Waga family fun and little things from this week

I realized last night when Steve asked where the next journal installment was that I hadn't written in a few days.  We've just been focusing on some general prep work for school and more sprucing up of the home.  On Thursday London and Emmy went to the day care center to play while Cannon and I painted his room.  He chose the color and the best way to describe it is BLUE!  I think it looks extra blue since everything else in the house is so white.  But it's colorful and fun and he likes it.  We also went to the store and got him some cool Japanese fish curtains to finish off the room.  Now for the rest of the furniture to come so he has something to put his endless Lego collection on...

I took Cannon for a back-to-school treat to the "Big Dip" - a very Americanized ice cream parlor with some very un-American flavors.  Like Okinawan salt cookie, sugar cane, Beni imo (sweet potato) and others that I didn't know.  Cannon had a HUGE cone with caramel macchiato and "dinosaur mud" flavors all covered in marshmallows.  The dinosaur mud tasted like this CapriSun type drink you can get here that has bits of jelly in it.  The ice cream had jelly bits in it too!  It was yummy!

Yesterday I took all the kids and Cannon's new friend, Isaac, to a play center called Wago.  It's sort of like a Chuck-E-Cheese, but without the pizza and the big mouse.  You pay per 15 minutes that you're there, but everything is then included.  The choices ranged from pool tables, karaoke, video games, batting cages, ball pits, trampolines, and padded play sets.  The kids had a ball!  Definitely need to revisit that one.  Of course the snack bar had items like curry rice, rice balls and spam and egg sandwiches.  I thought about getting the "mushroom piraf", opted for a rice ball for the kids and an icee.  I guess that's the Japanese phonetically way of spelling "pilaf".

After we left Wago we went to the boys' school to find out who their teachers will be and to see their classrooms.  London got a very nice young teacher who reminded me of Cannon's first grade teacher, Ms. Bartlett.  The classroom looks very similar to his room from last year so I think he'll adjust well.  Cannon got placed in a "multi-age" classroom which is a combined 4th and 5th grade class.  This was by our request and I hope that he'll benefit from being around older kids.  The teacher was very enthusiastic and was focused on meeting each child's needs on their particular level.  I hope this means she'll be able to challenge him.  The room was very inviting with no individual desks but round tables and lots of individual "stations" for them to read and work.  I've heard good things about Department of Defense schools so let's hope they live up to their reputation!

Meanwhile, Cannon and London have been outside for 3 hours yesterday afternoon and 3 hours this morning digging out a "fossil" they found in the hillside.  Isaac (Cannon's friend) apparently started digging this rock out of the hillside several weeks ago and now they have established an archeology camp for excavating it.  They are convinced they are going to sell it to the Okinawan museum (no joke!) for big bucks which they are all going to divide.  I actually think it might be a piece of concrete with some shells in it, but who am I to spoil the fun?  I hear it's ready to come out of the ground now, just waiting for the family with the wheelbarrow to come home...

Awase fish market

Since Steve got home early from work today (4:00 and that was after a workout - tough life!) we decided to try to find a fish market I'd heard about.  I found some pretty good directions to get there (very important since the streets don't have names so most directions are like "turn left at the Yellow Box store, then turn right where you see the giant troll statue").  The place is called the Awase fish market and it's where the fish comes right off the boats, only we're not talking the standard snapper, tilapia, salmon stuff.  This market had two big tubs full of reef fish so although some were recognizable - like a grouper - many were not - like parrot fish and squirrelfish.  We only knew the names because they kindly had a poster of the fish with the names in English! 

After studying the way the locals did it, we figured out that you get a large plastic basket and some tongues and pick your fish then give it to the men behind the counter who weigh it and prepare it for you (whole or fillet).  Steve decided on two nice sized reddish colored fish (later found out they were a kind of squirrelfish). 

While they fixed the fish I explored the rest of the store which included a counter of prepared fish for sushi (octopus, tuna, mackerel, etc.), a restaurant where you pick your fish and then they cook it for you, a small veggie market with fresh produce from the island (couldn't resist one of those little pineapples - yum!) and other types of seafood (fresh octopus, blue crabs, snails or squid anyone?).

