This post was recovered from an old blog that I had while studying abroad in Japan. I’ve only updated misspellings or dead links, but left any cringe worthy things or immature thoughts. I’ve decided to leave them as a snapshot of who I was and to see how far I’ve come. Any photos have been freshly edited and so are not the same as what was originally posted. Over the years I had several blogs, most lost to time, and I wanted to recover some lost memories and reflect on my life.

W e drove along the home stretch before getting to our little beach, hopping from one little island to another via bridges. The road soon turned to gravel and skirted the edge of a small island. As we went around the island the bright sun soon became dark clouds. The wall of darkness sat before our eyes, the water became choppy, and we feared thunderstorms. After driving al this way we weren’t about to be scared off by some looming clouds though, so we parked, got all our stuff and went down to the beach.

Just as I took my first steps into the water, sun sprinkles began falling. They came lightly at first and then in a shower. Finally thunder accompanied the heavy downpour, but we never saw lighting. Then as quickly as they had come, the sun sprinkles were gone, it was bright and sunny out again. This lasted another 15-30 minutes until another shower came along, with more thunder. Soon we discovered the ocean water was warmer than the rain at to keep warm we just stayed in the water. This wave of weather continued throughout the day until during the last hour or so we had complete sun.

The weather probably had a large part in giving me the horrible sun burn that I got. Around a little more than halfway through the day everyone started to say my back was getting red, so I tried to keep my back from the sun and just point the front of my body towards the sun. The weather didn’t seem like it would be able to burn me that badly so I kept snorkeling and playing in the water. Finally when we were leaving and I had dried off a bit I could feel the burn sinking in. The whole ride home in the car was spent keeping a towel over my body so that it wouldn’t further get burnt.

The burn was still worth it though as the day at the beach was a blast. There were probably no more than 15 people on the beach, including us, that day. It was like our own little semi-paradise. The beach was somewhat tucked in because of a sort or cape or rocky out-shoot on the south side of the beach. During one of the heavy showers Ryohei and I went out on to the cape and at the tip the wind was howling. Back at the beach though there was barely any wind except for the occasional gust. When it was time to leave we were all sad to go. Just when we were getting into hanging out on the beach, we would be leaving for Tokyo the next morning. We climbed back into the van and headed for Naha.

Once back in Naha my sun burn had really set in and I was in pain. My whole body seemed to ache and I wanted to do nothing but sleep. Instead of sleeping though, I helped Ryohei take the rental van back. It took us forever to find a gas station to fill up the van and finally drop it off. Then we set of back to our hostel to meet up with everyone for dinner. As I write this I’m having a hard time recalling where we ate and what I really did that night. All I remember was how bad the sunburn hurt. I do remember going souvenir shopping and eating then coming back to the hostel and going for another drink on the roof, but I couldn’t handle it for long. I finally went down to bed before everyone else and then everyone went out for a later night snack. Besides that all I can think of is sleep and pain.

The next morning we got our luggage together and headed towards the airport. I’d been dreading this moment yesterday as I had to carry my luggage on my shoulder, one of the worst burnt spots on my body. From that morning until I got home to my dorm in Tokyo that evening I was dead silent. Not talking was the only way for me to deal with the pain I guess. That sunburn really taught me that I need to stop being lazy and just put some sun screen on. Not only does the burn hurt like a bitch, it will increase the chance of skin cancer. Who would have thought I would learn something so cool in Okinawa.