Destination Okinawa

Fukubukuro Fun!

2012-01-09T04:27:00.000-08:00

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

Japanese Buffet and JA Market

2011-04-12T03:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd be posting more this week sine it's Spring Break for Mike but here it is 4 day into his break and I'm just now posting! We've had the sickies lately so we haven't done anything too exciting. Today's main goal was to finally go to the big JA Market.

It was noon when we headed out so we got lunch out. I've been craving the Titicaca Peruvian place but also wanted to try something new. I saw a sign for a place on Sunday but it was closed (I think it's more like an izakaya and only open at night). We decided to eat at the place next door called Lima Restaurant. The had a lunch buffet for 750 yen. We sat in the tatami section next to a tableful of sweet obaasans who we were pretty sure were speaking a lot of the Hogan language. The buffet was not big and had a lot of traditional Japanese food: white rice, jushi rice, japanese curry, tempura, bean sprout chanpuru, salad, red beans with mochi, and soba to name some. I was able to find enough to eat so I wouldn't cry (as Mike said, alluding to the few times during pregnancy when a lack of gluten free options would make me upset). It was pretty good, not my favorite but I was definitely not disappointed.

Later we went to the JA farmers market which will become a favorite of mine. We went in and didn't know where to look first! There were so many vegetables (not a large selection of fruit though) to choose from! The prices were really great too. We walked out with broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, onions, cherry tomatoes, a yellow squash, green beans, carrots, a small papaya, celery, and 2 small onigiris (I think that's all we bought) for less than 2500 yen. I think we'll be going there a lot more often now!

It was a pretty productive day :)

Nago Cherry Blossom Festival

2011-01-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while but we finally did some sightseeing! Today after church some friends asked us if we wanted to go to the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival with them. It's something we've wanted to do since coming here but last year I was dealing with morning sickness (such a wrong name for something that lasts all day long) so we never got a chance to go. We gladly joined them.

The guys got the van loaded up (and yes it was loaded with 2 carseats, 2 strollers, and 2 sets of baby supplies) and we headed off. Well, we stopped for lunch then headed off.

Jude wondered why he was able to see mommy in front of him while in the car

We didn't actually go up the hill with the majority of the trees because it wasn't going to be easy with strollers. We headed through the typical festival booths except there was a lot more variety.

Jude bundled in his coat from Mayumi-san

We did see some Sakura on the side of the roads

We passed most of the booths to the main road where they had a sort of parade. It was a lot of Eisa groups, dancing groups, and some groups where all the people were dressed in costume (see Mike's Facebook for a video with one of the groups).

One of the Eisa groups

We got stopped quite a bit with the crowd so we had an opportunity for a family picture :)

Shisa

Jude got tired

Another Eisa group

He even slept through a drumming "war" between two Eisa groups. I had to cover him up with blankets because it got so cold.

This was after I realized I brought a hat in his diaper bag...that would have been useful the first hour or two that we were there!

Dancers

We had a great time but it had gotten so cold and rainy! We decided to head back to the van and get some food at one of the booths on the way out. Jude did really well and only got fussy a few times. It was nice getting out and hanging out with friends instead of just sitting at home...I'm ready for it to start warming up so we can go out more often!

Toguchi Beach

2010-07-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

We went to Toguchi Beach tonight to drop off some hermit crabs that Mike had collected for his class on our last group field trip. I love this beach! It's not too big but it is full of wildlife. Some more adorable than others...

Adorable:

So tiny!!!

Kawaii!!

Found this on a car on the way out to leave

Not so adorable...okay nasty!

I have no clue what these are but they are so gross

Afterwards we went to Obligato's because it's just been way too long since we ate there. Jude seemed to be excited to eat because he was super wiggly! When we got home Mike found this right next to our door:

I don't know if it is a baby or if it was just puffed up because it was sleepy. We let it rest there...it was pretty cute :) I've really got to remember to keep my camera charged up and in my purse because there are so many things to take pictures of here!

Adventures at the second hand store

2010-06-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

We have a little thrift shop that is near by that we have found a few treasures at (although I think the only thing we've bought from there is our tatami table). We decided to visit it today because we've been looking for a rice cabinet. This may need some explaining....well rice cabinet may not even be the actual name for what this piece of furniture is. It is basically a cabinet that has an electrical cord to plug in. It also has a few outlets inside the cabinet to plug in your appliances (like rice cooker and microwave). I guess a better name would be microwave stand except for the key feature. Towards the bottom it has a storage space to keep your rice. There are buttons on the front and a drawer on the bottom. You press the button that has the amount of rice you need and the rice falls into the tray at the bottom.