It was a pretty cool experience which netted a yummy dinner!

The amazing wildlife!

Another weekend, another adventure.

Saturday we spent much of the day sprucing up our institutional-looking house.  Steve spent five hours painting the living room and I laid carpet on the stairs so that the metal toe plates don't tear up our feet when you go up and down.

With those two projects accomplished, we set out for fun on Sunday.  We decided to explore another local beach and somehow stumbled across a beautiful, unique beach called Toguchi.  It is a shallow beach area with a coral bottom and as the tide was out there was a stretch about 1/4 mile out to sea that was all tidal pools.  There were also these awesome rock islands that were all weathered by the water.  You'll see what I mean by the photos. 

It was amazing and the kids had a ball!  We picked our way out to the deep water stopping frequently to marvel at the wildlife under under feet.  It seemed like you saw a lot of stuff when you were just walking, but then if you crouched down and were still, you could see so much more.  And then when we got in a pool deep enough, we donned our snorkel masks and a whole new world was opened up.  I think Cannon and London are hooked on snorkeling now! 

Some of the things we saw included: green shrimp, a bright red hermit crab, a small octopus, these brilliant blue small fish, lots of sea anemone, a blue sea star bigger than my hand, crabs that looked like they had fur on them, lots of feather stars (identified by Cannon), lots of different kinds of coral, tons of sea cucumbers (they look like giant poops) and a spotted stingray (this last one was an undocumented find by Cannon).

Emmy found a small striped fish that unfortunately didn't make the cut, but she carried it around all afternoon in a baggie in which she put water, shells and some seaweed.  She was most distressed when, at the end of the afternoon, it fell out of the bag and a small crab had it for dinner!  Boy was she mad at the crab!  Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of the wildlife since I didn't carry my camera out across the tidal pools.

Emmy with her fish friend

What's for dinner?

I visited another Japanese grocery store yesterday with aisles and aisles of neat looking bottles and packages - but I still have no idea what they are!  Steve wanted hamburgers for dinner so I attempted to buy ground beef!  You would think that would be fairly easy, but living in a land where you can buy a package of octopus tentacles or fish heads, I wasn't completely sure.  See there was this little picture of a cow face, a pig face and a chicken face right below the meat.  Luckily, there was an employee standing there and I asked her (by pointing to the picture) beef?  I felt like Kevin Costner in "Dances with Wolves" asking the Indians - "tatonka?"  I was tempted to make a gesture indicating horns!  After assuring me the package was "only beef" I went on to find a veg.  Yes, you know me, must have something green on the plate.  I found what turned out to be some yummy cooked spinach with sesame seeds (thought we'd had this in some restaurant so took a chance) and a package of what I was pretty sure was edamame beans. 

The problem was when we got home and tried to read the cooking directions - anyone want to take a guess???

By the way, the burgers turned out pretty good - topped them with advocado and grilled enoki mushrooms, washed down by a Sapporo.  And the edamame were good too - the kids really enjoyed popping open the pods.

On another note, I was reading in a local publication (in English) that the first death in Japan from H1N1 happened here.  In fact one-quarter of the cases are here in Okinawa.  According to the local prefecture health offical, "speed of spreading goes much faster than mainland Japan because Okinawa has finished the rainy season and the air has become very dry."  Are you kidding me???  There is 79% humidity on any given day.  I'm not sure I follow their reasoning...

The Monkey Store

I've found my most favorite store on the island!!!  It's a cross between Lowe's/Dollar Tree/Walmart/PetSmart.  The real name is Make Man, but people call it the Monkey Store because it has a big monkey (cartoon and painted) on its sign.  I've spent hours in there already because there are sooo many fun things to look at.  The other day I spent two hours there and tonight I went back for another fix.  Partly because I really did need plants and pots, but partly because it's fun!  I'm trying to spruce up the front of our house.  As you've seen from the pictures, it's a bit stark.  Ok, it's one step up from a mental institution.  So I'm trying to plant a garden except it's, like, stinking hot outside.  I'm so dedicated to planting this garden that I'm actually outside at 7:15 AM (for those of you who know me know that this is unheard of!)  I still get hot, but at least I can get a little done.  The other obstacle is that the ground is as hard as rock, mostly because it is rock.  But I am determined!!!

