Shuri Castle Moonlight Festival

Hello!

Life is good here in Okinawa. We had to prepare for a typhoon this weekend but it missed us... luckily! We had our first real "Okinawan Experience" last night when we attended the Shuri Castle Moonlight Festival. It takes place at Shuri Castle which is where the King of Okinawa used to live. It was SO pretty and happens once a year based on the lunar calendar. I have attached a few picture for your viewing pleasure. The moon was full and the dancers were amazing!!!

Slip & Slide

GOOD morning EVERYONE! HAPPY FRIDAY! At least for us it is TGIF... for all of you back home.. you are almost there! Well they say pictures are worth a thousand words and today I was SO thankful there wasn't a camera around! John doesn't have to go into work until later and he and I took Maddie on her morning walk. I need to say first that in our area there aren't sand beaches, it is the cement wall things that you walk down and then into the water. I decided to look for some sea glass because the tide was not quite in yet so I went down in the area that has a little coral beach and when I was coming out, I slipped on the cement wall. I realized I was falling so sort of turned my body (mind you I am fully dressed) and proceeded to slide on my rear down 2 or 3 steps and then slide into the ocean. Yep, hit the wonderful sea floor! John described it as a zpt.. zpt...shoooing... He was laughing hysterically and had the perfect view as he and Maddie lounged on the upper cement steps! Moral of the story: there are reasons, which I now understand ever to clearly, why they say wear the rubber soled ocean shoes when playing around in that area of the East China Sea! I have attached a picture of where I fell... but fortunately for me... there are none of the incident itself. Just imagine me sliding into the water on the right side of the picture and then sinking...Yes, it was truly an typical "Angela Moment!"

Thursday

Hello everyone,

Well this week has flown by. John was off until Wednesday so we have just been playing catch-up. Life is good in sunny Okinawa. I started a pottery class yesterday... PRETTY cool... I am learning to throw things on the wheel... it is a bit harder than it looks... I had to laugh at myself a bit and finally told my teacher to laugh to... he did of course! I came home very messy. I created 5 masterpieces... none of which will be worth a million dollars... probably not even 100 yen but we will love them just the same. My bowl basically looks like a soy sauce dish because I didn't throw it even and my cups look more like mini bowls... oh well. I there is only room to go up! Prodigy I am not! For dinner last night we went to the Pizza House... WHAT a unique experience. As with other things here we are realizing that what things say they are and what they are are TWO very different things. I had 3 tacos for dinner with a "mini pizza" and John had a sort of italian trio thing. Now the pizza is dough, cheese, hard boiled egg slices, a piece of hot dog and I think some red pepper was on there...bit different than Domino's.... Actually wasn't half bad though. More to come and pictures at the local grocery store will follow. Take care and kumbawa (good evening)

Public Potties!

I have to mention the public potties... for men, they consist of a urinal outside usually with just a partial wall... we have one near our house that the taxi drivers seem to enjoy frequenting... usually when mutt and I are doing our morning walks... I have learned to just look away! As for women... it is quite the experience as I mentioned earlier... they are basically a urinal in the ground! You squat, aim ( if possible) and pray that you are hitting the right spot! Quite the challenge since most don't even have a bar to hang on to... not to mention holding purses, pants, undies and anything else you brought in... Goodness knows you don't want it on the ground when trying this feat!!!! I posted a few pictures for you to get an accurate idea of these puppies.. ENJOY! The pictures are of the ladies public potties... so friends and family... when you come to visit... make sure and practice squats before arriving! HAHAHAHAHA ;0) There are a few places that have American style ones but I am realizing they are few and far between!

Shisas

I am fascinated by the "shisas" everywhere. They are said to be the "bodyguards from malevolence." It is a lion-dog and can be seen everywhere! They are in a variety of shapes and sizes and I have found them very interesting. Some say there is a male and female. The male should be on the right. They usually come in pairs, one with mouth open and one with mouth closed and serve different purposes. The ancient Okinawan's say the dispel bad luck and evil spirits. They are so neat and so different. Here are a few pictures!

Happy Tuesday...Monday for those of you in the states!

Your horoscope says that Tuesday will be great! Just kidding... who really knows. We each create our own destiny...it is actually a bit overcast here today. Maddie and I got rained on as we took our daily walk along the Sunabe seawall.

It is officially September and life is going great. John and I have been in Okinawa for almost a month and have even managed to visit a few "touristy" type spots. We even did a Tour yesterday of the Nago area. That is North of where we live by about an hour or so. We visited the Pineapple Plantation, the Orion Beer Factory (John's favorite.. you got 2 free beers and they were regular size.. not like the itty bitty ones at Sea World... even got beer nuts too.. whooooohoooo!) We also visited the Ryuku Glass Factory & the Nakijin-jo Castle Ruins. We had a yakiniku style lunch which is where you cook your own food... pretty fun.. using large chop sticks... QUITE the experience... overall it was a great day!

I have added a few pics of our time here. We are settling in nicely. John is back to work and very happy about that. He was ready to fight the war on plaque once again. Maddie has finally gotten into a routine and is our normal happy puppy. I am figuring things out. I am starting a pottery class tomorrow and will learn to throw pottery from an Okinawan gentleman. I have also joined a few groups and plan on volunteering at the Navy Gift Shop regularly. It should be fun.

This country is so incredible in some ways. They are SO respectful of their elders and everyone is very friendly. There are definately some differences.. for example, the fastest you can drive is 60 km an hour and that is SLLLOOOOWWWW.... but the cars are not really made to go faster than that. We have learned a few phrases... I have gotten very good at "gomen a sai" which is "I am sorry"...hahahahaha... and we know some basics. The public toilets are QUITE the experience for women.. yes, you squat, hold, pee and don't forget ... PRAY that everything goes where it should!!!! A bit more difficult than for men...

We had a great experience a week or so ago... we ate at a place that I have NO idea what it's name is but we call it... SUSHI GO ROUND because you literally sit at a diner-style bar and the sushi goes around on a conveyor belt and you pick what you want, save your plates and pay at the end... PRETTY cool... there were some really good ones and some that even John said were a bit TOO much for him! I am beginning to like different sushi and even a few raw types!

Curry has become a fast favorite... espcially the all you can eat spot we found about a 5 minute walk from our house. Speaking of walking... Boy do you do a LOT of it here! We walk and sweat everywhere... that is the way it is! They even sell little pads for under your arms ladies.... to gather the perspiration...how funny is that!

Well more later but enjoy the pictures and we look forward to hearing from you!