Anyways...Mike and I had searched the rows of "treasures" and couldn't find anything that was close to what we wanted. Mike did find a collapsable papasan chair that looked like it hadn't been used so he went to go ask how much it was as I continued to look around. I stopped at the end of an aisle and what do I find...a rice cabinet! It has 2 outlets - one for a microwave that will fit on the top and one for a rice cooker that goes on the 2nd shelf. The rice storage part isn't usable because there is a metal bar with rust in it (and not exactly bug proof) but we can still put containers in that part to store rice. I was more excited about the fact that it had the storage that we needed (as our counter space is VERY limited) and the plugs so we don't have to use a power strip. Mike tested the plugs and they work :) When we went to check out the older woman who works there gave us a 200 yen discount too so it only cost us 2,500 yen (about $25).

Now my next apartment wish is to get some plastic drawers for our closet and get rid of the dresser we have in our room. I don't know if that will happen anytime soon though because there is no place for the dresser to go! Living in a small apartment gets quite crowded and it's about to get even more crowded in a few months with Jude coming :)

So I guess I can add freelance journalist to my resume

2010-04-27T03:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Mike and I went out to eat at a place we had seen a sign for while driving to work. It said American BBQ and I just knew we had to try it out. I figured we could try it out and if it was good I would send in a review for it on www.okinawahai.com in hopes to get it posted. Supposedly they will send $15 to your PayPal account if they post your article.

Well, we went and it was good. I had eaten some ribs at another place here and they tasted like they were covered in ketchup not BBQ sauce so I was hoping this place would be better. It actually tasted like BBQ in America so I decided to write up an article. I e-mailed it on Sunday and got an e-mail back today stating that my article would be up Wednesday! Once it posts I'll put a link here :)

I've tried to get a little creative over the years finding easy ways to make some extra money so hopefully we'll be able to visit more places so I can write more articles. Plus this helps us be a little more adventurous and visit new places here. It's a win-win situation!

My Okinawan Family

2010-04-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

This week we decided to call up our family who lives here since we haven't seen them in a long time. We were invited to come over for Shunbun no Hi. It is around the same time as the Vernal Equinox. The families go back and visit the tombs to clean them, light incense and offer food and sake. Some families will actually set up and eat there but we just visited then went back to my great-uncle's house.

We got back and ate the usual holiday goodies of sushi (don't worry I ate the kind that doesn't have any fish in it), seaweed, soup, tempura, tofu, and of course mochi! We sat around and watched the boys be their silly selves for a while and then they brought their Wii downstairs and handed us controllers! We played some sort of Super Mario Brothers game but were confused half the time as to how to play it! It was very fun though. We played with the two youngest boys- Mizuki and Masaki. Even with the language barrier it was easy to understand what they were trying to tell us (like when they told us to slow down so their characters could catch up). We played Mario Kart for a little bit as well...I think Mizuki was a bit surprised when I got 1st Place in one of the rounds...maybe he's not used to a girl who can do well at video games ;) It was getting a little late and we needed to get back since we have work tomorrow so we headed out. Mizuki and my great-uncle walked us out and waved by all the way down the driveway.

It's been too long since we've visited them! The boys had grown up a lot! We offered to have them come visit us whenever they want. Hopefully it won't be such a long time before we see them again.

Felt Adventurous Today!

2010-04-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

Today after church the sun was shining and I didn’t feel like going home and sitting around. I told Mike I felt like walking around somewhere new. We went home, changed, filled up a jug of water, and checked the map for a new place to see.

We decided to head towards Uruma because the map showed some castle ruins. We also saw that there was a Wild Bird Nature Park so we decided to see that as well. We saw signs for the nature park and went down the road but it was a dead end. They were either renovating or decided not to have it open anymore. I saw what looked like a walking trail but there wasn’t a place to park! So we decided to try and find Agena Castle Ruins.

It looked easy enough from the map…and we figured we would see signs. The map showed it next to a bullring and the bullring had signs but not the castle ruins. We found the bullring…basically a dirt ring with a hill all around for seating. We actually got to see some of the BIG bulls but didn’t take any pictures because there were a lot of people just chilling (okay mostly staring once we showed up). We kept walking up the path because it looked promising...castle wise. Once we got to the end of the path we weren’t too impressed. There definitely used to be a castle there but it wasn’t maintained…I guess the bullring became a bigger sight to see.

