Car names

I was going to do a Top 10 list of the funniest car names we've seen in Okinawa, but I thought of a few more and had to add them as well. Sooo, as David Letterman would say.... "Ladies and Gentlemen, here is tonight's Top 12 list!"

#12. Suzuki Splash- Well, “splash” is actually a good name for a car here, since we’re on an island.
#11. Mitsubishi Mum 500- Looks like a little Jetson's car, only it doesn't fly ;)
#10. Toyota Stout – It’s an older pickup from the ‘70s I’m guessing, that I’ve seen around a few times... not very exciting.
#9. Toyota Deliboy- If you don’t own a sandwich shop, why would you want this car? Interesting.
#8. Daihatsu Move- I bet if it “moved” too fast around a corner, it would tip over. It somewhat resembles a Scion-xb, if you know what that is.
#7. Mazda Bongo- Just a boring van, so it needs a catchy name to get your attention.
#6. Honda Joy Machine- I’m not sure if driving that car would bring me anything close to joy, haha.
#5. Honda Life Dunk- A Japanese mini-vehicle w/ a turbo engine. The first turbo vehicle to pass the low-emission test here. I love this name, haha!
#4. Daihatsu Latte- Could I get this latte at Starbucks for $2.50? Nope.
#3. Suzuki Every- A compact little van, supposed to be very roomy inside. So you can fit “Every”body in it??
#2. Honda That's- Seriously, "That's" is the name of the car.... had to look twice on this one. A car “that is”…what??
#1. Daihatsu Naked- Imagine saying... "Hey, I'm going to go take the Naked for a drive, be back later!" What a name for a car, geez.

P.S. The picture shown above is of a Naked car. Put some clothes on.... come on! ;)

Video blog... from the roof!

I'm not going to write much here, because the video pretty much says it all. I apologize for the shakiness towards the end... the hand strap on my camera became loose and so the camera action goes a little crazy for awhile while I tried to fix it. Sorry! Oh also.... I forgot to mention some of the funny car names we've seen here in Okinawa, so I will make a list of my top 10 favorite names and post them on my blog later :)

Bull fighting...

Today, we went with a group of people to the Okinawa bull fights in Ishikawa. Yes, bull fighting, haha. When I heard about this, I thought of a colorful matador challenging this big old bull with only one of them walking away alive. Well, it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but it definitely was entertaining! This type of bullfighting began as a pastime for farmers who raised the animals and the sport grew and became a sort of tradition here in Okinawa.

So, the fight begins when the bulls lock horns and attempt to wrestle the other to the ground. Kind of like bovine sumo wrestling in a way ;) A winner is declared when one bull gives up by turning away and running from the fight. They’re trained to not intentionally hurt each other, but they did get a little banged up with a few cuts and bumps on their heads. Not the violent gruesome battle that some of the guys were hoping for I’m sure, but I’m happy that the bulls walked away without any serious injuries.

Another big attraction of these fights are the handlers who train the bulls from the time they were calves. They are so loud and energetic and during the fight, they circle around the bulls and scream words of encouragement at the top of their lungs over and over again… “Ayeee-ayy!!!!” (sounded something like that, who knows). They slapped the bull, stomped their feet and urged the bull on, especially when the bulls got tired. Unfortunately, one of the handlers today got in the way of the bulls and got knocked to the ground and trampled on a little bit. He got up and ran out of the ring, so hopefully he wasn’t too injured. Scary!

Toward the end of the fighting, there was a raffle for some prizes. Not the normal prizes you would expect though. They did give away a bunch of kitchen stuff, a fan, and a box of t-shirts (I think) but the major prizes were… alive. Hahaha! Yep, we had the chance of winning a pig, a goat, or a very large bull. Normally, I would have kept my fingers crossed when they announce the winning number, but today I was like “Oh pleeeease don’t call my ticket. I don’t want a goat or a bull!” But today, we weren’t lucky enough (whew) to bring home any farm animals. On the way to the parking lot though, I looked up and saw this brand new vehicle drive past us… a Honda Cube I believe…with a very handsome looking goat tied behind the back seat and a very proud owner in the front seat. Classic! :)

