Toes Today

Today is a milestone in Gabriella's life, she received her first pedicure today.  As you can see in the picture the toes are painted pink with polka dots and each big toe has hello kitty on it. We went with our dear friend Dr. Amy to the Okinawa institution Cocok's.  Since it was Gabriella's first time getting a pedicure I made sure to explain the need to stay still through out the whole process, that she would be allowed to pick her own design, that her feet would be rubbed and her toe nails filed. The way she sat through the whole process one would think she'd done it a million times.  When we arrived we were quickly seated in a row, each with our own nail technician. Amy and I were given a 100 page book of nail designs and Gabriella was given two boards with all the kids designs shown on them.  Gabriella only flinched at the very beginning when the lady filed her toenails into a nice shape. After that she interacted with her nail lady asking her questions and observing what was going on. At one point during her foot massage I thought she might fall asleep, her head was back on the chair and her eyes looked like they were closing.  But once the hot towels were removed from her feet and the painting started her eyes were glued to her toes. She never looked away, she watched the lady apply all the coats of polish and paint the hello kitty faces, if there was a mistake she would have spotted it. The design was spot on, just like the nail on the board. Of course Gabriella was finished before we were, so we plied her with candy, encouraged her to finish her tea and stay still until her toes dried.  She managed to make it out of the salon without needing a toe touch up, but she did step in a huge puddle on the walk to lunch so her toes are slightly dirty in the picture.  Gabriella loved getting her toes done and already has her design picked out for next time. 

Island Luau

It was raining horribly all day yesterday. Our playgroup had an outdoor water activity planned and even through sheets of rain the kids played in outdoor pools and in sprinklers. Gabriella and the other kids were able to play for 4 hours before the thunder and lightning finally rolled in. At first I thought the day was going to be a bust, but the rain was relatively warm and the ambient temperature outside was in the 80's.  Once we realized that the kids were still going to play outside the ladies and I were able to catch up on each other's lives. Many of the families will be PCSing to new duty stations this summer so each playdate we have seems to be someone's last one. 

Later that evening was family story time at the library. The theme was a luau and everyone was decked out in their island best. Even though it was still pouring outside, the inside of the reading rooms were decorated with tropical flair and island music was playing in the background.  Gabriella's swimming friends were there and the girls enjoyed dancing before the stories started. Gabi even showed off a few of her hula moves.  We heard some great stories, our favorite was Bats and the Beach. After the stories and songs the kids were able to make a craft. This month's craft was a postcard, made with cut out beach shapes and even cut out stamps. Gabriella made hers for Greg, who was watching Terminator 4 at the on base movie theater.  After the luau at the library Gabriella and I went to dinner at the Macaroni Grill. Gabriella and I recalled our day of activities at dinner and she didn't stop talking for the whole meal.  She did manage to eat all of her pasta and even some of her ice cream for dessert in between regaling me with stories about her friends. Greg enjoyed his movie and Gabriella and I enjoyed our girls night out. 

Father's Day

My father in law always says that mother's day ends at noon. This morning when we called to wish him a happy early father's day he informed me that father's day goes all day. We held true to this "rule" on Greg's Father's Day. It started this morning with church, he received a very cool blue rose and a special blessing. Once back home he got to open all his father's day prizes.  Then it was time for breakfast. We went to 50's Diner, that's both the name and the description.  The breakfasts that Greg and Gabriella had were delicious and my bacon cheeseburger was quite good too. After our bellies were full we headed to the Renaissance Beach. It's a Renaissance Hotel with it's own private beach, pools and water activities center that you can buy admission to use. We packed up all our beach gear and headed in. It was amazing, the hotel lobby is beautiful, they have live parrots sitting on tree branches. Once we paid our admission fee we went to the locker rooms to change, put our extraneous clothes in the locker and headed to the pool. The first thing we did was try out the kids pool and water slide. Gabriella had a pretty bad experience with a water slide a few weeks ago so she was a bit hesitant. Greg took her on once and we discovered that they had a floating mat at the end of the water slide so once the child comes shooting off they stay above water. Once Gabriella realized that she wasn't going to drown she went on the slide by herself, about 100 times.  She even put her head underwater 12 times all on her own. This is a huge step for her, she was still crying in the bathtub last night when I asked her to put her face in the water. We also tried out water wings on her, she loved them and immediately wanted to swim on her own. She used them in the ocean to swim with me. Yes, I Therese Montoya went into the ocean for the first time since my honeymoon.  The water was so clear and refreshing. I even swam all the way out to the buoys. We spent a good hour in the ocean enjoying the gentle waves and salty seas.  There was also an indoor pool with 2 additional water slides.  Of course Gabriella went on both the large and the small slides numerous times.  It was an amazing day, I've never seen Gabriella enjoy the water as much as she did today.  She was a little fish or should I say mermaid. 