We left and tried finding the Kanekadan Castle Ruins but couldn’t find them so we decided to head back to our area of the island. On the way back we saw a sign for a dam but ended up passing the road and finding another road to another castle! This one was still hard to find and involved some U-turns…one which led us here:

I'm not sure what is up with their fascination of gorillas here. This was on top of a..um.."hotel"

But we finally drove up a hill and down a very narrow road (a bit freaky too).

We passed a broken down van (we weren’t sure whether it was someone’s permanent shelter or not)

Then we got to a dead end…a good term because it was quite eerie. We did find Chiibanajo but it wasn’t what we had expected. We decided not to get out and took a picture from the car.

It was deep inside the forest and the clouds were setting in so we decided to drive out…as quickly as we could.

We found the Kurashiki Dam fairly easily. It was quite impressive to see as we were driving down the road. Our impressions upon leaving the car were not as pleasant as we were hit with a strong smell of the nearby pig farm. We walked around some and took some pictures

Just smile and pretend that it doesn't smell like a water treatment plant

...so glad the nausea part of pregnancy is over otherwise these pictures would have been a lot different! We saw people just sitting around outside…like they had just had a picnic or something! It looked like a fun idea but exiting the car I quickly changed my mind. I don’t think I would want to be putting anything in my mouth with the pig stench that was hanging around! They have a museum as well. Maybe we’ll look into it some other day but it was closed.

So we may have done more driving than sightseeing today but it was fun to not have a plan and just drive! We don’t normally do many different things here and have been to a lot of the same places often (mainly stores). I’m hoping the weather will be as cooperative tomorrow!

We finally left the house!

2010-04-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

I found a post online about a thrift store that I wanted to try out. By the time we were ready it was almost dinner time and I was hungry! Since the thrift shop was near Gate 2 Street, Mike suggested Som Chai (a Thai food place) and of course I didn't refuse!

We ate there and I got at least a little Pad Thai fix (it's still not as good as in America strangely enough) then we headed to the thrift store. I knew I had seen the place before and it definitely wasn't hard to find. It is called Total Reuse (hey, it's recycling not buying people's junk) and it was nicer than some of the small thrift shops we've visited here so far. I actually found a small rack of just maternity clothes but I decided to go for the normal clothes since the styles here are usually flowy anyways. I found quite a bit of cute clothes but I didn't want to overdo it since I still have a whole week of adventures where I will want to spend money. I found what I really came to look for (a purse) and a cute shirt as well.

The purse was 1900 yen but it still had the tag so I think I got a fairly good price :)

This shirt was 500 yen and will leave plenty belly space for later ;)

While I was looking through the clothes Mike was wandering around and found something we couldn't resist. We won't know till Thursday what we are having for sure but I'm sure this will come in use sometime!

So adorable!

So I think I will be visiting Total Reuse again if I haven't spent all my money by the end of Spring Break.

After the thrift store it still wasn't too late and we didn't really want to head back home yet so I suggested we go to Mihama and check out the movie times for Alice in Wonderland...and get some Yogurtland while we were there. We saw that next weekend they will have Alice in Wonderland showing in 3-D so we now have plans for next Saturday :) We also went to Yogurtland and paid almost more for desert than we did for dinner...it was worth it though!

We wandered around a little longer and checked out an arcade place while mostly scratching our heads wondering how most of the games worked. We didn't get adventurous enough to try (nor did I feel like spending the money to try).

By the time we finished checking out all the games I was exhausted...my belly seems to be getting heavier every day (and I'm still about 1 week shy of halfway there!). We headed home a little after 9 pm...I feel so old...I was yawning the entire way back to the car!

Sunshine!?

2010-04-09T20:04:00.001-07:00

The windows are open.

The sun is shining.

There's no rain to be seen!!

Let's hope this keeps up for the rest of Spring Break and maybe I'll have some interesting posts!

Rain, rain, go away!

2010-04-06T03:42:00.000-07:00

So it seems like it's been raining non-stop lately. That in combination with me being sick has left us indoors lately. We only have to finish this week and then it will be Spring Break! Since my birthday plans were cancelled we plan on celebrating my birthday during Spring Break. I have wanted to go to Murasaki Mura for a while now and do some of the crafts...I'm hoping the weather will permit!

The only thing that we've really done lately is go to a Jamaican restaurant (which also served Thai soup). It was pretty good, not sure how authentic as I've not eaten Jamaican food much, but good. I definitely like trying out different food places here. I think my favorite is still FAB Curry- a buffet curry place with Indian and Thai curry. The Thai curry is still my favorite..I love the coconut taste to it!

