Round One

Our friend Tom has been offering to babysit since he's been deployed here.  Well, his six months on island is almost up so we finally took him up on his offer and went out for a date.  Since the weather has had us cooped up I wanted to do something active, something fun so I took this opportunity to take Stevie to a place I've heard a lot about, but never been - Round One.  Ideally it's a place to take your kids, but the kid in me wanted a go before I carted the whole family there!

Round One is a seven story building of indoor entertainment fun!  First floor arcade/panchinko games - second and third floor bowling alley and darts, fourth floor relaxation massage chairs, fifth floor arcade/mini-bowling/darts/roller rink/mini-bikes/golf/soccer/table tennis/kickboxing/ball pit for the kids, sixth floor kids play area/kareoke rooms/mechanical bull, seventh floor outdoor games of archery/golf/tennis.  Wow!  you could get lost in there.

Stevie worn out from his round of kickboxing.

Is it Vegas or a pachinko parlor?

How on Earth does this thing work?

It was a little hard playing video games when the directions screen looked like this...

I have to say the best part was the mini-bikes!  They only pulled those out every two hours and you had to sign up for them by first signing your life away.  Unfortunately, Stevie did not qualify to ride.  I'd like to say it was because he was too short, but another qualifier stopped him... (I'm being nice :)  Turns out there were a bunch of Marines that didn't take the qualifier about weighing less than 175 pounds too seriously so they got to play! 

That's me on #1!

With my knees flapping out to the side and "Highway to the Danger Zone" blasting on the speakers, I took my position next to a bunch of teenagers at the starting line.  Then the Round One worker (sporting a fly shiny jacket) waved the checkered flag and we were off!  Ok, so I didn't exactly break any speed limits, but you try balancing on a two foot tall mini-bike and tell me it wasn't hard!  Yes, I lost the race.  A twelve year old boy took the first place honor and got to take a victory lap to "We Are the Champions".

Wheee!!!!

Can't wait to bring the kids for some more fun...

Rainy Day Fun

So it's now rainy season in Okinawa and it's another rainy, dreary day that was shaping up to be a bummer so Emmy Jo and I decided to do something fun.  What else but rain boot shopping!  After discovering that my daughter is the puddle jumper in the family, I decided she needs a pair of rain boots.  We headed off to Jusco (Japanese department store - kind of...) to find the perfect pair.  We found that the Crayola box exploded on a display of rubber boots so there were plenty of colors to choose from...

And a stand of coordinating umbrellas...

After choosing a snazy chartreuse pair (her choice, not mine), we looked around at some of the other stores in Jusco.  I have to say I found a new favorite store!  It's sort of like a 100 Yen store/Bed Bath and Beyond/Spencers gifts all in one.  The confusing mess of merchandise was like a sensory overload, especially with the loud music pumping through the store (think a club version of the theme from James Bond).  This tiny little shop was packed with merchandise that ranged from floor mopping slippers...

To toys (Emmy loved this little walking/talking chihuahua)

To books  (I thought I had found a new bookstore when I saw recipes with the titles in English, but it was only a tease - the recipes were in Japanese!)

To giant tubes of paint that were really toilet paper holders.

To a two foot tall statue of a hamburger (footstool?)

To cute little decorated tweezers (love the package that says "For your relaxing time."  Really, since when is tweezing relaxing???)

I think I'll keep this shop on my list of places to visit when I have hours to waste!

Japanese Movers

Yesterday our neighbors, Melanie and Randy Ball, got "packed out".  Unfortunately, their time here in Okinawa is almost through and they're moving back to the States.  Also unfortunately for them, it was pouring rain all day as the movers tried to pack their life up into crates to be shipped across the ocean.

But I have to say that I've never seen anything like the effort the Japanese movers made to keep things dry - as Steve said, a moving truck with it's own awning?!

RecorderFest 2010

Did you know that the concert venue of the year took place last week and it wasn't in New York or Tokyo or London?  No, the concert of the year was RecorderFest 2010 and it took place at E.C. Killin Elementary in Okinawa Japan!  I was priviledged to have a front row seat to listen to my star performer - Cannon.

