Yesterday we went to the Futenma Flightline Fair. I really didn't know what to expect because what I had seen online just sounded like it would be a whole lot of planes and maybe some little huts where the Air Force would be sitting- it was free so I didn't expect too much. I was quite surprised and pleased with everything they had.
We got there and drove on part of the actual flightline to get to the festivities. We got there and they had to check our bags (and were suspicious of Mike's nice camera). We walked around and check out some of the planes but it was very sunny and hot! We also started watching a hot dog eating contest and were thrilled to see the clouds start to cover up the sun...and this:
After watching part of the hot dog eatinc contest I started to get a little hungry so we walked around to try and find something yummy. It was a little hard finding something that I wanted since there were a lot of things with breading but finally (after circling the tents) I picked a thing of french fries with part of a hot dog and a chicken nugget. I guess I wasn't as hungry as I thought because I only ate half of it. While eating I saw an older Okinawan man eating a hamburger with chopsticks by taking tiny bits off of it! I guess you can eat pretty much anything while using chopsticks!
After eating we walked around some until we heard the drumming of the Eisa dancers. We quickly walked over to watch the show. Most of the drummers were children (soooo adorable). I got a lot of video while Mike took pictures. There was also a Shisa and a dragon as part of the show.
The Shisa dog is well respected in Okinawa as a protector of the home. There are different folk tales about a dragon who was terrorizing the island and no one could get it to leave. Many of the stories have different story lines but basically the shisa dog was able to get the dragon to leave and never return again (you can Google it to read a more exciting story than my small summary)
Afterwards we tried out an iced coffee (should have known it wouldn't be American style) it was bitter! We met back up with Lori's family for a little bit to rest our feet....
..and Mike became 
the entertainment for a little bit...
....but don't worry he turned out okay :)
We stayed long enough to watch the fireworks! I don't think I would have made it if the sun had been shining all day. 
Futenma Flightline Fair
Settling In
So we have been in Okinawa for 2 weeks and now are pretty used to everyday life. I still have not driven yet (a task I must face this weekend) but we now have internet at the apartment, a home phone, and a pay-per-use phone-- which I have already used half of the 3000 yen that we put on it!
This week we started working a normal work schedule. We've been helping to unpack all of the boxes (the 2 campuses are now together in a building that we are sharing with a church). I got to work in my classroom a little bit today as well, I went through a lot of the worksheets that were left from the previous teachers and organized them by subject. I also learned today that I am going to need to buy a flyswatter (or make one with newspaper) because there are jumping spiders throughout the building. Spiders and cockroaches will not be tolerated anywhere near my classroom... I wouldn't mind a gecko or two though as long as Kristen (my partner teacher) is okay with them :) This is me in my classroom before I put the tables in:
Our garden is starting to grow! The scallions are growing really fast! This was taken a few days ago and they are already at least twice the size and there are many more now!
I am really enjoying it here. All of my co-workers that I have met so far are wonderful! The only thing I don't like is the humidity!!!
I'll end this post with a picture I took tonight of some flowers right near our parking spot. It's so easy to find beautiful things here!
Pineapple Park Day
Today we ventured to Nago Pineapple Park with Lori (the Pre-K/kindergarten teacher and her daughters).
Before we got to the park we stopped at a glass factory where they make sooo many beautiful things out of glass. We didn't shop in the store but did visit the clearance section outside. They not only have cheaper things out there but also a fun game. If you have ever gone to a fair and won a goldfish you will know what I mean. For 300 yen (about $3) you get 5 ping pong balls. There is a little section with different types of glasses inside of it. If you get a ball inside the cup, you get to keep it! I won 2 glasses:
After that we headed to the Pineapple Park. At the park we rode on a little pineapple golf cart that drove itself through the pineapple farm. They had a recording (actually in English) that told us what we were looking at. I didn't realize there were so many different types of pineapple!
After the ride we got to sample A LOT of different pineapple products. My favorite was just plain old pineapple though. Okinawa pineapple is so much better than in the states. We have yet to buy one though because we are waiting to find one on a little street store (they were expensive there of course). Afterwards we bought some Ube (sweet potato) Ice Cream which was good.