After the Renaissance we stopped in Sunabe for dinner. We went to the Curry Shop for a delicious curry buffet. Gabriella enjoyed dipping her naan and french fries in the curry. We finished dinner just in time to watch the sunset.  It's been a perfect weekend.

Well almost perfect, I think we are all a bit sunburnt. 

A very special Saturday

Saturday was a very special day, it was what I would call pre-father's day. Greg picked our activities in honor of his special weekend. The choice was the Churoumi Aquarium. We got passes when we first moved here and we are determined to get our monies worth.  On our way up to the aquarium we stopped at a japanese rest stop. It had an observation tower, gift shop, food stand, restaurant and of course vending machines. The stop also had a garden dedicated to the G8 summit for peace that took place on Okinawa.  Gabriella got an ice cream and I got a lemon drink out of the vending machine.  Once we were refreshed we got back on the road to the aquarium. When we arrived we headed in to look at all the fish. Our highlights were finding a school of clown fish (Nemos) in a sea anemone and seeing a really informative movie about the ocean life of Okinawa. At the movie they gave us headphones that translated the program into English. 

Since we packed our lunch for the trip we stopped at the rope playground to picnic.  We had our delicious sandwiches and some chips and fruit. Once finished Gabriella and Greg headed out on the rope course. Gabriella showed no fear as she scaled rope wall after rope wall. Greg looked so proud.  All that exercise tired her out because she slept most of the car ride home. After the we left the aquarium and before Gabriella was able to fall asleep we drove through the Fukugi Row of Trees of Bise. We aren't really sure if we found the specific row of trees, but we found a row of trees that could be Fukugi trees. 

Once back at home Greg barbecued some delicious Kobe beef and shrimp, while I worked on the mashed potatoes and Gabriella made the green beans all by herself.  She melted the butter, sauteed the green beans, added the salt and pepper and even a splash of chicken stock. Dinner was delicious and everyone felt proud that their portions of the meal turned out perfectly. 

Why we love Japanese Food

Since moving here to Okinawa I've tried many things out of vending machines and at restaurants. Some have been fantastic, some have been unexpected and only a few others have been completely horrible. We've had a really busy weekend full of food, and now that I'm finally willing to sit down at the computer and do some writing I see that there is so much to talk about. I will start with Friday. Of course Gabriella had her swimming lesson in the morning and for the first time it didn't rain on her. Of course it rained before and after the swim lesson.  After her lesson we headed home for a quick breakfast and then off to hula.  After hula class we raced to our playgroup activity. This week it was at Mona Kids Jungle.  We've been there before and we love it. Gabriella loves it because she gets to play in this huge indoor play area with her playgroup friends.  I love it because they have great vending machine snacks. Friday we got our favorite, miso flavored cup of noodles. It's the coolest vending machine ever, first you select your soup, it drops down from the vending machine, then there is a little hot water dispenser right on the vending machine and it also has a chopstick dispenser.  As a special treat Gabriella got a popsicle for dessert, it is pictured above.  The popsicle had candy embedded in it that reacted like pop rocks, it made your mouth fizz. It was the most bizarre popsicle I've ever tried, but Gabriella finished every bit of it, then asked if we could take one home for daddy. Sadly the 80 degree weather did not prove conducive to taking home an extra popsicle. 

Later that evening we arrived home exhausted. I called Greg at work and casually asked if he was interested in going out to dinner, because I was too tired to cook.  We decided that sushi sounded perfect. We went to Zen Sushi and met up with the Broom Family. All the kids had a great time playing and eating there sushi, edamame, and miso soup.  The restaurant serves american style sushi rolls. So far it's my favorite place to go for spicy tuna rolls.  Next time we go I'm getting  the Zen Roll, it's the chef's choice and changes daily. Fridays special came with pink rice.  We went to bed that night deliciously full with no dirty dishes from dinner. 