So back to Make Man's.  There are all kinds of interesting things to look at - there's a "Dollar Tree" section, a housewares section, a carpet area, a pet store area (more Hercules beatles!) and of course a plant center.  Some of my favorite things include the peelable, washable toilet seat covers (I'm assuming they're washable by the picture of the washing machine on the packaging!)  Why would you need these? 

And the toilet slippers.  I did actually read about these.  Of course you know that when you enter a Japanese house, you remove your shoes.  Apparently in some houses, they provide guests with slippers.  And in some houses, they provide special slippers to wear while in the bathroom.  You remove the house slippers to put the toilet slippers on!  Of course my neighbor pointed out that "toilet" is written in English!  Guess the Japanese would know what they are for.

The other favorite is the aisle of rice cookers.  Who knew that there were so many different varieties???

Must go back soon for more pictures!

In Memory of Murphy

It is with great sadness that I tell you that we had to have Murphy put down on Monday.  He lived 14 long years and blessed us with love and companionship for over 10 of them.  Ultimately, it was his time to go as he was in pain, but we will miss him dearly.  I don't think we'll ever find another dog as good as old Murph.

Hug your animals tight today and give them an extra treat and remember that our time with them is short.

Playing tug-of-war with the locals and other adventures

We've had a busy, adventurous weekend around here.  Yesterday we went to a different beach, this time a Japanese one on the South China Sea.  The water is amazingly clear and aqua blue in color.  We thought we'd try to go snorkeling, but unfortuately there was no snorkeling aloud on this beach.  The funny thing about going to a Japanese beach is that the Japanese seem to go to extraordinary efforts to avoid sun exposure in their everyday life so you would think that the beach would be empty, but it wasn't.  I think a topic for another email will be Japanese sun protection - it's crazy what they do.  Not just the umbrellas for the sun that you think of, but gloves, hats, towels and more.  Stay tuned and I'll enlighten you even more.  I'm collecting pictures for a better story!

Today we planned to go to a tug-of-war festival in a part of the island west and south of us.  I did my best to locate the area on a map (not the easiest of things because most streets are unamed or are in kanji.)  We headed off around 3:00 because there was a parade scheduled for 4:00 and the tug of war at 5:00.  Now, I'm not just talking about a small game of tug of war here that the kids play in the back yard.  I'm talking a huge, thick rope that the whole town gets behind and pulls.  The picture in the paper showed people being carried on top of the rope!  As we approached the area for the parade, we saw people beginning to line up on the streets so we knew we were close, unfortunately there was no parking.  So in our efforts to "circle around the block" we got lost and ended up on some back streets that were as wide as a single lane at home!  Meandering down one street, we saw what looked like a rope with some men in costume so we pulled up the next street and parked behind two other small cars.  Off to the side was an awning under which about 10 older gentlemen were sitting looking over a small green field.  In my now standard form of charade-communication I asked the men if it was OK to park there.  Hai, hai!  So we get out and start walking back down the street toward the rope.  As we are descending, an older Japanese man pass us and tells us (or rather indicates to us) that we should follow him.  The parade will be following the street and we can see it fine if we go back to where the car is.  Sure enough, with a lot of noise (gong banging and conch shell horn blowing) here come these two teams of men carrying a very tall bamboo pole with a very large decorative flower on top.  They loop up into the field in front of the elders and proceed to hoist the flower pole up and down and, I'm guessing here, show their strength to the elders.  Then there was a karate demonstration, and a team of young boys doing some kind of moves with poles, and then the teams with flowers start up again.  And then, and this is where it started getting really funny, they recruit Steve to join in, give him a small stick/pole and have him join the other men in a circling of the Maypole-type dance!  When the show for the elders was done, everyone meandered back down to the bottom of the street near the large rope.  Steve's newly aquired Japanese friend totally invited us into the celebration, brought him a beer (after we assured him that I would drive!), me a little can of orange juice and the kids had free snow cones!