On the way back to Lori's house we stopped to take pictures and see a beach. It was good free fun! I had fun looking for sea glass and interesting treasures from the ocean. Here are my goodies:
It's hard to tell from the picture because they are all sandy and not washed off.
Today was a fun day. We hadn't been out exploring the island lately except for the Okinawa City area so it was a nice change. Oh...the many places to explore!
A Long Awaited Post (this was written a few days ago actually)
Sorry for all of you who have been waiting expectantly to read my first blog entry from Okinawa. Life has been pretty busy lately and we also do not have any internet service yet. We have only been able to get on the internet a few times. The kindergarten teacher and her husband have been letting us use their internet when we come to their house. I am actually typing this right now on a Word document to copy onto my blog once I get on the internet again.
The flight here was looooong. We flew from Atlanta to Dallas to Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa. We knew beforehand that we may run into some trouble in Tokyo because there was a typhoon schedule to hit Okinawa soon. We got to the Tokyo airport and were told that we would know by 5:20 (only 25 minutes before our scheduled departure) whether or not we would be able to fly out that night. So all we had to do was wait. We were in the Tokyo airport for about 4 very long and tiring hours. At the scheduled time they posted a sign in Japanese and English that said that we would be leaving on time but due to the typhoon may have to come back to mainland Japan to Haneda airport. We were a little nervous about that but all worked out ok – and we didn’t even run into too much turbulence. The typhoon actually went further South so all we got was a lot of wind.
That night we stayed with the kindergarten teacher and her family (a plan we had already made due to the typhoon). I surprisingly slept through most of the night – probably due to the fact that I only had about 5 hours total sleep from Atlanta to Okinawa and not much sleep before leaving America.
The next day we went to the school to pick up our apartment keys and initial spending money. We went to the 100 yen shop and a home supply shop (I forget what it is called but it has a monkey on the sign) to pick up a few things for our apartment. We also ate out…I honestly can’t remember everything we did because my days are kind of running together. I think that night we went out to eat with Mr. Elofson and his wife.
We have been settling into Okinawa pretty well. We spent the first day without air conditioning because we didn’t realize that we needed batteries for the remote that went with it. We also went a couple days without hot water because we didn’t realize the little control on the hallway wall was to turn on the hot water J. I am still struggling from jet lag but it is getting much better. Sunday I was up at 5:45 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Monday I was able to sleep until 7:45 am before my brain woke up! Mike has been doing all the driving but I am proving to be a better navigator than either of us thought I would be. I think I can probably now navigate us from our apartment to the new campus, both old campuses, and the Chapman’s house (don’t quote me though because I’m bound to make some navigation mistakes).
We applied for our Alien registration cards Monday and got a pay-per-use cell phone and our insurance cards. We won’t have internet or a home phone until the 17th. The cell phone we have now will only be for emergencies because it is 9 yen for every 6 seconds! We will only be using it to call domestic numbers.
Next week we will definitely be working in the school to get things settled for the school year. Until then we will probably visit the school every day to work in our rooms but may not stay for a long amount of time. We’d like to try to get our surroundings during this time period so we won’t have to ask anyone how to get to every single place that we need to go to. We are thinking about doing some exploring within the week with a map and no thought out directions from anyone. It seems to be the easiest way for both of us to memorize where things are.
I haven’t been bringing the camera with us lately because we have been running around so much but I am going to start bringing it. Look forward to more pictures in my posts. Hope everyone is doing well. Send some love through comments here, through Facebook, or e-mail!
Apartment News!
We have an apartment! I don't know many details but I know it is about 25 minutes from the school (distance wise it isn't far but I think traveling there takes time). It has an oven, washer, and dryer. The oven and dryer are a rarity! It's an older apartment but I don't really care about that. I forget how many rooms. I just know that one room is big enough for the queen size bed we will have. We will have some other furniture too from a previous teacher.
We don't have any pictures yet but we will see it soon enough! 4 days to go.
