Cannon's birthday

Tuesday Cannon turned 9 - although technically he's still my baby.  We had celebrated a little early before we left Virginia with a party for his friends but we still had an awesome day!  His request was for biscuits for breakfast but since I don't have an oven (Japanese style homes don't have ovens), we had to go to Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits.  Very Japanese!  Stevie had to go to work in the morning and then we picked him up at noon to go to a Japanese steak house for lunch, Cannon's choice.  

After lunch we headed up island to the aquarium that we've heard so much about.  It was a beautiful drive partly along the coast, partly through the mountains/hills.  Although the island is only 65 miles long it took us an hour and a half to get halfway up it.  The maximum speed limit on the new highway is 80 km/hour.  That's about 50 miles/hour!  Believe me, it's a challenge for Stevie to drive 50 on a highway!

The aquarium sits right on the coast and was trully amazing.  There were several large tanks including one that had 3 BIG whale sharks, manta rays, sting rays, sea turtles, tuna, etc. swimming around.  We got to see them feed the whale sharks - they suck in huge mouthfuls of water, and any stray fish that happen to be there!  They also had a dolphin show which was fun to see.  We purposely sat in the seats that said "splash zone" in hopes that we might get cooled off.  The funny thing was every time any water did splash over the edge a worker came running by with towels!  Only in Japan.

The day ended with cake and presents (Lego, of course).  I happened to meet a lady who will be one of our new neighbors who has a cake decorating business so I ordered a cake in the shape of a blue Lego brick.  As Cannon said, we looked like blue tongue skinks after eating the cake!

Obviously a Japanese cat

We found out Tuesday morning that we will be able to move into our new house on Thursday.  Unfortunately our "express" shipment isn't here so we'll have no linens or kitchen items, but the cake lady said she had stuff for us to borrow.  Everybody is very friendly and helpful.

That's all for now.  Off to register the kids for school and put together a typhoon kit today.  Apparently we're expecting a typhoon on Friday - guess it's a good thing our express shipment isn't here, wouldn't want to move my stuff during a typhoon.