From a Navy Sailor to a Reiki Master

I’ve been thinking a lot about my time spent in Japan when I served  in the Navy from 1999- 2003. I was stationed in Hawaii, which to be honest felt like another country, but we deployed to Japan, Diego Garcia, Bahrain and a few other Middle Eastern countries. Japan was a separate

deployment and you either went to Misawa Air Base in the northern tip of Amori, Japan or you went to the Island Okinawa. I was lucky and got stationed in both places. I ended up living in Japan for a year doing two 6 month deployments there. I rang in the 99-00 New Year in a bar when I was 19 because there was no drinking age, that was an experience I won’t share here, but it was definitely one for the books. I felt my first earthquake happen standing in a steep 2 story bar, that was surreal, but there were more throughout my time there. On my first deployment there wasn’t too much going on in the world for us to worry about, I think we mainly did reconnaissance on North Korea. My next deployment in the Middle East was a little more chaotic since 9/11 happened while we were there. The cool thing about my Navy tour was being stationed in a squadron whose planes were too big to fit on the aircraft carriers so when we deployed we got to go live in the countries and go to work on an airbase, it was still 12 on 12 off but it was better than sitting on a ship for 6 months. It allowed us to explore the country in a way pulling in port for a couple of days doesn’t.

Both of my deployments in Japan lasted from December- June. In Misawa it snowed until April and it never got past 75 degrees or so before we left in late May, early June. Okinawa was tropical island so it was similar to Hawaii. I LOVED Misawa, I loved the snow, the culture, and on our first deployment we got to take off on weekend excursions and believe it or not, they actually gave all of us a week off for vacation. I guarantee that doesn’t happen anymore. I used that week to travel on the bullet train to Tokyo. It was a completely different world coming from North Little Rock, Arkansas. I had never seen anything like it. On another trip we spent the weekend driving a tiny rental car in a blizzard, watching the waves crashing over the side of the tsunami wall to Hirosaki Castle. It was built in 1611. It also hosts Japan's most famous cherry blossom festivals, however,  that year it snowed later than usual so we saw snow instead of cherry blossoms. 

Everything about Japan was amazing and I knew it at the time. I even extended my time in the Navy by 9 months to go back a second time, and I REALLY wanted to get out of the Navy at that point. But, I wanted to see Japan one more time and it didn’t disappoint because that deployment let me split my time 3 months in Misawa and 3 months in Okinawa. I brought back souvenirs from both deployments, and as I sit around in my reiki studio I see trinkets I brought back, having no idea that one day I would be practicing a Japanese Energy Treatment Method called Reiki. I didn’t even know what Reiki was until 2017. I hope to visit Japan again one day, paying more attention to the history and taking the culture in as a Reiki Master and not just a southern kid in the Navy. I knew enough to know what I was experiencing back then was special and I’m thankful for the connection I have with Japan and Reiki. 

If you are interested in taking a Reiki Level 1 class I am going to start teaching in September 2025. More details to come in the next 2 months!