okinawa hai!

CONTRIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE “Kimigayo,” (君が代) the Japanese National Anthem, is a song almost all of us hear daily. At military events and at the end of the day, the “Star Spangled Banner” follows “Kimigayo.” I remember the first time I heard it here on Okinawa. I’m sure I had heard it played before, but [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY COLLEEN FRANCIS I'm asked often by family, and 'non military' friends what it is like having your husband gone. It's usually rather funny because either days earlier or weeks later they will complain that their husbands are going on a fishing trip, or have to travel for work for a few days, or [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY JOY BARNES At my core, I am an activist.  Before my “career” as a stay at home mom, I worked for a feminist non-profit organization, I volunteered for political movements, and I’ve certainly done my share of letter writing campaigns.   However, when I moved to Okinawa, I was worried about where I [...]

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CONTIBUTED BY SARAH FORTE Part I of this post regarding the Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul, Korea can be found HERE.   Mention a trip to Tokyo from Okinawa and one of the first questions may be “Are you staying at the New Sanno?” Lots of us stationed on the Rock have heard of this hotel, [...]

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I have a riddle for you! I’m thinking of a place. You can say it in German: “Edelweiss,” Hawaiian: “Hale Koa,” Japanese: “New Sanno,” or even Floridian: “Shades of Green”  and Virginian: “Cape Henry.” You can sleep, eat, shop, swim and travel to and from here. Do you know what I’m talking about? Military MWR [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE I recently received the following email from a single soldier wondering about the on-base barracks.  I looked through our archives and though we’ve got LOTS of posts about family housing on and off base, we’ve got very little about the single-member, barracks side of things.  I am an Army E5(P) and [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY JOELLE YAMADA AND HEATHER GELORMINE A few weeks before PCSing back to the States last spring, Heather and I got to talking about our financial situation.  Turns out we were both experiencing a bit of panic about money & PCSing.  We collaborated on this post and thought this might be good for those [...]

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Maybe it's just me, but I love Thanksgiving.  It's probably my favorite holiday, even moreso than Christmas or the 4th of July (the latter sliding in there because it's so close to my own birthday, I always believed that the festivities were in celebration of me).  I love the food, the gathering of family in [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY JANNINE MYERS The other morning, when I was nosing about on Facebook, I noticed the following comment posted by one of my close friends: “Every night at 9pm sharp I hear “Taps” playing…..I always stop to think about all my heroes and their families in hopes that their service for our country will [...]

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For me, one of the hardest parts about being a military family isn't the constant moving, or the long separations from my husband, or even the lack of control over our very existence.  Rather, it's the fact that we live so far from our families. Growing up, I lived a mile from my father's parents.  [...]

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