Okay, enough of my rambling. Hopefully in a week I'll have some more interesting posts about some Okinawan sites :)

A New Experience...and a very short post

2010-03-18T04:02:00.000-07:00

Today I got up the courage to do something I haven't done while here in Okinawa. Mike hasn't been feeling to great since Tuesday night and I was feeling adventurous. I walked to the car threw my purse in then walked to the right side of the car...yes I finally got brave enough to volunteer to drive!

I only hit the wipers once while trying to turn on the turn signal so I was pretty proud of myself about that. Mike suggested we take the main roads since the shortcut has some narrow roads with gutters that can really damage the car if you run into them. It was probably a good suggestion because I was driving very far to the left. I was so afraid of getting to close to the cars on the other side of the road!

After a while I got comfortable and it didn't seem any different then driving in the states. We made it home safely and made plans for me to try driving again in the morning as long as we don't leave late. I figured I need to get this driving thing down soon because we need to start trying (yes trying) for our licenses soon. Apparently they don't let you pass the first time if you are American : / Plus I'll be driving me and baby around for the little while that I am not working this fall.

Hope you enjoyed the post...sorry no pictures or exciting traveling news.

Making Mochi

2010-03-07T02:38:00.000-08:00

Today we stayed after church because one of the Japanese women and her friends had offered to teach the church family how to make mochi! I had seen it done on tv but it is still quite amazing to see water and rice hot out of the rice cooker transformed into a huge white sticky blob!

The process includes a huge wooden bowl and huge wooden mallet. You put the whole contents of the rice cooker into the bowl and add some water and start pounding! When the rice starts to stick to the mallet you add a little more water. It actually didn't take much time before it became a huge blob of mochi!

They took the mochi to a table on a flour covered plate then the experts (okay and a few kids too) rolled them into balls using the flour to make them less sticky. While they were doing that someone brought out some miso soup (with meat, daikon, and a few other veggies) for lunch. It was good but with my pregnant senses I couldn't eat much of it.

After lunch was done we got down to the dessert! There were different things to put with the mochi including seaweed, soy sauce, soy bean flour, jam, peanut butter, and of course sweet red beans! We didn't actually put the different flavorings inside the mochi (Pastor said it wasn't quite the right consistency yet) but it was still tasty. I didn't try all the "toppings" because I wanted something sweet. I got a spoon of peanut butter, sweet red beans, strawberry jam, and blackberry jam. It was very good and made me wonder why I haven't had mochi in such a long time!

On the way back home we got to see a little bit of the Okinawa Marathon and a few silly costumes. Again, we have video but I don't have the patience to try and put it up here right now. It took us ridiculously long to get home (even after staying long at church to try and avoid it) but I was glad we didn't have to find a new route home!

Out of Commission

2010-02-18T02:04:00.000-08:00

Or at least I've felt like it lately! I'm pretty sure anyone reading this already knows but we are adding to the family...and not a pet this time!

Not only have I not had the energy to post anything here....I've also not had the energy to go anywhere! I think the only place I've been to are stores and the doctor. I am hoping to feel better soon because I am almost to the 2nd Trimester. After that I'll be looking forward to sight seeing again

Tomorrow is Family Fun Day at school. We are going to Comprehensive Park and will be playing Field Day type games with the students. 1st-high school are going to be grouped together so that will be fun to see all the age ranges mixed together. I am going to try and remember to bring my camera so I can capture the event. I probably won't be there next year because I am possibly going to be working in an infant classroom if everything goes the way I hope :)

Look forward to more exciting posts about Okinawa in coming weeks.

Cape Zanpa

2009-11-14T04:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend Mike and I went on a Marriage Retreat with our church to Cape Zanpa Royal Hotel. We have never been to a resort style hotel here and were very surprised upon arriving in our room. It was partially Japanese style so that was cool:

In the closet were 2 pairs of house slippers to use (with a little tag on them that said sanitized...lol). A lot of Japanese people actually wore these to the breakfast buffet!

A sliding door that led to the bathroom :)

A fancy toilet with a warm toilet seat (I'm going to start wanting one of these once winter rolls around!) and other standard functions

They had robes inside the drawers with specific instructions that they should not be worn outside the room (thank you!)

The view from our balcony- we could see the beach too but this picture looked cooler

The pool which was not in season (I'm sure they keep it cleaner when it is open)

The view from the elevator on the first floor

After the retreat was over we stayed longer to walk around the area. We walked around trying to find the lighthouse which we saw from the windows of the hotel. As we were walking down a path we saw this statue:

He guided us where to go

We weren't sure if we would be able to go all the way up until we saw people standing right by the lights! We figured it would be expensive but we walked inside anyway. It only cost 200 yen each to go up so we couldn't pass it up! We walked up a lot of stairs but it was worth the view! It was really windy but we stayed up there for quite a while taking pictures and videos.