After waiting around and with a few more shows of force by the guys with the giant flowers, the tug of war kicked up.  The men of the village pulled out two pieces of rope, each with a huge loop on the end.  Again, I'm not talking a stretch of rope that you get at Lowe's, I'm meaning a hand woven 50 foot section that was a good foot to 18" in diameter.  The village men were all sizing Stevie up and since he stands about a head taller than the average Japanese man and weighs a little more (I'm being nice here) with bigger muscles, the "yellow" team recruited him onto their side and set him up with one of the prime lifting/carrying positions!  It was a hoot! 

They passed out "Oki towels" - basically sweat rags - to all the team - men, women and children.  Stevie took his position up front while Cannon jumped in with the other kids.  Lundy was too bashful and Emmy was too busy playing with the vending machine to join in.  To the banging of gongs the people picked up the rope and "wove" it into the middle of the plaza where it met up with the other half of the rope being carried by the red team.  They had to thread one end of the loop into the other side's loop and then a huge wooden dowel locked the two together. 

When this was accomplished (it was actually more of an effort than it sounds, as according to Steve, "the damn thing was heavy") then the two halves of the village (plus Stevie and Cannon) started pulling with all their might. 

This was no wimpy half-hearted effort - the sweat was pouring!  Alas, the yellow team lost - the first round.  As soon as it was over all the men sat down on the rope while others dashed out with a cooler full of beer for all the participants!  More dancing around the Maypole by the red team victors.  Then they pull the two halves apart and start again!  Stevie was pooped and dripping sweat but we knew it was an honor for him to be invited so off he goes again manipulating a massive rope down the street towards another massive rope.  This time the yellow team whooped the red team!  And of course there was another round of cooler filled with beer and another Maypole dance.

This was an experience I'm sure we won't forget for awhile and it just really impressed on us how friendly the Japanese are.  It was such a coincidence that we got lost, parked where we did and ran across this man who took us under his wing and welcomed us into the festival.  Sometimes when your plans don't go "right", the "wrong" is a better alternative.  There is no way we could have planned this experience if we tried!

Nepalese food and wild pets

Stevie's birthday was yesterday - his choice to lay low and relax with the family.  We did go out for dinner to a Nepalese food restaurant (that would be from the country of Nepal, not Naples, Italy).  Who knew that you could find a Nepalese restaurant on Okinawa???  The food is very similar to Indian, maybe not as spicy.  Who knew, too, that our kids would CONSUME the food!  We ordered them a tandoori dish and some kind of Nepalese dumpling thinking this would be daring enough for them.  They chowed down on that and then when Stevie and my combo dish came they chowed down on that.  They loved the dahl and curry and spinach paneer - and the naan!!  Had to order a second portion of that.  And Emmy downed my mango lassi (yogurt drink) when I wasn't looking.

Today's adventure was inadvertent.  Obi-san kitty appeared to have fleas so I had to find some flea shampoo.  The commissary didn't have anything so after picking up the kids from vacation bible school I swung by a pet store I saw.  That was an adventure!  First, after playing a good game of charades with a store clerk trying to identify a shampoo that was safe for kittens and good for fleas we got our product.  Cannon thought he found a Frontline kind of product, but I wasn't sure if it was for kittens.  After further investigation of the box, we determined that the product killed fleas and then sent them to heaven.  See what you think from the picture...  

Then we had to check out the rest of the store.  The boys called me over to see the displays of Hercules beetles and rhinoceros beetles - enormous bugs that the Japanese apparently keep as pets.  Ewww.  Then we found a cage with a hedgehog.  Weird.  And the fish tanks had sting rays and baby sea turtles (illegal???) and box fish (like a puffer fish, but Cannon corrected me that it was a box fish...)  Other interesting products included panties for dogs, "American flop rabbit" - these weren't like any rabbits I've ever seen in the US - and aisles of dog treats.  We'll have to go back again when we have more time.

As we headed back into the base, London asked why I had to show my ID every time we entered.  I explained that it was kind of like a gated community, except our guards are US Marines who carry semi-automatic weapons!  Brinks can't touch that kind of protection!

