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

Japanese Buffet and JA Market

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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!?

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!

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

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

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

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

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.