Okinawa Hai!

CONTRIBUTED BY KANDY You know you’re a military spouse…if there has ever been a motorcycle in your dining room.                   One thing I will never forget about living here is driving here.  The first time a motorcycle zoomed past me while I was in a line of traffic, I screamed [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KANDY   Pop quiz!  Do you all know the difference between the four signs above? Just kidding! I received a question from a reader regarding Driver’s Ed.  “My husband and I were in Oki from 2003-2006. Back then, the Driver’s Ed Class was only a day long. We had heard a rumor, shortly [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KANDY Update: Summer 2011 JCI. It’s one of those “scary” we-don’t-have-this-where-I-come-from type of things. Some people hire someone else to do all the required steps. In July 2008, OkinawaHai published an article about doing it yourself (the entire article is printed below). We’d like to think we’ve empowered many to try it on [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY MEREDITH NOVARIO Three things this post WAS going to be about until exhaustion punched me in the ear. Our last deployment has begun and that is groovy, hum-drum and infuriating all in one tidy ball that I think I threw out the window or left in the car or something. Henry has an [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KAHO I had spent some time writing a post on purchasing a car, not realizing that there were already posts AND discussions about the same topic on Okinawa Hai! I thought and thought and thought. I came to realize that there is no point for me to post an entry about something which [...]

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The whole car experience here in Okinawa for me was like teenage deja vu.  Oh! the feeling of freedom and independence of buying that first car from the Lemon Lot and then Egads! driving on the wrong side of the road (Bob and I kept yelling at each other “Stay to the left!  Stay to [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY LAN Good morning, Okinawa Hai! readers!  One of our own, Kimberly, has submitted a very good question for us all to ponder: Does anyone know how/where to rent a van here? My family is coming in a couple weeks and since we bought the smallest cars in the history of the world, we’ll [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY MEREDITH NOVARIO There was much sweating involved in getting my driver's license here. Aside from the relentless heat which made me cry at least twice, I was cast backwards in time to my school days when tests happened. Written tests. Tests with grades. Tests you could FAIL. And I was afraid to fail [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY CHUN We recently went on a trip to Taiwan and parked at Naha Airport.   The airport is south on 58 for about 40-50 minutes from Foster.  I know, it was expensive and cost us 2200 yen per day and 1200 yen per additional day.   As with most things, I blame my wife because [...]

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tijger-sr. 8645, originally uploaded by nils ♫. CONTRIBUTED BY JULIE So my husband cranked up our van one chilly morning only to have it make the most awful racket you have ever heard in your life. The engine continued running, but kept making a noise like a belt was loose. He went about his business [...]

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