Futenma Flightline Fair...

Alright, our big weekend plans...the Camp Futenma (Marine) Flightline Fair. Yes, intense, I know! :) We heard about this event from one of the teachers at school. It is a community event that is held in appreciation of the Japanese and American cultures on Camp Futenma, the whole island is welcome. We decided we would go and enjoy some food, contests (arm wrestling, hog dog eating, and bench press), and planes! We made it over to the base without getting real lost, we just passed it once. I was quite intrigued by how much open space there is on the base. Everything else is Japan is packed in and on top of each other, and the base was wide open air. hmm There were A LOT of people, a mix of Americans and Japanese. In order to get in we had our bags checked, not like the kind of checking they do at baseball games and Disneyland, no the man literally went through my bag! We proceeded to get searched with a metal detector wand (with my arms straight out from my sides)It was quite the process! From there we stood in line to get on a Marine plane and up to the flight deck. Way cool! The official name of the plane was "Sumo" lol

After exiting the plane we stopped by at the bench press competition. Never in my life have I seen so many men with arms that are so disproportionate to their bodies! It was quite interesting to watch them interact and lift. There were judges and everything! As we kept walking we ran into Laura, one of the teachers at school, whose husband is a pilot in the Air Force. He was there with one of Air Force planes.

Now to tell this next story I need to take you back to last night...Rachel, Alison, and I had gone to the American Village to walk around and get some dessert. We were in line at the A&W and an English speaking man behind us asked if we knew where he could find an ATM machine. We told him we weren't sure and that was that. So today as we were walking around the fair this guy says, "I found an ATM machine." I turned around to see if this person was talking to us and sure enough he was! I said, "Do we stand out that much?" He said the three of us together were easy to remember. lol it was quite comical! Believe it or not, we get stared at A LOT. Still trying to figure out why exactly! :)

We spent some time walking around looking at more planes, the very large military man bouncer, ate some dinner (cost a fortune), listened to a singer sing some pathetically written songs, and headed home.

Weather report for the day: The weather today was much nicer than the last few days, not so humid, and there was a steady wind all day!

This is how tall I was in one of the planes!!

Someone was doing this motorized parasailing type activity...We couldn't figure this one out. It appeared at one point he was going to land in the crowd.