Hip hip hooray!

We got our internet connected this afternoon.It was a difficult task, but the language barrier makes a lot of things diffcult. I sure am glad that Okinawan people are patient. Its been quite a while since we've actually updated. I bet a lot of people thought that we just forgot about our blog. Josh was in Iwa Kuni for the night last night and he still isnt home yet, I have to go pick him up in about 30 minutes. This past Saturday we had a really neat experience! Josh had to play with the Japanese military band here on island for a tea ceremony. The tea ceremony was held at Peace Prayer Memorial Park, which is a peace monument for World War II. It was truly beautiful to see both bands combined sitting side by side. To think that not so long ago we were at war with these people. This particular tea ceremony was very special to the Okinawan people because it was done by the 15th Grandmaster, Dr. Sen. We couldn't understand anything he said but people told us afterward. Dr. Sen was a Kamikaze pilot during World War II. The day before he was to go on his (final and only) mission, the war ended. The bowls that he served the tea from were bowls that were last used to serve tea to his fallen comrades. All you could hear underneath the tents were the sniffles. Even I started tearing up and I couldn't even understand him or know what he was saying at the time. It was a gorgeous sunny(and very warm) day. I have some pictures that I will post another time. The other day we also went and greeted some of our neighbors and gave them a pound cake. Of course again, we are struggling with the language barrier but we are trying. Thank goodness we have our internet, now I can go sign up for Rosetta Stone and Josh can continue his. This is such a beautiful country. The land, the people, the culture I don't think we could have been happier at any other duty station.