Typhoon Bolaven

We've been here 3 years and have had our share of typhoons but we are about to experience what is predicted to be the biggest typhoon to hit the island in 13 years! We've stocked up on non-perishable food, pulled out our typhoon supplies, and are currently charging up our electronics. I'm not looking forward to being cooped up in the apartment for the rest of this weekend (and possibly longer). I'm just hoping our electricity doesn't go out because being cooped up is bad enough with nice air conditioning and electrical entertainment! I'll try and remember to keep updating this as long as I have power and internet.

Trying out my green thumb....again

I'm not sure what spurred my desire to plant on our patio again. Maybe it was a combination of different things: replanting our aloe plant that had "babies", seeing the lush patio of our neighbor the floor below us, or maybe even another form of my nesting. Either way, I have started a small container garden on the patio. For my Mother's Day gift (besides going out to lunch at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants) we went to Makeman and Mike let me pick out some plants, pots, and soil.

Here is what we already had:

I planted some cilantro seeds in here

Some of the aloe "babies"

More of the aloe "babies" with the "momma" plant at the bottom.

At Makeman I was hoping to get a strawberry plant, some herbs, and some veggies but what they had was a little limited. Here is what I ended up getting:

From right to left: Celosia plant, bell pepper, mint, bell pepper, 2 ocra plants

The Celosia after transplanting to another pot

The mint after transplanting

While I was out there I noticed that some of the cilantro seeds I planted have started to sprout! I need to thin them out and put them in the herb pot but that will be a bigger task for when Mike gets home

Baby cilantro!

I want to go to another place I've seen that has a lot of plant options (maybe tomorrow or Wednesday because it is near school). I'm still optimistic about finding a strawberry plant and I just read an article about creating a "green curtain" with goya plants. I'm not sure how to hook up netting to be able to do that but maybe we could ask around.

Fukubukuro Fun!

So I've heard about "Lucky Bags" since the first New Year we arrived here. I was interested but never bought one out of fear of getting some unlucky stuff that I wouldn't want. This year I decided to take the plunge!

I had seen advertisements for the fukubukuro at Toys R Us and figured that if Jude got otoshidama money then I would take him out to get one. He ended up getting exactly the right amount! I asked Mike if I could have some money as well for a late Christmas present and he agreed. He had a lot of school work to finish up so it was a win-win situation to get Jude out of the house.

We headed down the road to the Toys R Us (yes it's almost literally down the road) and I hurried to get Jude out of the car and into the store. Turns out I didn't need to rush because there were still a lot of fukubukuro bags left. I grabbed one of the boy bags (it had blue writing and said "otokonoko") and rushed to the check out. Jude was asleep in my arms and the bag was bigger than him so my arms were getting tired quickly.

After we left, we went across the street to a store called "Bulldog" and I grabbed a Hello Kitty fukubukuro for myself. I knew from the way it was packaged (okay, and from peeking through the zippered pouches) that these bags weren't so much of a surprise but each was filled with the same themed items. I didn't care though; I like Hello Kitty.

I decided to leave myself in suspense till we got back home (plus I wanted to take before and after pictures so I could post an article online). Here is our loot:

Jude's Bag

Size comparison and all the goodies

So cool! We let him have this one for now

Mike tried this out...he's going to take it to school for one of his students to explain to him

A small figurine

These are cool. He'll get them later for Christmas or a birthday.

I think I'll be using this during the summer since I'll be extra hot baking baby #2.

This looks fun but another gift that we'll put away till later.

My Hello Kitty bag. It's about the size of a weekend bag.

All the goodies: pillow, pencil case, blanket, and washcloth.

The pillow. It's really fluffy!

The blanket. It's small but cute :) If we ever have a girl I'll give it to her.

We had a lot of fun going through all the stuff in the bags (especially Jude's). Mike and I decided that next Christmas we'll set money aside and just buy fukubukuro bags as gifts. It relieves the stress of trying to find something that the other will like. Plus, if we don't like what's in the bag then we can always sell it and not feel guilty!

My article that I wrote did get accepted and you can read it here: Okinawa Hai!- Fukubukuro