Happy Halloween!

Tonight was our first Halloween here in Japan. We are not huge "Halloweiners" as my dad would say, but we still bought some candy and passed it out to the zillions of kids that came through our neighborhood. So John and I sat on our porch with our bowl full of candy and our "spiked" sodas. Many of the other neighbors had the same idea, so we had a good time! Some of the Japanese nationals were allowed to come on base with their children and trick-or-treat. Oh my that was great! I loved the Japanese kids saying "Twic-o-tweat". I have no idea if they even know what that means, but they were so fun.

Mischa decided to get in on the action and get dressed up in her cowgirl outfit. Of course, she had to make her appearance outside and was a big hit!

This afternoon we decided to just get in the car with the dogs, hop on the expressway and just go. We went pretty far north and found a little secluded beach and just hung out for a while. Of course the dogs loved it, they live for the beach! It was such a beautiful day. The weather is finally starting to cool off and of course the beach was absolutely gorgeous!

My dog can walk on water. Pretty amazing, huh?

Me and Zeke

My babies

Last but not least I had to show you a picture of the sweetest pumpkin of all. My adorable nephew Cade in his costume. Now, you cannot tell me you have ever seen a cuter cow than this one!

Lets get pampered!

Today my friend Rebecca and I went to get a pedicure at the local favorite salon "Cocok" (the K is silent--I have no idea why it is even there) Anyway, I wish I were the brainchild behind this clever place.
Whomever thought to put a nice salon with amazing chairs and great customer service near a military bases where the wives have nothing better to do, was quite brilliant. It seems as if this place was designed for pedicures.
There are 4 rows of Lay-Z Boy chairs where you can sit and relax while your feet are soaking. Just what the doctor ordered! The leg massage (included in the price) was quite fabulous and I almost fell asleep.


Now, in this salon, you don't just go to get your nails painted pink. They specialize in nail art. Now when I say nail art, you probably are thinking of the occasional flower or rhinestone. Not here. They go all out! I flipped through a 100 page book of thousands of nail design possibilities.

Lately I have seen people walking around with Halloween toes, with pumpkins and "boo" written on them. It is insane. I found a few pictures on a local website of a few options.
You can get anything you want!




















We decided to go the subtle route. The Marine Corps Birthday Ball is in a few weeks so we didn't want it to be too crazy for our fancy dresses.
An hour and 1/2 later, here is the end result! Some cute pink toes with flowers. I am a fan of this place. Hey, the leg massage alone was worth the money!

Week one

Well, as most of you know, my wonderful husband left this week for that annoying thing they call work. He will be in Arizona for a month. This is a public blog, so I have to be selective about what I say about him being gone. Anyway, I am even more bored now that he's gone, so today i decided to get out of the house and do what I love to do...shop! Now, I don't shop here like I do in the states. I either can't fit into the itty bitty clothing they have here, or if I do fit into them, I don't want to wear it. As I'm sure you've all seen, their style is a little...uh...different than ours! So I really went to get a mall fix.
There is an area down the road called "American Village". Here, they have a mall, a bunch of restaurants, and a few small stores. I guess it is yet another tourist trap to lure those crazy Americans!



So here it is, the mall. It is a little different than malls in the US. It is kind of like one HUGE department store with a few small ones in the middle of it all. So it is like one enormous room with tons of stuff in it. I think of it as a department store on steroids with a grocery section. This is no Walmart Supercenter, folks. I REALLY wanted to take a bunch of picture inside, but I would have felt like an idiot doing so, and I am not sure it is allowed.

I guess they think we all love pirates


Most of the clothing is what I consider "teeny-bopper" clothes: tons of tshirts, ripped jeans, crazy styles. My favorite part of shopping is looking at the tshirts. They are all in english, but don't quite translate properly. So I grabbed a few of my favorites and took them into the dressing room with me to take a few photos! If you click the photo, you will see them larger.


Some of the sayings are so random it seems as if they just heard english words and put them on a shirt in no particular order!
This one was my favorite, so I had to try it on. I did the whole "pose in the mirror thing." It says, "I love burgers. The food is pretty good". I LOVE the hamburbers sewn on both sides! I totally would have bought it, but it was $50. That is a little much for a novelty shirt.
When you get sick, I will give you a snack, and you even get to pick it out!


As I was walking down the mall, there was this creepy character waving and touching people. Ick. If you know me well, you know that I absolutely hate creepy dressed up characters. Halloween is one thing, but there is something about someone dressed in a big furry costume, running around trying to hug you, that really creeps me out. My children will never hang out with the Easter bunny at the mall unless daddy takes them. I just got chills thinking about it!