Farmer's market

Yesterday my neighbor, Kelly, who has been so helpful with getting us set up, took me to a great new experience - a Japanese farmer's market.  Thankfully it was indoors!  It was really more like a grocery store than an outdoor hawking of the veggies which was a great way to peruse the various fruits and veggies without feeling obliged to buy.  We had no idea what most of the items were, but after a little poking, prodding, sniffing and, ultimately, guessing, we put names to most of it.   Other items I was adventurous enough to buy, bring home and Google before trying. 

Bought some lovely dragon fruit - very beautiful hot pink on the outside, with a tender white flesh flecked with little black seeds on the inside.  It tastes like a combination of a pear and a kiwi.

And bought some little bell shaped fruits with a waxy skin that turned out to be water apples.  Not really apples and not really watery, more like a super crispy under-ripe pear.

They had bananas cut right off the tree (not flown in from South America), the cutest little pineapples that were the size of the palm of your hand, and samples of tasty treats.  I tried something that I think the lady indicated was made of grated dried fish.  It tasted good!

Loved the mounds of bamboo shoots, and the bulk rice area with fresh rice, and of course the flowers!  Bought a bunch of orchids for $4!  They are amazing.  And all the types of fresh mushrooms - hope none of them are poisonous!  And then there was a whole section of baked goods - breads and donuts.  And then a section of other goodies.  Again, I thought Steve and I were adventurous enough to tackle trying some things so we had them with dinner last night.  We're still not sure what they were, but they were good!  I can't wait to find the fish market I've heard about...

The boxes are here!

I spent an eventful day unpacking boxes so we're no longer living on borrowed items!  The delivery truck pulled up at 8:10 and they were completely unloaded and pulling away by 8:50.  This is not because they were hyper efficient, only because there were so few boxes.  I think I have bought more at Walmart in a single shopping trip than we were able to bring with us in this shipment!  Still, it's nice to have pans and sheets and real pillows, and for that I am thankful.  The kids are only thankful for the Legos and have not stopped building them since yesterday.

It was fortuitous that on Monday when I toured Emmy's new pre-school that they were having vacation bible school this week.  The director invited the kids to join at which the kids eagerly agreed (except London, who said he would come back tomorrow!)  I sent all three of them on Tuesday which gave me 2 1/2 hours of uninterrupted unpacking time.  Enough to get the upstairs all unpacked and put away.  Those Legos bought me another 2 1/2 hours of uninterrupted unpacking in the afternoon so all was in tip top order by the time Steve got home.  Lucky him!

Hannah requested some pictures of our new house - so here you are Hannah.  Remember, we still haven't received our second shipment with our furniture or painted so it looks a little bare.  Consider these the "before" pictures.  And the outside, well, I will be pushing my green thumb to the limit trying to get it looking better than the concrete barracks that it truly is.  The other picture is of the view from the front porch - note the now infamous ferris wheel.

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.

Swimming with the puffer fish

On Sunday we went to the beach at one of the Army bases and enjoyed frying ourselves in the very powerful sun.  The water is beautifully clear and the beach is composed of crushed coral, not sand.  They had umbrellas and chairs to rent and as I sat there in the shade of the umbrella contemplating the turquoise water I was reminded of a Corona commercial… too bad the dream was interrupted by a child asking for a snack! 

We are anxiously awaiting our express shipment so we can have our snorkeling gear.  Rumor has it there is a plethora of sea life swimming around us in the water, although all we could see was a lonely puffer fish.  We rented a sea kayak and paddled out to peer down into the clear water – it was amazing!  I was expecting to see a fin cruising by any minute, but luckily that never happened.

Stevie went into the hospital today thinking work was starting work, but called at noon to say he was done.  I guess he starts with a clinic tomorrow now.

This evening we walked down the sea wall which is a barrier for the sea surge from typhoons.  It is officially typhoon season right now through November.  Apparently it is not unusual for a typhoon – even category 5 – to hit here.  But everything is built out of concrete for a reason…it's not pretty, but it stays intact.  The sea wall is made up of these giant concrete "jacks" – very strange.  The snorkeling is supposed to be amazing just past the wall.  Again, waiting on that snorkeling gear…

Had to give Gynny back today; she was very sweet, but needs a quiet couple, not a rowdy kid invested home with another energetic kitten.  Obi continues to terrorize the kids, or is that the other way around?

Cannon's birthday tomorrow, should be plenty of stories!