Wow Weather

I suppose living in California all my life has been a blessing and a curse. The blessings are numerous, great vacations within driving distance, lots of opportunities to visit amazing places, and fantastic weather almost all year around. The last bit about the weather is what is really turning into a curse. I am completely unprepared for the rainy season here on Okinawa. It's been pretty much raining solid for the past 4 days. That in and of itself is nothing new, it usually rains almost daily here, or so it seems. However the past 4 days have been thunder storms, which I'm absolutely not use to.  Today was really the first day I've had to drive extensively in the rain, and guess what, I'm really not very good. It was overwhelming, I've found all the blind spots in my car and realized that I'm not really able to see well through the rain. It should be noted that the Okinawans do not use reflective paints on the pavement. When it's raining here you can't see the lines on the road at all, so you kind of just hope for the best and follow the car in front of you.  Today I had to drive to swimming, then to the fresh vegetable market, then the egg zoo, then the library and finally a meeting on another base.  I made it everywhere safe and sound. But not without a few white knuckle moments, the most dramatic was driving down through a curvy neighborhood as the raging river that was the gutter kept cutting across my lane. I kept feeling the car start to slip on the road, like it was going to hydroplane but didn't.  Another moment was actually seeing a fork of lightning hit the ground.  Now that we are home we are able to appreciate the awesome power of nature,without breaking out into a cold sweat.  I suppose tomorrow will be another day, probably full of rain.

Swimming Lessons

Today was the first day of Gabriella's swim lessons, a summer tradition which we've all participated in and were thrilled to introduce her to. The day dawned stormy and wet, but rain or shine the lessons would go on.  In fact when I went to sign her up for these lessons, they said there was only a few reasons the swim lesson would be cancelled, the main ones were typhoon and lightning.  Signing Gabriella up for these lessons was an adventure all on its own.  The sign up was scheduled from 8-11 am on a Saturday. When I went to the parents orientation earlier in the week, it was suggested that getting to sign ups early was imperative if you want to get your child into a particular class time.  So doing my due diligence I arrived at the sign up place at 7am, the line was already wrapped around the building. Once I got in and received my number I was number 73, to give you an idea of how popular these lessons are, when I left they were giving out number 198.  Well all my line standing was worth it because I was able to get Gabriella into the best class for her. It is at 8 am in the morning, but she doesn't seem to mind.  Today's lesson was just an introduction to the water and perhaps a little test to see how comfortable the kids were in the water. Gabriella was happy to get into the water and to hang desperately onto the side while the other kids were taken out to show their kicking skills and ability to blow bubbles. Once it was Gabriella's turn she looked a little nervous, but she was able to persevere. I'm confident by the end of the lessons she will be much more comfortable in the water, maybe even be able to get her hair wet without bursting into tears.

Pancakes and a Castle

Sunday dawned hot and rainy. We made our way to church at the regular time, 8 am. Once we finished our 45 minutes service, I think the priest had somewhere to get to, we decided to go out to breakfast. Which brought us to a quandary. Okinawa does not have a denny's or an ihop. When breakfast is desired it's usually found at a buffet at one of the officer clubs. However with the help of my favorite website in the world, okinawahai.com we found a pancake house. Now when someone in the states thinks pancake house, they think of a restaurant with lots of tables and servers. When Okinawa says pancake house they mean just that, someone's house where they turned the front room and kitchen into a restaurant. Jackapoos pancake house was delicious. It was located in the middle of a neighborhood, inside the front room of someone's house, the bathroom I imagine is probably the one they brush their teeth in at night.  The pancakes were delicious, I had spam and eggs with mine and Greg had his with sausage and eggs. He said the sausage reminded him of the farmers sausage we had once upon a time at Niagara Falls. Gabriella had the kids pancakes which were topped with m&m's. While we were there we saw a book on the counter called Takaka and the Great Typhoon. Greg had heard it was written by a local American, when we paid for our meal we bought a copy of the book. We were then informed that the author was sitting not 10 feet from us with her husband and son. She graciously signed Gabriella's copy with a beautiful personal message. Of course we didn't bring the camera into the restaurant so we have no photographic proof of the encounter or the delicious pancakes. But I assure you we will return to Jakapoos soon, to try to work our way through all the different types of pancakes. Personally I'm looking forward to the meatball pancakes. 

Since we were in Yomitan we decided to stop in and see their castle. Zakimi Castle is located at the top of a big hill, like every other castle we've gone to.  It has amazing arch ways which are unique to this particular castle. We climbed to the top of the walls and got a wonderful view of the surrounding areas. Located next to the parking lot was the Yomitan Folklore and Art Museum.  We went in, paid a nominal fee and were treated to a brief but informative look into Okinawa's history. We were able to see pottery which had been unearthed in Yomitan, view farming equipment, tombs, fishing boats, and an Okinawa house. The art museum was full of Ryukyu glass and pottery. They even had a section about Okinawa during the war. We were able to see cans of rations and old uniforms of both the Japanese fighting forces as well as the Americans. The museum was fairly small, but they had a guide in english that allowed us to know what we were looking at and a small explanation of how things were used.  

