The kids and I are sitting on a bench that looks like a Goya. It actually looks a lot like a cucumber (same size and color) but it has all these bumps on it. It's bitter and is one of the "Okinawa foods" too eat if you want to live for a long time. I like them but a lot of American's don't. We also let the kids ride one of the "kiddy rides". The ones you find outside the Okinawa stores are slightly different than the ones you will find outside Smiths in Brigham ;)
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
And November begins...
This past weekend we went to to the Shuri Castle festival. The parades here are steeped with tradition and are really fascinating. We watched part of the parade and walked around some until we got to hot.
The kids and I are sitting on a bench that looks like a Goya. It actually looks a lot like a cucumber (same size and color) but it has all these bumps on it. It's bitter and is one of the "Okinawa foods" too eat if you want to live for a long time. I like them but a lot of American's don't. We also let the kids ride one of the "kiddy rides". The ones you find outside the Okinawa stores are slightly different than the ones you will find outside Smiths in Brigham ;)
The kids and I are sitting on a bench that looks like a Goya. It actually looks a lot like a cucumber (same size and color) but it has all these bumps on it. It's bitter and is one of the "Okinawa foods" too eat if you want to live for a long time. I like them but a lot of American's don't. We also let the kids ride one of the "kiddy rides". The ones you find outside the Okinawa stores are slightly different than the ones you will find outside Smiths in Brigham ;)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Hi from Lalee
Hi guys well today we sold cupcakes and TONS of different kinds of cookies @ a bake sale for my daddy's work! It was fun when Alex,Becca and I yelled out, "Bake sale. Come get your cookies!" But Becca didn't do much she just watched us as we shouted out. It was fun at first but then it got a little boring. And then my dad went to a party and we stayed home. And while we were there I ate a lot of cookies it was yum yum yummy! And we ran in to a lot of people that we know at the Bx. We went to see if there were any pumpkins left in the commissary but there wasn't so we just got other stuff instead. We got our dinner and it was yum yum yummy and so on what was all you guys day been like? any thing interesting well happy Halloween just by the way! Love Lalee by-by
HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
All of them are in school.
An older message I'd sent to my family at the beginning of September.
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Hey guys- it's the first day of school and we are ready for it. Well, maybe not physically but mentally we are! The kids are ready to go and make friends and start having more structure in life. It's kind of bitter-sweet... I had planned for this day to be my first day of counseling for quite a while but I know it will come eventually. I am finally able to up load some pictures- YEAH! Because I have a handful to upload I figured I'd put them in a slideshow so it doesn't take up too much space. I know you may have seen one of two of these but I think there are a handful of new ones too ;)
We sent snorkeling last weekend. It was awesome. I had no idea there was so much sea life in even the shallow areas of the ocean. Of course we choose a less beachspot and a more coral area so we were able to see whole schools of fish ranging from the size of a quarter to the size of dinner plates, we saw eels and sea snakes and tons of coral. We are planning on going to one of the near by islands over labor day weekend and maybe we will be able to see different sea life there. Enjoy!
We sent snorkeling last weekend. It was awesome. I had no idea there was so much sea life in even the shallow areas of the ocean. Of course we choose a less beachspot and a more coral area so we were able to see whole schools of fish ranging from the size of a quarter to the size of dinner plates, we saw eels and sea snakes and tons of coral. We are planning on going to one of the near by islands over labor day weekend and maybe we will be able to see different sea life there. Enjoy!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Spam-burgers and other September Adventures
Hey all, I know its been a while since I posted anything. Don't really have an excuse. We've been unpacking and organizing the house, doing a little bit of decorating. Just that kind of stuff. We're starting to get a little bit busier.
As for the pictures to share with you... here are some from our outing today. I know I've mentioned that things are different here, what you ask for is not always what you get. Prime example. I have always loved a good Burger King whooper... load the thing with pickles and perhaps a slice of cheese and YUUMMMY! The second week we were here I was so excited to find out there is a Burger King on base. We went and I was blown away but the fact that they have the audacity to call that thing in that package they gave me a whooper. YIKES- it tasted like a very bad version of a Big Mac (Insert shudder right here). So as I've been running into people at random places (the store, park, the bathroom of Juscos, English classes, etc) I have asked where I can find a good old fashion truly beef (not fake beef) hamburger- American style. Throughout these inquires one name kept popping up: Jet Burgers by the Sea. So today we decided to go. There was a 'picture' menu (fairly common around here) with English names but we still don't know how to read the kanji telling us what was on the sandwiches and honestly wouldn't understand it if we did so we just kind of pointed and nodded... this is what we got:
Lalee ended up getting the Chicken Cheeseburger which had chicken pattie, spam, cheese, curry sauce and retucce (a veggie kind of like lettuce and cabbage mixed). Alex and Becca shared a smouthwrester which had hamburger, spam, curry sauce and a weird kind of melted cheese (theirs tasted the most like an American hamburger). Pete had an Hawaiian Burger which had hamburger, avocado, egg, pineapple, cheese, rettuce, tomato and curry sauce. Yes- it had egg on it. I had the karate burger which was Cajun chicken, cheese, eggs, pineapple, avocado, rettuce, curry sauce. Each "hamburger" came with a pastry that tasted kind of like french toast and a sweet potato patty thingy. We also got a side salad to share which had a variety of local veggies and a nice rounded pile of shredded raw fish. . . yum! Okay, I know that reading those ingredients probably makes it sound really gross. It was surprisingly good considering what it looked like
when placed in front of us- I mean an egg on a hamburger? Add a pineapple and avocado to that same burger- not pretty. But it was good. The twisted look on my face was because I discovered the avocado on mine by my mouth starting to have an allergic reaction to it. All in all, it was a fun surprise. I don't think we will go there again as it turned out to be kind of costly about 4800 yen- yikes!