Just one of the amazing pictures we got while up there!

Me on the way down the lighthouse stairs...it was VERY windy!

After the lighthouse there was still more to see! We walked to a cliff area where a lot of people were taking pictures. It was really misty from the waves crashing right up the rocks.

Wow!

Extremely powerful!

Here are a few more random pictures from today:

The obligatory animal picture (of course taken by me)

Interesting ship play area for kids

It was a wonderful and much needed 1 1/2 day break.

Matthew 7:11

2009-10-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

So, only a week after I posted my blog about my financial worries God provides!

Mike and I both have the opportunity to tutor students 3 days a week after school. I think we are going to start next week. It will help us pay off our loans quicker. Maybe we could even use some of the money for fun! Imagine that!

I was reminded of Matthew 7:11 when I heard the news. I had been praying that God would open up another opportunity for us to make a little extra money.

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

Good gifts...yes this is definitely a good gift! Thank you, God!

Oh how I hate dealing with bodily fluids!

2009-10-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

I'll get to the title of my post in a little bit; I'm going to start at the beginning.

Today was class picture day. The students came in with their hair styled (and gelled for some of the boys) and their uniforms looking perfect.

Today was also P.E. day….we have P.E. first thing in the morning. So by the time they had changed into their P.E. uniforms they were looking not so perfect…and they hadn’t even started P.E. I went to the office to figure out when they were having their pictures taken in the hopes that they could take them before P.E. so they wouldn’t be all sweaty. I was told that they would take it last. I asked when that would be and I was told before noon. I went back to the room feeling okay about it because I figured they would have at least an hour to cool off and fix up before our pictures.

P.E. finishes and I go to ask when our pictures will be (because they looked to be taking the stands down) and they tell me now. Now I’m a bit annoyed. I go back to Kristen and let her know the bad news. We rush the girls into the hall and I start breaking them into groups to go to the bathroom or the one mirror that was in the hall.

(Here comes the bodily fluids part)

Some students couldn’t fix their hair on their own so I had to help. I had no brush…so I had to comb through their sweaty hair with my fingers. I don’t deal with sweat well…I felt really sick! As they sit down (or stand on the metal stand) then the photographer gives me a comb for a few of the students that were still disheveled (yeah…could have used that about 5 minutes ago..thanks).

I’m not sure how well the picture will turn out…at least their cheeks will be nice and rosy. They’ll also have a nice sparkly glow about them ;)

Tomorrow is individual picture day…let’s hope it doesn’t rain as they are coming in!

His Eye is on the sparrow

2009-10-03T04:16:00.000-07:00

At school Thursday we were visited by little sparrows. The doors to the "cafeteria" are kept open through most of the day to let air flow through. I was walking back to class after dropping the kiddos off at Japanese class and I looked outside to see a pair of sparrows searching for snack leftovers right outside the door.

I thought it was so adorable so I took some pictures (sorry can't upload them since my recent computer problems) then went inside. A few minutes later I peeked outside my classroom door to see if they were still outside. They weren't....they were inside! They were sitting on the cafeteria chairs (I'm assuming looking for more food). I grabbed my camera again and took a few pictures. One flew off but the other hid behind the curtains. I walked over and it started to flutter about pounding on the window. Luckily there are not screens on the window so I was able to easily free it and it went flying away (hopefully to find its mate).

Later in science I handed out the students new packets for the next theme: birds. We flipped it to the first page and I read the Bible verse for them...Matthew 6:26 - Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

I almost cried on the spot as I read it. Not only because the bird sighting I had seen earlier in the day but also because concerns I've been having lately. Mike and I are not suffering financially in the least here yet money is tight. We are living on one paycheck and saving the other paycheck to send back to our bank to pay off loans. We should be able to pay off our loans by the summer as long as we keep it up...it's just hard. I was very encouraged to be reminded of this verse in light of our situation now. I know that no matter what God will provide. In less than a year we will hopefully be able to start saving money...and make a call to Dave Ramsey with those 3 wonderful words "I'M DEBT FREE!". Jesus already paid for my spiritual debt...now just to get rid of the material debt.

Taiho Falls, Bowling, and Chapel

2009-09-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were invited to go to Taiho falls with some other teachers from school. We were excited about having a free trip to go on :) We met up at Jusco and headed up in Lori's van (all 9 of us). About an hour and a half later we reached the river and started heading up towards the waterfall.

