Well, not the continent, just the United States bit, the bit that sits in Okinawa and calls itself Kadena Airbase. It's a big bit of America, Kadena Airbase, not as big as the continental US, but big in a "I can see it's really big" way. This base is huge, about the size of Watford and inside it is a mini US, even down to fast food joints, a cinema, extra wide roads, fat people, suburban homes and a massive mall.
Yeah, see?
The British armed forces have nothing like this.
Basically Rodney rang me up on Saturday morning and asked if I had any plans. I had none so we decided to go to Kadena, pick up supplies and then head on out to a beach he knew.
So that's what we did, stopping by in Kadena to try out US life.
Ate at Popeye's, which is a sort of Cajun chicken restaurant and chowed down on their breakfast biscuit (which is a dumpling, I found out) and also some deep fried chicken breast. Fortified with that feast we braved the BX, which is the big supermarket above and also the commissary, which is the base food store. The BX is like a giant Tesco's Express, only cheaper and with more stuff. Electronics, clothes, weights, protein powder, knives, camping stuff, fishing stuff, cosmetics... EVERYTHING. The commissary is like a food paradise, if you like big portions. Here's half the meat isle:
Wow, huh?
All red meat, not too much fish really. Not big on fish are Americans, it seems.
From here we then went on our beach finding adventure!
Basically, Rodney had been to this beach rave on this amazing beach 5 it was a great beach and he wanted to find it again. Unfortunately, once you get away from the main roads of Okinawa, it's a maze at best, and the beach was on one of the local islands connected by a giant causeway, so we're talking waaaaay out there. I won't go into the amazing tie we had tracking down the correct beach and the other beaches we found on the way, but it was well worth it when we did find it:
Look at that, amazing, huh? And the water was so warm, it was like stepping into a warm bath. Had a good BBQ on the beach, had a good snork too, and then it was time to return home.
Now, the original idea was to get back, dump the stuff we'd bought and head on over to the gym for some weights, but the time in water and the heat had gotten to us, so we opted instead for dumping the stuff, chatting to James and going out for a bite to eat and a drink. So we headed out to a local isikia, drank beer at 100 Yen a pop and ate some good food, then home for sleep!
This morning was wake up at 7 and out the door by 8ish after a breakfast of bacon, eggs and organic wholemeal rolls (God Bless America). We were off on an adventure to the northern part of the island, to a place called Taira Bay.
I learnt a lot today. I learnt that the soil in the northern part of the island is different to the soil in the southern part: northern soil is iron rich and therefore red and acidic, whereas southern soil is limestone and alkaline; different plants grow in the different parts with the plants in the northern part looking European. The guy we wet to visit was a fellow called Yoda and he spoke very good English, being that he studied in Hawaii. Now, he woke up one morning and decided to become a farmer, as you do, and he's doing a real good job. His main plant is the pineapple and my god are his pineapples tasty. I think the thing I'll miss most about the island is going to be the pineapples. They're good, pineapples in the UK being bitter and crap in comparison. And Yoda's pineapples are the best I've ever had.
He also rears Okinawan pigs, called Agu, which are a breed introduced from China about 2000 years ago. Big black things covered in course hair. Well, some of them are covered in course hair, Okinawa being Okinawa with all it's micro climates and strange little bits of land, there's a few sub breeds. Anyway, agu are what he breeds.
Isn't he cute? He's a boar, about 200kg and a strong breeder. Getting a bit old now, but still loyal and friendly. Yoda's gone down the organic natural way for his farm and he puts no chemicals on his plants: his pigs have loads of room and a high quality of life, he even lets them live for at least a year before he slaughters them. He really impressed me and knew his stuff.
From Yoda's farm we headed off to have lunch at a little place he knew, I had the crab soba, which was excellent. We met a fellow Yoda knew who invited us to his house.
Now this guy is an architect and owns a big company in Okinawa, his house up in Taira is a weekend retreat for him and his wife. Well, I say retreat, it's massive and has an attached stable and horse track, as you do. Nice guy and very connected. There we were treated to agu meat, which goes very well with togan.... and pineapple... and mango. It's a great meat, almost gamey, and very flavoursome.
Healthy too, the kind of thing thing that would go down a storm in Borough Market.
Alas, time came to an end and we had to head back down to Naha, stuffed with pineapple and agu meat. Once back James fired up the BBQ and we all tucked into some of the steaks I bought yesterday. Good steaks but I do wonder how they were raised, what with American farming practices being what they are and so different to Yoda and his techniques. For the first time ever I actually wondered what it would be like to have a farm, which is strange as I've never had that thought before. I spent a lot of time on farms as a kid, about 3 months a year or so, so the romance was never there for me, but seeing what Yoda's doing and is trying to accomplish, I've gotten a little inspired, which is weird. But there you go.
Anyway, got back, ate and then trained. Haven't properly training for two days (my god!) and looking in the mirror my body was looking big, not fat, but the muscles have clearly liked their rest. Training wise I went for a standard whole body work out:
Stretch
1.30 Deep squat
Shadow boxing
Pull ups: 5,5,5,5,3,2
Squats with water pipe: Front-20, Back 20
Front squats: 40k 5,5,5
Press ups: 20, 10, 10, 10
Bench: 40k x10, 40k x 10, 40k x 7 (dead stop at base so no elastic return, harder)
Row: 40k x 10, 70k x 5, 70k x 5
Bicep: 40k x 3 (quic up slow as possible decline)
Now I'm sitting here all washed and relaxed and about to pack my bag: next four days I shall be MIA! shock, horror! Yeah, no posting. I'm going hiking and camping with James so that'll be me gone, expect updates on Thursday.
Friday I'm going deep sea fishing! Woohoo!
Anyway, peace out.
PS
Shaved my goatee
No comments:
Post a Comment