First Earthquake Experience

So this blog is about the day Okinawa shook (at least for the first time)...

Okay so, I was laying in my bed. It was a rather restlessnight. I couldn't sleep at all. It was too hot. So right when I finally fall asleep. I wake up to my bed shaking. I was thinking to myself... this is a really vivid dream. But, somehow I knew that wasn't right. Then the whole building started shaking. I was like... This is it. This is an earthquake... and I don't know what I am supposed to do. So I stood up and looked out the window. Turns out you are supposed to go

stand in a doorframe, but I didn't know that. So the shaking only lasted about 15 seconds, but it was a long 15 seconds.

So afterwards... I did what everyone should do... I carried on with life and went out into town.

Me at Tan Tans. That stuff is delicious.

This literally had hunks of either white grape or aloe in it. I'm not really sure.

Steinbrecher holding some Japanese candy we bought.

I am convinced Starbuck's is taking over the world. There is another one about 4 minutes walking distance from this one.

This is Jusco. It is kinda like a mall. Not like U.S. malls. The stuff is way closer together and the sizes way to small.

The flora around Okinawa is beautiful.

There is two of these at the entrance to every place. The open mouth is the female. The closed mouth is the male. They are there to let evil spirits out... or to prevent them from coming in.

These are a couple of drink machines. They are everywhere. In the most odd places I have ever seen. If Okinawa was an island where no one lived it would still house thousands of vending machines.

I thought the Christmas tree lights were a nice addition.

This is an interesting place. It's Mihama Carnival Park. It has a variety of stores and an A&W and my personal favorite Yogurtland.

After this day of adventure I went to bed. Sunday Carberry, Steinbrecher and I had plans to go to Four Seasons for teppanyaki. (I might have spelled that right). However, Cpl Castillo comes knocking on my door and I find out we have to go into work because we have to broadcast information about the current Tsunami warning. So we worked about 4 and a half hours yesterday. Luckily there was no Tsunami and we got Four Seasons anyway. Woot! Woot!

Thats all for now folks. Reporting from AFN Okinawa, I'm LCpl Meredith Watts.

Cooking and Such

Overview of one of the cities. This photo was taken approximately 100 meters from the back of the AFN station.

The tower that sends out my awesomeness... brought to you compliments of the American Forces Network.

Aquarius... The Drink of Champions.

This is very similar to powder gatorade. It tastes watered down and all.

The currency used on Okinawa is the Yen. This is roughly 8 U.S. dollars. The exchange rate today is 89 Yen to the U.S. dollar.

This is where we ate our deliciously prepared homemade burritos. Yes, classy I know.

This is Steinbrecher cooking in our awesome kitchen. Conveniently located in our dorm (barracks). Yes, two full stoves. I guess all we are missing is a dishwasher.

Here is our cookware that we purchased after it had been washed and cleaned. Note: My three pound dip is cooking in my crock pot.

Okay, so I have a great update. Hopefully, I won't have pictures from just base after this weekend. I got my check-in stuff completed and so now I have a red card and can go off base... which I plan to do this weekend. I am super excited so things should be getting interesting.

My mom got her toe operated on today and so a little shout out to her... Hope you get better soon mom and I am sure I will talk to you on Skype later.

As you can tell... Steinbrecher and I cooked dinner last night. It was great not eating fast food. We plan to try to do that at least once a week so we can take the leftovers to work. It worked out great today. Too bad everyone got take out Macaroni Grill today. Oh well, my burrito with seasoned meat, refried beans and spanish rice was delicious.

Well, I don't have much to report on right now. I'm about to watch a movie I think.

Hope all is well in the states.

Reporting from AFN Okinawa, I'm LCpl Meredith Watts.

Monday Night Special

Hello everyone,

I decided I would give you all a Monday night special. Of course nothing super exciting has happened but it is special because you all get to hear from me. Haha.

So last week was boring at work until I finally got to start doing stuff. I finally have my own story that I am going to complete. The completion date got pushed back a little due to the fact that we currently have a guys deploy on a MEU (Marine Expiditionary Unit). He basically floats around on a boat and covers a bunch of stories. Well I got put in charge of editing his stories and preparing them for air. So I am pretty busy right now see how he has 13 stories out and I have only got 3 ready to air. It's cool though because we only air one story a night so I guess I am ahead of the game.

