Most of the tropical storm had passed over us during the night, but there were outer bands that were still coming through all morning.  We decided to continue our plans and hope that the storms passed quickly. Our first stop was to the German Culture Village.  It was strange to see a German castle built on this tiny Japanese island.  

It was pouring rain when we got to the castle, but we didn’t let it stop us!  The castle is a replica of the German Castle Marksburg.  The German village dates back to the 1800s when locals rescued a German crew from a shipwreck off the coast of Miyakojima.  Later a replica of the ship was built and a strong relationship between Germany and the people of Miyakojima was born.  The boys loved exploring the castle!

After exploring the castle, we decided to continue on to see the Higashi Lighthouse.  It was really pouring rain by the time we got to the lighthouse! We tried to wait it out but decided to just make a run for it through the rain!  It was crazy but we were laughing so hard at ourselves and the Japanese tourists trying to keep their umbrellas from blowing away! It stopped raining for a few minutes so I could take a couple of pictures! 

After leaving the lighthouse we decided to head to the famous Sunayama Beach!  By the time we reached the beach the sun had finally come back out!! We had to walk down a path to the beach.  The boys were so excited that they ran ahead of us!  When I finally got down to the beach I saw the funniest sight! My wild boys had run and jumped into the huge waves of the ocean that were left from the storm and all the Japanese tourists were just staring at them like they were crazy!  It was too funny!!

Colt loved rolling down the hill in the sand!

Over the 4th of July weekend, we finally got to take a much needed family vacation.  It was so nice to get away for a few days, and it turned out to be the best vacation ever even with a tropical storm that went right over us!

Miyakojima is a very small island in the Pacific that is about 300 kilometers south of Okinawa.  It was only about a 45 minute plane ride, and if you know me I hate to fly so this was perfect!  It is known for its amazing beaches, snorkeling, and diving! It is mostly covered by sugar cane fields and farms.  We decided to rent a car so that we could explore the entire island.

Goodbye Okinawa!

Hello Miyakojima!

We stayed at the Miyakojima Tokyu Resort and it was absolutely beautiful.  It was located on one of the most beautiful beaches in Japan.  

The first day we got there it was getting late so we decided to head into town for dinner.  There are not a lot of restaurants and most of them only take Japanese Yen.  We ended up finding a taco stand that had the most amazing tacos.  We talked with the owner and he used to live in California.  It’s such a small world.  The older boys decided they wanted a cheeseburger so they headed over to the A&W restaurant.  We met some little old Japanese ladies that loved Colt.  They let him pet their puppy and he counted to ten in Japanese for them.  They thought he was so cute!

We heard that a tropical storm was going to hit us later the next day so we got up early to go to Shigira Beach to hopefully get the chance to swim with a sea turtle!  After Breakfast that morning, we went down to our beach called Maehama Beach to take a few pictures before the rain started!

Next we hopped in the car and headed over to Shigira Beach!  We had heard that this was the beach to find sea turtles.  As we searched for the sea turtles, we saw the most amazing fish around all the coral reefs.  It is definitely one of the best places I have ever snorkeled!  It didn’t take long to find our first sea turtle!  It was such an amazing experience to swim along side these beautiful creatures.  Brandon went back and put Colt on his back so he could see the sea turtles.  We found another one and Colt was so excited!  He would stick his head out of the water and scream sea turtle and then stick his head right back in to watch it!  This was one of the best days ever!!

That evening we ran back into town for dinner before the tropical storm hit.  It ended up just being a lot of rain and wind!  We had the best first two days!  To be continued….