Dragon Boat Races

Today is the culmination of Golden Week and it is Children's Day/Boys' Day (and, yes, Cinco de Mayo for all the south of the border readers!)  And today was also the big Dragon Boat Races that I've heard so much about.  Dragon boats are just that, long, brightly painted wooden boats that are capped by a dragon head in the front and a tail in the rear.  A team of rowers have to maneuver the thing down an open strip of water, turn around a marker and head back to the finish line.  Dragon boat races are a competitive event here on island and many teams train for months just to take home the trophy. 

Well the kick off to Dragon boat racing was today in Naha (the capital city) which coincides with the kickoff of fishing season.  So along with the festival and boat races, there is a blessing of the fishing fleet and prayers for a good fishing season.  Although, I have to say, that the whole fishing season kick-off seemed to get a little lost in the hoopla of the day.

(My neighbor, Kelly, said this team had to win because they had to be able to live down the PINK shirts!)

There are many, many companies and private teams that competed in the day's events - some looking a little better trained and organized than others.  And of course, the Americans had to get in on the action, and have teams that compete.  The funny thing is, they had one heat for the American women who all raced against each other - Army, Navy and Marines.  I'm not sure how they did the guys, we didn't stay long enough for that.

Go Navy!

Along the dock was a giant festival/carnival set up with games, rides and food, food, food. 

(one of the carnival prizes - pink chicks!)

Emmy fell in love with the tanks of rubber ducks/fish/balls - you know the game - pick one up, find the number, win a prize. 

When she fished out her respective fish, the ladies gave her the choice of a tiara/glittery jewelry kit or a kit of hair bows and barrettes.  She looked at both the options and decided she wanted to go fishing to try again!  She finally settled on a more boyish toy - a magnetic fishing game so she could practice at home.

Culture Day

Tuesday was Culture Day at Cannon and London's elementary school and they were treated to a show of Japanese/Okinawan dance, music and entertainment.  Emmy and I went to see the show - I don't remember assemblies like this at home...

A lifesized Shisa dog (the kids loved this!)

Taiko drummers (loud!)

Tradional dancers

Eisa dancer

(Eisa dancer in tradional costume)

Japanese Arcade

Today I took (aka was talked into taking) the kids to San A (three A's) which is a Japanese department store / grocery store / big box store similar to Jusco (you might remember previous postings on Jusco). Anyways, because of some challenge by Stevie to the boysat the soccer games yesterday, we somehow as parents owed our two boys a Bakugan a piece. Don't ask.

We found the aforementioned Bakugan at the BX, but Cannon decided he didn't want the BX Bakugan and needed to go to the Japanese store for a more exotic Bakugan and I got the pleasure of taking him today. (How did this happen? This was Stevie's challenge ...)

While wondering through San A trying to find the toy department, we passed the arcade, which seems to be standard fair in one of these Japanese Big Box stores. For the first time, though, we actually got sucked into this noise-blaring, lights -flashing, bells-and-whistles-abundant arcade. What can I say, I was curious and a little nagging by the kids led me to drop my guard.

The boys immediately decided on their choice of games - Cannon chose a flight simulator game and London a race car game. I sent Cannon off to his machine with his 100 Yen (about $ 1) and tried to get London set up with his game which included a seat belt (Huh? The Japanese don't strap their kids into real cars, but have shoulder belts for video games???) Before I could drop the coin into London's game, Cannon was back saying that he had been shot down and the game was over. Well, that was a hundred Yen well spent. And since London's game was half over before he was able to reach the peddles, his was also another hundred Yen well spent. I won't tell you about Emmy's. ..

But the neatest game in the joint (in my opinion) was the claw game. You know these types of games (if not, pay attention next time you enter WalMart and you'll see one). You drop in your quarter, maneuver the claw over a mound of stuffed toys and try to grab one and send it down the shoot. Well, the Japanese version is the same in concept, except their prizes are containers of rhinocerous beetles. I'm not lying - real, live, breathing rhinocerous beetles in a plastic cage! Have you ever seen one of these things? They're wicked looking bugs about three inches long with a big pincher thing sticking out. But they're legitimate pets here; I've seen them in the pet stores. Needless to say, I did not let the kids try this game for fear they would win!

(Note the claw in the upper left corner and the plastic boxes with the beeltes in them!)