Me sloshing through the water (Izzie gave me the hibiscus flower)

We got there and the view was amazing. It was very secluded and peaceful. We heard what I think were cicadas the whole time we were walking. Once we got there, the mist from the waterfall was all around.

We sat down and ate our bentos (lunches) I had 2 onigiri (rice with flavoring inside with seaweed wrapped around it). The kids finished first of course and rushed back into the water to swim. I was a bit hesitant because it was COLD! Once I got in it was nice though. It took me a while to get underneath the waterfall because I was a little freaked out by the fact that I couldn't see the bottom of the pond. I did make it though:

We stayed for a while until it started getting crowded then headed off..we had made plans while we were there to go bowling later so we had to get back so we could all clean up. The ride back was nice..after a potty break (I had to pee the whole time we were there) and some ice cream I fell asleep

I was quite exhausted!

Later on, we went on base to go bowling (it was less than $3 for the game and shoes)! I started off doing well. I got a strike and a spare...about halfway through it started going downhill. I guess I was getting tired (yet it wasn't even 9 yet). Oh well, it was fun either way :) I convinced Mike to take a picture while we were there (you'd think I wouldn't HAVE to convince him)

Look at those tans we have going on :) I hope to continue to build on mine...maybe build some muscle to while I'm at it.

Oh...and just a little treat for those of you who actually read this (and I wouldn't know because no one ever leaves a COMMENT). Jessica took this today while my students were singing their song for chapel...adorable!

Calvary Chapel Bacolod

2009-09-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

Today in church there was announcement about a giving opportunity. Each year- for a few years now- Calvary Chapel Okinawa has been partnering with Calvary Chapel Bacolod in the Philippines to give gifts to the children and staff of their children's home. There are about 150 people in all that are there (both children and staff) and our church has been able to send gifts there for Christmas (though it usually got there later than Christmas). This year they are sending out the gifts early so the gifts will get there by Christmas time.

I really wanted to give so we picked a child from the baskets they had out in the hall (we may choose an additional one next week if there are still a lot of names left). So later on tonight we are going to go shopping for little Benny (who just turned 3 this month) and try to find him something for Christmas! It was very hard just to choose one name because there were so many left in the baskets still.

If you want to know more about the ministry in Bacolod, Philippeans here is their website: http://www.ccbacolod.com/

San-A: Main City

2009-09-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

Mike and I decided to go to the food court tonight to get some dinner. We went to the Jusco food court last week so we decided to try the San-A food court (it's like a mall as well and it very close to the Jusco). I realized how many interesting places are on the road we take to get there...a lot of places I would like to go to. I only got part of the sign on this one...it says Tacos & Coffee...strange combination!

We continued to drive and I saw this adorable building!! It reminded me of my sister because my mom used to collect giraffes for her.
This one was for either a pet store or a dog grooming places...I couldn't tell but it was too cute not to take a picture of.

When we got there we walked around a little bit because it was only a little before 5 and we felt it was too early to eat dinner. Mike found some Kariyushi Wear that was on sale (some were the equivalent of $19 which is a very good price ). Kariyushi shirts look like Hawaiian style shirts. Some have flowers; some another type of decorative design. He didn't end up buying any last night...maybe some other time though. We will probably go to a used clothing store to buy clothes first before we buy anything new. We have both lost weight and our clothes are getting a little loose!

We stopped at the food court and tried our best to find something 1. We've never had before 2. We could actually explain what it was we wanted and 3. That looked tasty. I got-what they called- a cheeseburger patty. It came with cabbage salad and corn-I also bought gohan (rice) to go with it. The meat was very good...it tasted more like some sort of juicy meatloaf (which made me a little apprehensive with my wheat problems). Mike ordered some tori (chicken) that was fried. It came with soup, cabbage salad, and corn. My food was very tasty! I don't think I've regretted a food choice here yet (except for the natto that Chikako-san ordered for us to try). The natto wasn't disgusting...it just wasn't very tasty.

We walked around the rest of the mall and got a few things from the 100 yen store there. I got some nail polish remover and nail polish so I could keep up my pedicure without paying a lot of money to have someone do it for me. We stayed till about 9 pm then headed back towards the parking garage (and ice cream vending machines). There were different choices at this vending machine so Mike and I both got different ones and shared.

This one came with 6 little chocolate covered ice cream goodies :)

This one came with 2 mochi ice cream balls and a little poker to eat them with...I liked the mochi ice cream better.

It was a fun, fairly cheap, night out in wonderful Okinawa :)

Taguchi Beach

2009-09-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was our no cash weekend (as far as recreation goes) so we decided to go to Taguchi Beach since Lori had taken us before and we knew that it would lead to really good pictures.