Okinawa beaches

Okay, I can't believe I haven't written more about the beaches here in Okinawa. We've only been to a few so far (it's been raining a lot lately), but there are definitely some that are better than others. The first beach we went to was on another military base.... not very exotic looking, but a great place to hang out with a lot of other families and it's popular for the kiddos since there is a water slide :)

We've also driven along the coastline and randomly stopped at a few more secluded beaches. Gorgeous scenery, but I would not want to swim in some of them because of all the different sea creatures living there... urchins, sea cucumbers, starfish, crabs, and other possibly poisonous/painful things. But just by walking around near the shore and cliffs, you can take some great photos and just relax and enjoy the view.

Our favorite beach so far has been Ikei Beach. To get there, we had to drive over the sea bridge (Kaichu Doro) from the east side of Okinawa Island. It was only about a 40 minute drive, so not bad at all. This beach is a great place to enjoy swimming without worrying about currents or rough areas in the water. There are also jet skis and rafts to rent and places where you can bbq. Below are a few pictures of Ikei and also a video. It wasn't a very sunny day when we were there, so the video quality does not do this beach justice. The water was sooo blue and clear. Perfect for swimming and lounging on the beach. We'll be there again soon!

Shipment day

On May 30th, we finally got the rest of our stuff... yay! We were expecting the moving crew to show up around 9 in the morning, so I thought I was hearing things when I heard this quiet 'knock knock knock' downstairs just before 8am. Schan and I are both not morning people, so I drug myself downstairs in my PJs and found that there were 3 Japanese movers smiling and staring back at me from our patio window, haha! Needless to say, that woke me up better than my morning coffee.

So the next few hours were spent helping the movers organize boxes and do inventory, since all of our things had been labeled with numbers when they packed it up back in Oklahoma. Luckily everything was there, with only a little damage on the side of our coffee table. At the end of the day, the company had to call a crane to lift our extra couch onto the balcony to get it upstairs. Japanese staircases are not meant for big American furniture :) It was a crazy sight to see this giant crane lift our couch over my car to the upstairs balcony. I guess it's very common to do that around here though. If we would have rented an upstairs apartment here, all of our furniture probably would have been moved that way.

We also had forgotten about the random things that the movers in Oklahoma City accidentally packed up for us, haha. We had labeled things "Don't pack" but I guess you have to be a little more specific with some people. I thought for sure that they would not pack our cat's litter box, which they didn't, but they did pack the stinky litter scoop and supplies that went with it. Yuck!! Some certain beverages (liquor and beer) also went missing in OKC during the whole packing process. We thought that the movers took all of it as a nice bonus, but we were wrong. All of it traveled overseas with our furniture and is now chilling in our fridge here in Okinawa. I bet there isn't another Bud Light bottle in the world that has traveled as much as ours :)

Another trip down to Naha...

In Okinawa, the only way to really get to know the island is to randomly drive around and see the sights. It's not a big island... about 65 miles long with an average width of about 5-10 miles. However, that is deceiving because there is so much to see and do here that you forget it's actual size. Traffic can get really congested here too, so sometimes it can take around 2 hours to drive only 30 miles, yikes!

Anyway, we took another road trip down to the Naha area and walked through one of the malls there and also found a couple of movie theaters in the area. Schan was actually on his own little mission to find some Japanese movie posters to sell online (movies and movie posters are his big hobby for those who don't know). No luck finding any to buy on this trip though. We also did some exploring in downtown Naha and browsed through some of the shops there. I still laugh at the crosswalks here because when it signals that pedestrians are safe to walk, they play video-game sounding music while you cross until the light turns red again. Kind of like human Frogger... only I hope that I'm more skilled at crossing the street than I am at Frogger :)

Botanical Gardens

Probably one of our favorite places we've visited so far has been the Southeast Botanical Gardens. It's just down the road from our house and the scenery there is amazing. There are two different sections of the gardens: an aquatic park and a botanical park. There is also a buffet-style restaurant and several gift shops (of course!). I have to remember that we're going to be here for 3 years and that I don't have to buy something everywhere we go.... though it's tempting sometimes.