As we headed home after a brief stop the heavens opened up and it began to pour. We managed a day full of fun before the rain started. Note: The picture of me and Greg  was taken by Gabriella.

Away We Go to Wago

Today was a busy day for us. Friday is Hula lessons for Gabriella and then our weekly playgroup. Last night and most of today it was pouring down rain with thunder and lightening. Our original playgroup plan was a beach outing however since the weather was not cooperating we went to Wago, a family fun center. This place was three floors of fun.  The first floor was full of pool tables and a food court type of place. The second floor was full of video games, air hockey tables, and a huge area for children to play.  The top floor is batting cages.  We met our playgroup on the second floor.  The cost was 1000 yen to play all day, from 11 am to 6pm. We of course didn't stay all that time but we did spend over 3 hours there. Gabriella was thrilled to meet some new friends and to play on all the equipment. The favorites were a spinning palm tree and a wheel that the the kids could roll as it sat on a trough of water.  We took a quick break to eat some delicious watermelon and catch our breath. We exhausted ourselves on the video games, my favorite was the drum game and Gabriella's was the snow cone making game.  We played quite a few games of air hockey, Gabriella proved to be quite good at defending her goal.  We had a nice time and stayed completely dry. 

OK!

Last week Gabriella and I went on a ridiculous multi day search for our local Toys r us. We were sadly completely unsuccessful, but we did find a lot of other interesting stores along the way. One of the favorites was OK! Okinawa, I would say it's part Crate and Barrel part Ikea.  There was a furniture section with a lot of cute children's beds and dressers. Gabriella of course tested all the chairs and found some that she thought were perfect for our house. I declined the option to purchase any furniture, but I did buy a few other accessories.  My personal favorites were the heart shaped muffin pan and the pasta measuring device.  Once we finished looking through all the departments of the store we decided to head upstairs for lunch.  The cafe was delicious, my favorite part was the all you can eat bread bar. There was a huge variety of rolls, we tried almost all of them. Our favorite was the honey oat, the least favorite was squid ink. It was a really fun outing, even if it wasn't toys r us. 

This Old House

I've been neglectful of this blog this week. So I'm going to attempt to catch up.  Last Monday Greg was off work so we decided to check out the Nakamurake Old House. It is just what the sign promised. It was a house built by the Nakamurake Family after their castle was destroyed by the ruling landlord. The house has 8 distinct rooms all which were beautifully restored and decorated as they may have been when the house was in use. The tatami mats were very comfortable to walk on and even to sit. We explored all the rooms, Gabriella's favorite was the kitchen. The kitchen was decorated with pots and pans as they would have been used by the occupants of the house. Gabriella served us a pretend dinner at the kitchen table.  The house was a testament to how the native Okinawan's lived, it was really impressive how the house was constructed. The roof looked as if it was pieced together with sticks and some sort of mud or plaster which has survived hundreds of years of typhoons without damage.  The house had an accompanying gift shop which we explored after our trip to the house.  There was also a pond full of koi that Gabriella enjoyed feeding.  At the gift shop the proprietor served us cold jasmine tea and some delicious brown sugar jelly.  I was also fortunate to stumble upon an amazing guide book. This book has listings of all the museums on Okinawa and some of the outlying islands.  The book was a real find, it's over a hundred pages of museums. I'm looking forward to visiting the shell museum.

Sunday Fun Day

Summer seems to come early here in Okinawa. I imagine that days like today will happen often this summer. We finally had a clear and sunny day warm enough to put out the slip and slide. Our neighbor kids were over at our house at 10:30 asking if today was the slip and slide day. I confirmed that it would be only after Greg returned from work.  He got home around 11 am and we set up our backyard fun zone. The fun zone consisted of the Dora slip and slide and the inflatable pool.  It was great watching the kids use the slip and slide and play in the pool. Gabriella was hesitant to slide on the slip and slide, but she did walk on it.  She doesn't really like to get her hair wet so perhaps the slip and slide will be something that she will grow into enjoying. She did love the pool and spent most of her time jumping in and out of it. The kids played outside for almost 4 hours and everyone managed to make it through unscathed and without any fights or injuries. Although we did have our doctor on hand if necessary.  It was a nice relaxing day at home.