Torii Beach, part two

Jared and I went to Torii Beach for a second time on Sunday. We arrived later afternoon, after the peak of the sun, and even with our SPF 30 we still got some sun. The Okinawan sun is a bit stronger than the Scottsburg sun! It was a peaceful day. I've been joking with ppl. at work that I'm trying to become zen. I need to find a way to capture the sound of the beach-there is a ton of coral, so when the wave hits the shore and then pulls back, pieces of coral clank against other pieces and sounds very...peaceful. It reminds me of something my Grandma Goldie had, like a mobile of sand dollars or something similar striking the others in the tiered mobile. It is so zen!

A gentleman at the beach was kite surfing. Apparently it requires a really big kite, rock-hard abs, and a surfboard. The kite propels you out of the water and you work with the kite to steer yourself around. I know I'm not coordinated enough but it looked like a lot of fun.

I didn't go in too far because they claim it's jelly fish season and I'm a big scaredy cat. From what I have heard, jellyfish season is September through October. It's the midwestern in me with unfamiliarity with oceans and beaches that keeps me from jumping right in. I just went in mid thigh high, enough where I could do my best to see what was swimming or crawling around beneath the surface. The Security Forces did a sufficient job in scaring me of all sealife during our Newcomers Safety briefing.

We drove around the Torii Beach post and really liked the community sense. There are a lot of sugarcane fields and turtleback tombs. These are where the Japanese go to pay respects to people who have passed on. That's worthy of an entirely separate blog post. Torii isn't all Army stuff, there is Okinawan culture/life on the post as well. It reminds me of Neubruecke, where I was in Germany, an off shoot of a bigger military community but still offering a lot on its own.