So there was how I spent my Saturday...jealous?!

Kukasai Street

I am not sure that I spelled the name of this street correctly, but it is close enough! Today we spent a few hours checking out all of the little shops on this touristy street in Naha. It was actually a few blocks from the castle we went to last weekend. If you ask me, it is a bit of a tourist trap, but what else did we have to do?! There were tons of t-shirt shops and you wouldn't believe how many stores there were that sold liquor. I guess that is a favorite Japanese pastime!
Oh I almost forgot that they have vending machines EVERYWHERE! Here is a typical one you would find randomly on the side of a street.
I went a little camera happy today, so I hope you enjoy all of the photos I took!
As you will soon notice, they LOVE animation here. Everything has some sort of cartoon character on it. I even saw a foot doctor's sign that had a few little monkeys. Quite strange, if you ask me!




Here I am with good ol Mario from the Super Mario Brothers. Gosh, he hasn't aged a bit!
The purpose of this trip was to actually find John a pair of Shisa dogs that he so desperately has to have. These dogs usually come in a pair and are made out of some sort of ceramic or clay. They resemble a cross between a dog and a lion and are said to be the guardians of your home. When found in pairs, the shisa on the left traditionally has a closed mouth, and the one on the right an open mouth. The open mouth to ward off evil spirits, and the closed mouth to keep good spirits in. (Stolen from Wikepidia). I am not exactly a fan of these little guys and especially not a fan of all of the mythology that goes around it, but as long as they stay outside (like they are supposed to) it is fine with me. We found out today that they are incredibly expensive! We saw some that ranged from $250 to $2000!!! Sorry man, we will find some elsewhere! We did, however find a few large ones that I made John pose with!








There was a cool flea market type area with some great looking produce. I probably should have brought some home. I don't exactly have a good selection at the military grocery stores.
This particular fruit caught my eye. I need to research it and find out what in the world it is!


























Speaking of food, I had to stop and take a picture of a McDonald's menu on the sidewalk. I haven't been brave enough to try it, but John says it is great!

As John mentioned in a previous blog, there are two types of beers brewed on this island: Orion and Helios. They had a Helios pub on the street, so we decided to stop by and have our first taste!















Here is a fun picture John and one of the many plaster sidewalk characters taking a break.












After a long day of walking, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant near our house. Now I use the term "Mexican" loosely. This was our first Oki-Mex (as my friend, Sara calls it) experience, so we had an open mind. It wasn't half bad! We both got the Mexican lunch plate that came with one enchilada, one taco, rice and beans. The Okinawans are really big on "all-inclusive" type meals where you get soup, salad, an entree, dessert and tea or coffee for one price. Now don't get too excited, usually they are all very small portions, and you never know what you will get with the desserts. This time it was a brown-ish-clear Jello-like thing, with maybe a hint of butterscotch flavor! Yum. Haha. We couldn't really complain, especially after our meals were only $8 each!
Whew, so that was our day! Then we took the puppies to the beach so they wouldn't hate us for leaving them at home all day! Those crazy pictures will be left for another post!

Shurijo Castle

Sorry it has been so long since we wrote a blog. There hasn't been much to write about and I have been in a bad habit of forgetting my camera! We have been a little busy as well. Our final shipment arrived this past Thursday and I could not be more excited! My house finally feels like a home with all of my belongings in it and not some hideous government furniture. It is still quite crazy in here, so I'll post pictures once it is clean and things are put away!
















Ok, so I will get after it. After church, John and I decided to visit Shurijo Castle. It has been here since the 1400's and they still hold large festivals there.

I am not exactly a fan of history, so if you want to know the details, check it out on Google! Besides all that, the majority of the plaques were in Japanese, and the ones that were in English weren't translated very well! Needless to say, it was quite beautiful and we were glad we got to see it! Haha!


Right outside the gates you could pay to dress up and have your picture taken. I wanted to do it, but it was crazy hot outside and those long kimonos didn't seem too comfortable!



When we went inside, we had to take our shoes off. Now if you know me at all you could probably imagine how grossed out I was having to walk barefoot in the same place as hundreds of other bearfoot people! Note to self: Always keep a pair of socks on hand!

There was a large part of the castle where cameras were not allowed, but here is where they held traditional tea ceremonies for the king.




















I loved the architecture of the entire place. The walls were all made of bamboo.
Outside were beautiful views of Okinawa and the Naha Harbor.













Here is the throne the kings sat on. John wishes he had one in his house. For now he will have to stick to the couch!













So there you have it! It was a pretty short tour, but certainly interesting!