This past Sunday was a busy day. Amanda and I really wanted to sleep in but I climbed out of bed around 8am. The fact that Sunday is my long run day, 11 miles, for my marathon training made it even harder to get out of bed. The good thing was that the weather was awesome. Clear blue sky and probably around 75 degrees
with a slight breeze is about all you can ask for. Lucky for me I live right next to the Okinawa Prefectural Comprehensive park. It's about 10 acres with tennis courts, a stadium track, baseball fields, etc. The 5 kilometer running track goes right past the beach on the east side of the island by port Awase. Amanda kept up with me for the first 45 minutes and then I was on my own for the next 8 miles or so. 11 miles sounds like a lot but my pace was maybe a 9 minute mile so not much more than a jog. In fact a speed walker paced me like I wasn't even moving. The locals are all bundled up in jumpsuits and hats, which seem way to warm for me but it is their winter time.
After frittata for lunch we headed off to find the Southeast Botanical Gardens. They're about 15 minutes from where Amanda and I live, but we managed to get lost and drove for about an hour. We ended up on some back roads behind Camp Shields and stumbled onto a flea market. You know that you're near a base on Kadena when you spot 8 foot high fences with barded wire along the top. The flea marketeers had what looked like discarded uniforms hanging on the fences for sale. Most of them still had the nametags on them. Eventually we found the garden and paid 1000 yen admission and then 300 yen to ride a tram that cruised around one half of the park. The current rate is around 100 yen per dollar. It's kind of a tourist trap but they do have some impressive hibiscus flowers growing everywhere, as you can see from my photos.
It was already 4pm and we had to get to 5pm mass so we had to leave the gardens without seeing the non-tram side. After mass we had a quick bite at an on base sandwich shop and hit the theater to see the movie Munich. Not a bad movie but very depressing. I knew about the hi-jacking of the Munich olympics but I didn't realize so much retaliation had gone on afterwards. Not much has changed in 30 years.