We planned to go right after lunch but the weather changed our plans. We were going to get some bentos (lunch) at Kanehede (a grocery store) but since it was raining we decided to go to Jusco (a mall) and get lunch and walk around until the rain went away. I had rice with sliced pork on top (it was yummy) with seaweed soup on the side (also yummy). For desert we got ice cream out of a vending machine.

By the time we ate and walked around the mall, most of the rain clouds were gone so we decided to go to the beach. We walked up to a cliff area above the beach (me with some apprehension after seeing signs warning that there were snakes) and Mike took some pictures.

He went a little further down the cliff but I decided to stay further up where there were more rocks to stand on and not so many bushes (I don't EVER want to come in contact with a habu snake).

We walked down from that area towards the tide pools. We saw this tree clinging to the rocks on the way there.

It started raining again so we put the camera underneath the rocky area and stood in the rain for a picture! Luckily it didn't rain for long!

See...no rain now! Behind us are some tide pools but since the tide was coming in, we didn't see much.

More photo ops :)

Off to explore! I found a few hermit crabs and a normal crab that had just molted. Nothing too interesting unfortunately.

Two of the hermit crabs I found.

These kids were jumping off the cliff that we had stood on earlier! Scary!!
Going to the beach was a nice ending to a relaxing weekend. I have the next 2 weeks of school already planned so maybe we will do some exploring during this next week :)

Obon and Okinawa World

2009-09-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Last night we were invited to the last day of Obon at Isau-san's (my grandma's brother) house. His grandson Mizuki (who is in first grade) actually invited us because he wanted us to go to the tug-of-war that is held in front of the village center. We weren't really sure what it was (it wasn't quite translated as tug-of-war) but we were excited to have another chance to visit with them.

We got there and got to see the traditions for the last day of Obon and got to enjoy a good meal. I learned that tuna sushi is quite yummy! I told Ojisan (uncle) that it was much better than canned tuna and he thought that was pretty funny. As we were finishing dinner we heard what sounded like people clanging pots and pans. Ojisan said that the tug-of-war would be starting at 8.

We got through dinner and began dessert (mixed fruit with mochi balls) when they started walking through the streets trying to get everyones attention. They had young men in camoflauge walking through the streets holding a HUGE rope. We followed them to a big grassy area where we saw another group of men with another rope --making it extremely long! We waited for a while (for what we aren't sure) and then they finally "began". They didn't actually begin tugging but some taunting between the two groups. They picked up the ropes and would walk towards each other and shake it around. Finally they connected the ropes and the tug-of-war started...and ended in no time. I guess they had to add a lot of stuff in so it is more momentous. They did this twice that night as well as some dancing, drum playing, and running back and forth.

While there we somehow grabbed the attention of a news reporter (ok...I think it was probably because we were the ONLY white people there...I'm white enough to stand out in a crowd) who asked us to stay afterwards so he could interview us. He knew enough English to talk to us but did use Ojisan to help translate. He basically asked us what we thought of the show and whether we would join in next year- to which I pointed to my flip flops and said "Yes, with different shoes maybe" which got a laugh. Hopefully everything will be translated the right way because he asked about where we work and got our names.

It was a fun night and we were invited to call again whenever we want to visit.

Today we got up for another day of sightseeing with Rocky and the other new teachers. We went to Okinawa World and the cave today. Mike and I went last year but wanted to go again to see everything at a relaxed pace.

I'm not sure what this sign says...maybe something about Okinawa World or the cave.

Posing in the hall to the cave (see the Shisa dogs on the wall?)

We didn't see this one last time! I thought it was cute how it was resting on it's tail.

All the way down the slippery stairs (glad I wore my better flip flops!)

These are all glass! You can buy them at Okinawa World.

Something I would never have enough expendable money to buy. Extremely pretty though.

Cute glass Stitch (again very pricy-over $100)

When in Okinawa, do as the Okinawans do (not for the rain but for the sun)

So glad I had the umbrella over my head when I saw this!! It had made its web in the banyan tree. You can't tell from the picture but it was about the size of my hand!!

We got this picture for free with the admission price to the Habu Museum at Okinawa World. I was holding it far away because right before she took the picture it was facing me!

Goodbye Okinawa World!! I am by the female shisa dog and Mike by the male.

I would post more and go in detail about today but I am exhausted and I think you probably are too after my long post! We plan on splurging for sightseeing only every other week so I may not post for a couple weeks :)

Futenma Flightline Fair

2009-08-24T04:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Settling In

2009-08-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-08-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

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 17^th. 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!

2009-08-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Waiting ...