We also went and walked around a couple of the local shrines.... The kids are staying next to a bell- I think it might be a freedom bell but we are sure as once again, no comprehend kanji. Here is where the language gap is felt the most for us- in our sight seeing, although we have developed a game where we come up with our own definition of the strange characters that we can't read but explains what we are looking at, some of these definitions are outrageous- mostly mommy just makes stuff up and everyone laughs. Left, the kids are standing in front of a worship area that has a ton of gold. Notice that lack of shoes, most Japaneses restaurants and buildings and sometimes stores require the removal of shoes. It is very rude to walk into someones house with shoes on. The kids have developed a habit of standing rigid straight and staring at me when I pull out the camera- what's up with that???
As for the pictures to share with you... here are some from our outing today. I know I've mentioned that things are different here, what you ask for is not always what you get. Prime example. I have always loved a good Burger King whooper... load the thing with pickles and perhaps a slice of cheese and YUUMMMY! The second week we were here I was so excited to find out there is a Burger King on base. We went and I was blown away but the fact that they have the audacity to call that thing in that package they gave me a whooper. YIKES- it tasted like a very bad version of a Big Mac (Insert shudder right here). So as I've been running into people at random places (the store, park, the bathroom of Juscos, English classes, etc) I have asked where I can find a good old fashion truly beef (not fake beef) hamburger- American style. Throughout these inquires one name kept popping up: Jet Burgers by the Sea. So today we decided to go. There was a 'picture' menu (fairly common around here) with English names but we still don't know how to read the kanji telling us what was on the sandwiches and honestly wouldn't understand it if we did so we just kind of pointed and nodded... this is what we got:
Lalee ended up getting the Chicken Cheeseburger which had chicken pattie, spam, cheese, curry sauce and retucce (a veggie kind of like lettuce and cabbage mixed). Alex and Becca shared a smouthwrester which had hamburger, spam, curry sauce and a weird kind of melted cheese (theirs tasted the most like an American hamburger). Pete had an Hawaiian Burger which had hamburger, avocado, egg, pineapple, cheese, rettuce, tomato and curry sauce. Yes- it had egg on it. I had the karate burger which was Cajun chicken, cheese, eggs, pineapple, avocado, rettuce, curry sauce. Each "hamburger" came with a pastry that tasted kind of like french toast and a sweet potato patty thingy. We also got a side salad to share which had a variety of local veggies and a nice rounded pile of shredded raw fish. . . yum! Okay, I know that reading those ingredients probably makes it sound really gross. It was surprisingly good considering what it looked like
when placed in front of us- I mean an egg on a hamburger? Add a pineapple and avocado to that same burger- not pretty. But it was good. The twisted look on my face was because I discovered the avocado on mine by my mouth starting to have an allergic reaction to it. All in all, it was a fun surprise. I don't think we will go there again as it turned out to be kind of costly about 4800 yen- yikes!
We also went and walked around a couple of the local shrines.... The kids are staying next to a bell- I think it might be a freedom bell but we are sure as once again, no comprehend kanji. Here is where the language gap is felt the most for us- in our sight seeing, although we have developed a game where we come up with our own definition of the strange characters that we can't read but explains what we are looking at, some of these definitions are outrageous- mostly mommy just makes stuff up and everyone laughs. Left, the kids are standing in front of a worship area that has a ton of gold. Notice that lack of shoes, most Japaneses restaurants and buildings and sometimes stores require the removal of shoes. It is very rude to walk into someones house with shoes on. The kids have developed a habit of standing rigid straight and staring at me when I pull out the camera- what's up with that???
--Anyway. Love you all. Hope you have a wonderful week--
Just an update.
I haven't been posting on this blog much as I have been using facebook to let family and friends know how we are but I've decided to go ahead and try to post here more frequently, if for no other reason than to have some kind of digital record of our lives. I'll try to post some of the memories for the past couple of months here to catch up. For those of you who do check this, I'll do better in the future :)
Tug-a-war
I finally got around to posting some pictures of us at the Naha tug-a-war. 
According to Guinness Book of World Records, this tug-a-war is the largest one in the world (using natural materials for the rope). The rope is made of straw, is 659 feet long and weighs 44 ton. The main part of the rope itself is pretty tall (almost as tall as Becca) and then it has tons of ropes coming off of it, kind of like a centipede, that everyone pulls on. There are parades, tieko drummers, eisa dancers each team has a handful of hatagashiras which are tall poles decorated to represent different regions of Naha. The tug-a-war itself last for 30 minutes or until a team is able to pull the rope 15 feet in one direction. There are usually around 15,000 people pulling on the rope each year. At the end of the event, if you were pulling from the winning side, you cut part of the rope off and it will bring you good luck for the year.There were a lot of different people to watch, events to see, and food to eat. The top picture is of us at the very end of the event. The picture next to it is Alex and Becca hanging out in front of some of the performers who were taking a break.
This picture is of Pete and Lalee pulling on the rope. The guy on top of the rope in the black would direct their team to pull and the teams would chant hayrida, hayrida, hayrida! Which simply means pull. The last picture is of Becca pulling on the rope. Yes, she is wearing a butterfly mask. She loves that mask and wears it all over (Thanks DaNette). Ironically, it is a common tradition for kids to wear masks at these events and they were even selling masks at a lot of the street booths. If you look in the background of Beccas picture which was taken about an hour before the event and had a lot smaller crowd, you can see the size of the rope. Anyway. We had a good time and learned more about the culture and people.
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