, Lester, McTureous, Schwab, Shields & then Naval Facility White Beach. Almost every day we have something flying over the house. Whether it’s Marine Harrier jets or Air Force F-15s, KC-10s or KC-135s (the latter two being refuelers) things are never boring. Every now and then we do get the Navy F-18s overhead. Those are the legacy Hornets and not the Super Hornets. I’m 100% sure of that and am quite adept at identifying them now. Thank you, Daniel for helping me make that distinction. Sometimes, if we’re lucky enough, they fly so low that the windows almost rattle. Jenna & I love it! We’re always running out the front door to take pictures of them flying overhead.

We hope everyone has a wonderfully Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If anyone wants to call us we have a Vonage phone but PLEASE…check the time before you call. We are on JKT which is Japan Korea Time. Daylight Savings is not observed here. If you are on the East coast at this time of the year we are 14 hours AHEAD of you…Central time = 15 hours ahead…Pacific = 17 ahead. It’s hard work living in the land of the rising sun and getting up before the rest of the world but…someone has to do it!

Always remembering the reason for the season…
Lonnie, Jenna’s Mommy (aka Deanna) & Jenna