Here are some updated pictures of our house and my car...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Home Sweet Okinawa Home...
Here are some updated pictures of our house and my car...
Friday, August 22, 2008
Shuri Castle



According to records, Shuri Castle burned several times, and was reconstructed each time. Before the war, it was designated a National Treasure, but during the war, the Japanese military set up its headquarters underground at the castle, and beginning on May 25, 1945, the American battleship Missouri and others shelled it for three days. On May 27 it burned.
After the war, the University of the Ryūkyūs moved to the castle site. In 1958, the Shureimon gate was rebuilt, and in 1992, the main building of the castle was reconstructed. At present, the entire area around the castle has been established as Shuri Castle Park.
P.S. For you Lindsborg people... yep, that's the Lindsborg News Record I'm holding... this same pic may be in the paper in late September :)
Neo Park

A week or so ago I went with some friends to Neo Park Okinawa, a nature park/zoo sort of place. They did have a big variety of plants and birds there and also some lemurs and monkeys. Like most parks, it was divided into different areas like the Amazon jungle, the African Savanna (they spelled it Afurican, haha), Flamingo lake, Spider Monkey island, Lemur islands, Tortoise farm, and petting zoo.
Ahhhh the petting zoo!! Sigh. This little zoo had the usual goats, llama, and rabbits, but they also had dogs there tied to little posts. They even had a little tiny picnic basket with a chihuahua in it, wearing a pink shirt. All of our American celebrities carrying around dogs in their purses must have inspired the Okinawans. I am a huge animal lover, so I all but broke down in tears looking at the poor dogs. They looked healthy enough, but I wanted to see all of them go to good homes! I almost tried to adopt the little long-haired dachshund they had wandering around in the fenced in area, but Schan (and our 2 cats) wouldn't have appreciated that very much.


Thursday, August 14, 2008
Obon Eisa Dancers


Obon was first celebrated during the Middle Ages and on Okinawa, it is celebrated according to the lunar calendar. Ever since those times, Okinawans have followed tradition and prayed, eaten, sung and danced with the spirits of their ancestors during this annual event. The spirits are alerted of the arrival of Obon by the cleaning of tombs several days before the event begins. Family members get together at their family tomb to clean it which lets the ancestors know they will soon be called forth to rejoin their family for a short visit. Eisa dancing is performed to please and console the ancestors and dispel any bad spirits.

The 2 photos were taken by another American resident who saw these dancers by his home a few nights ago.
Monday, August 11, 2008
AFN...
Anyway, that being said, I doubt that I will ever get through even 30 minutes of AFN viewing time without bursting out laughing. Why?? Well, instead of the commercials that you see stateside, AFN inserts public service announcements on various subjects, usually dealing with public health, safety, anti-terrorism, pride in military service, sexual harassment "no-no's" and other messages to the troops. Yeah, this all sounds okay, but you just have to experience some of these ads to see what I mean, haha. Here are a few of my favorites....
I'm a styrofoam cup yo... :)
Don't forget to wash those hands!
This is an old one, but they have several updated GI Jerome ads that air several times a day here. He has a lot to say about camping and hiking safety in the newest one! ;)
Monday, July 21, 2008
Ocean Expo Park
The aquarium itself was awesome and they have a great facility to display all of the marine life that is found in Okinawa's waters. The complex (which sits right on the NW coast) obtains it's seawater through an intake pipe and generates some of it's own power. This island is very eco-friendly and efficient, so this wasn't surprising at all. One of the most popular sights (and one of our favorites too) was the large tank that held the huge whale sharks, manta and sting rays, and other types of sea critters. A little cafe sits inside just next to the tank, so we ate lunch while watching the 8 meter long whale sharks swim right by us. These sharks are not carnivorous, so my little fear of "Jaws" was not a problem here :) There are some places on the island where you can actually scuba dive with these sharks and that would definitely be an experience! We still have not become scuba certified yet, but maybe later on this year.
After we toured the aquarium, we went outside to see the dolphin performance. It was in Japanese, of course, but we got the general idea. Dolphins are just amazing animals! I was disappointed that they had part of the dolphin exhibit closed, because it is home to Fuji, a bottle-nose dolphin wearing an artificial tail fin especially designed here at Churaumi. Maybe some of you heard about that on the news awhile back. We bought season passes though, so maybe it will be open next time and we can see Fuji!
We also toured the Tropical Dream Center, a tropical botanical garden with a neat observation tower in the middle. As usual, orchids were everywhere and there were some interesting flowers and plants that I had never seen before. They even had little venus fly traps... tiny ones, but pretty cool :) After catching a nice view from the top of the observation tower, we decided to call it a day. Might have stayed longer, but it was so hot that day and it was hard to enjoy the outdoor part when you are sweating like crazy. The weather here is great in the late fall, from what I hear, so we'll probably try to come back then.
Here is a link to all of the photos I took at Ocean Expo Park...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27905094@N06/sets/72157606290572045
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Okinawa Hollywood

This past weekend we decided to head north to try out a new restaurant I had found in one of our island guide books. It was a steak/lobster house called the Malibu House and it was also a little movie poster museum as well. The ad said that it held over 1,300 historic movie posters or something like that. We found it without any problems (whew), but we weren't expecting it too be that difficult since it is right next to Okinawa's Renaissance Resort Hotel. The area surrounding the hotel is really nice and they even have a little mini Hollywood sign on the side of a small hill. Not quite California, but it's a nice attempt at capturing the American culture :)