Sunday

Here are our Sunday adventures! Unfortunately Beth was feeling under the weather - but she is up and about today and you'll see her in tomorrow's pics!

First things first! Paul Smith kindly and graciously picked us up in Naha and took us to his church, which is in both Japanese and English!

Here is the Praise Band - they sung in both Japanese and English

Here we are with Paul in his church:

Afterwards he took us to this restaurant, where they warm the food on this hot plate in front of you. And we sat on the floor, which is fun, but hard on the knees. Thereafter we went to the 100 Yen store (the dollar store) and searched for stuff there. It was in a shopping plaza (picture below). Astonishing how similar strip malls are across the world.



After we returned, we went to the sinoara (farewell) dinner. There we saw demonstrations of kata by the best martial artist in the world. Here Ganaha (spelling may be incorrect) demonstrates Sansero (again, spelling slightly incorrect).


There was also a ceremony with speeches by prominent Naha city leaders and Jundokan memebers. Two major themes that popped up for me at least, where the gratefulness expressed by all for our being there (although we would say we are most grateful for them having us!) and the purpose of karate being the training of character.

After the ceremony the fun began! We had absolutely amazing food and performances from many countries. The first being, naturally, Okinawian folk dancing!
There were several folk dancing performances, although these ladies here at the most elaborate costumes. Later on the evening, after a folk dancing performance, the dancer invited all us women to come up and dance with her! Naturally I joined :o) Those pictures are currently residing on cameras elsewhere; hopefully we will get them up soon!

Throughout the evening we hung out with our many new friends! Here is Rick from Syracuse New York, whom we met on the flight over along with his wife. They have been alot of fun to hang around and encourage each other during tough training!

Finally we found this boat in between the bathrooms:
Look familiar?! Today we are heading to the north of the island, again due to the kindness and graciousness of Paul! Already looking forward to telling everyone about it.

And for all AKCers who are reading this blog - train hard on Monday night!