2009-07-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

We are 1 week away from living in Okinawa. We are getting very excited and a bit stir crazy. I'm trying my best to enjoy my time here yet still ready just to get to Okinawa. I really need to learn how to live in the moment- hopefully before we live to Okinawa because there will be a lot of moments I don't want to miss. We are very grateful to have this opportunity and I want to soak it all in.

We are still awaiting news on an apartment and car but I know it will all work out.

21 days and 8 hours

2009-07-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

That's all I had to say today :)

It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has changed!

2009-06-15T07:56:00.001-07:00

Since my last post we did receive our contracts. We signed them and they were turned in to the Japanese government for our official paperwork (I honestly don't know how it all works but I know it eventually leads to a visa). We meet with the principals son Friday afternoon to receive documents to take to the Japanese consulate to get documents for a visa (or maybe the visa itself). Mike is doing all of the paperwork.

We have packed, sold, or stored almost all of our things in our apartment. We will be there until the end of the month, then we will move in with my parents until we leave for Okinawa. It was easier than I thought it would be to get rid of a lot of our things. We made around $200 at the garage sale.

I haven't felt nervous yet. I think now I am more excited than anything else. I got to meet about 1/2 of my class on Skype a few weeks ago. That was interesting. We aren't sure where we are staying yet because we may get to move into a larger apartment depending on whether or not it is still available. We also still have not learned much Japanese either with all of the traveling, packing, and visiting we have been doing lately.

I know this is definitely what God wants of us because otherwise I would be a wreck right now! I'm keeping my cool and have felt peaceful about the move throughout this process. It will be hard moving away from family and all that we know but I know we will be doing what God has planned for us...that's all that matters to me.

More exciting news!

2009-04-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

We received the check for the airline tickets that we bought over break in the mail today... Now we don't have to worry about finding a way to pay the credit card!

Also, we heard that our contracts were coming soon because they just got confirmed. As I was writing this, they got sent (via e-mail of course) to Mike. God is good!! I knew it would happen but I am always a worry-wart.

Progress!!

2009-04-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

We bought our tickets for August :)

Now we are able to have an official countdown to when we leave! It's very exciting.

Missing Okinawa

2009-04-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have been really missing Okinawa since last weekend. Actually, I woke up missing the island. I decided to put some pictures up:

Inside a cave...I sort of saw bats! At Shuri Castle with a Shisa
On a beach near the Churaumi Aquarium

Right near the Castle

So, I don't know if looking at the pictures will help or not. It may just make me miss Okinawa even more! Less than 5 months now!

It's been a while

2009-01-31T07:06:00.000-08:00

Well, my last and only post said I would update on what happened on the trip. We were there for almost 2 weeks and it was wonderful. Yeah, it rained almost everyday but it was still beautiful. We spent almost 2 full days with the Principle and his wife and they showed us around a few places in Okinawa City. We liked the school, small but perfect for us!

A few weeks ago we got the news that the contracts are almost done being written. Just yesterday we got the contracts from our current school...due in 10 days! We are going by faith and not turning them in. We are just believing that the other contracts will get here soon.

I bought a Japan guidebook with a Border's gift card from Christmas. I haven't looked through it yet but I'm excited about planning different outings! I've also been looking at blogs from people in Okinawa and getting really excited!

The beginning

2008-07-13T21:12:00.001-07:00

So it all started with a simple Google search ..."Okinawa Christian Schools". I never knew it would take me halfway across the world so soon.

My husband and I had talked about teaching overseas since before we got married. We knew it was in our future. We originally thought about going to Thailand right after we graduated but they were having a coup so we quickly changed our minds. We decided to do the next best thing...teach in a school with a lot of ESOL kids...that's close enough right?

Well after one year of working there we started to reconsider teaching in a public school and started to look for different options. Out of boredom around March I decided to see what kind of schools were available in Okinawa to teach in (my grandma was born there but I'll probably go into more detail in a later post). Anyways...our options were to teach with the Department of Defence or teach at a private Christian school. I saw that it was very hard to get a job with the DoD because they rarely like to ship people over (maybe it's a rumor) so I decided to look into the private schools. We found one and got in contact with them.

When I mentioned the plan to my mom she said we shouldn't just take the job not even knowing if we liked Okinawa so we decided to look into taking a trip there. Sure, money was a bit of an issue but it was worth it. We took my grandma with us and traveled over!

Now I will leave you in suspense...well not too much because obviously you can tell the trip went well and we are wanting to go. Keep checking back and I'll post more about my trip and about what we currently doing to get ourselves to Okinawa by Fall 2009!