Steinbrecher (a Marine friend) arrived Friday. So we took her out to experience Japan at its finest. We went to Chilis which is like 300 meters from where I live. Haha, though you would enjoy that one.

Anyways, we are planning to visit the aquarium soon. They have whale sharks so I am excited to see an animal that big. Also, I plan to take her out to real Japanese this weekend.

I didn't get home from work until 5:30 p.m. today. That was not exciting. It is currently 8:34 p.m. and I am ready to hit the rack. I am wore out. Hope all is well in the States and that things are finally warming up. Also, I now have a mailing address. You can contact my mom or me by facebook to get it.

I miss you all. Have a great week.

Reporting from AFN Okinawa, I'm LCpl Meredith Watts.

Week 1 Complete

This is my room. It is kind of a mess right now. I just had the internet installed and i had been laying in the bed talking to mom on Skype when I decided to take pictures of my living quarters to show her. There is like a common area with a kitchen sink and microwave. Then there is a bathroom and a sink room. Another girl and I share that. It is nice though. I have a huge closet as well. Thank you Air Force.
This where I watched the Super Bowl. The TV was small and so was the room. Note that the TV isn't much larger than the microwave beside it.
This is right before we landed in Tokyo. I was fascinated by the land. There was a really cool golf course too, but I had already put my camera up so I didn't get a picture.
These were the glaciers we flew over. I thought they were really cool. I think we were near Alaska or Canada.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, more to come soon.

Ok, so I finished JRC and now I am living on Kadena and going to work and stuff. It is really cool. I would rather go to work I think than school. I am in news. That basically means that I go out and cover stories and then I will edit the video and lay down a narration and "WALA" it is on TV. I don't know much else about the job besides that. It is interesting though and I think I am going to like it.

Wednesday night I had my first real meal out in town. It was interesting. It was noodles in some broth with beef on top. Then a side dish of rice, a side of dumplings (they looked like slugs) and a small desert time thing with a cherry on top. It was delicious. I did pretty good eating with chopsticks too.

Following the meal we went to big dip and got ice cream. It was awesome.

Friday I covered my first story so to say. Cpl Malta and I were going to cover a story, but our point of contact never got back to us. So we went to do some check in stuff. Well I saw some Marines in boots and utes on a field and they were having a pugil stick battle. So we stopped the van, got out, and covered the story. I will have to wait and see what we do with it Tuesday when I go back to work. We have Monday off for Presidents Day.

Last night, me and some people from work went out to Jon Jon's. I have no idea if I spelled that right or not. It was an all you can eat/drink place for $30 or 2280 Yen. It was awesome. I saw some public affairs people that I knew as well which was cool. I really like all the noodles and rice. I think I am going to dig the food for sure.

Today I got my internet hooked up. I am very excited. I got to Skype mom, dad, morgan, luke, gil, nan and gabi. It was pretty awesome. It is going to be nice getting to talk to them and stuff.

Anyways, that is all I have for now. I might venture out later tonight, I am not sure. I have a really good book I am currently reading so we'll just have to wait and see.

Getting Aquainted

Ok, so I have successfully made it to Okinawa. The flight over was rather long, but I survived. I took some pics out the window of the snow glaciers near Canada or Alaska one and of Tokyo.

I am currently in JRC (Joint Receiving Center or something like that) which means that I am in temporary barracks getting briefs that tell me about the island and whatnot. So I don't have internet access in my room right now, but I will probably Thursday.

We came to the conclusion that there is a 14 hour time difference. With that said I had the pleasure of watching the Super Bowl at 8:30 this morning. That was an experience in itself. I watched it on one of the AFN (Armed Forces Network) Channels and since it is run by the military they can't play commercials that people pay for. So President Obama and Bob Gates talked like every time there was a commercial. It was weird not having actual Super Bowl commercials. Anyways, I am glad that the Saints won!

Oh yeah, we don't have to work on Super Bowl Monday. That's pretty sweet I think.

I will be going to my unit Wednesday. So I will hopefully be able to have a solid internet connection and be able to post pictures that I have taken thus far.

I will be back with more soon.

Reporting from AFN Okinawa, I'm LCpl Meredith Watts.