Misguided

Sadie has decided that I made a very misguided shopping decision over the weekend.

I couldn't pass up a crazy Japanese dog outfit on clearance.

You can tell she's plotting to chew up my socks tonight in this picture.

Our Dragon

Meet Dragon, my Kindergarten class' newest member. I surprised the kids with this pet for our classroom because we've been studying living things. The kids just love him! Can you tell that they picked out his name?

Unfortunately, this is actually our 2nd Dragon. The 1st one died quickly (I think I purchased a diseased fish) and I had to replace him over the weekend. Thankfully, betta fish are easy to find and I chose one with common coloring. I decided not to tell the kiddos about this part of the story.

The only problem with getting a class pet is that now I have the "bug". My para and I have already discussed getting a bird next year and then maybe something furry, like a rat or a hamster. We'll see about that one. Having a class pet brings up lots of stories from the kids about pets they had to leave behind in the states (very sad) or pets they acquired while living here. Mostly though I hear about fish who didn't make it very long and ended up getting flushed down the toilet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this Dragon doesn't have to go there for a while.

In case you were confused...

My friend Teresa knows my penchant for humorous Japanese signs and took this photo for me the other day when she was out in town. I guess the standard bathroom picture signs with the male figure in blue and the female figure in a dress in red weren't cutting it anymore.

Pet Box

I haven't found a fabulous pet place yet, but this place is decent. Pet Box* actually sells some wholesome food** from the states, so I can't complain since I thought I would be forced to feed the cheap junk from the grocery store. Nothing but the best for my babies!! Anyway, Pet Box does sell puppies, which makes me sad, and also sells other little creatures, such as fish, rodents, and even the occasional spider monkey (Americans are not allowed to import these, so some military families have found themselves in a pickle after purchasing one of these crazy creatures).

This is where I found those dried fish treats. I also found it interesting that I found another product with an IG on the packaging (this is so rare in the states). This happened once in another pet store that sold small necklaces for dogs, but this time it was for something normal: dog treats! I also found this odd, since I have yet to see a local with an IG, even though the Japanese seem to favor the smaller breeds.

Anyway, REPRESENT!

*The wording at the bottom of the Pet Box sign reads, "keep happy friendship with your pets."

**Wholesome dog foods include, but are not limited to Natural Balance, Royal Canin, Solid Gold, and a couple of others. The Whole Dog Journal publishes a list of nutritionally sound dog foods each year.

San-A Seafood

There's a store here called San-A. They are everywhere, kind of like Wal-Mart. San-A is actually separate stores all housed together in one big building, so you have a clothing store, and electronics store, and a grocery store. Noa likes to pick up sushi from our local San-A, so I snapped a few pictures of the sushi and some of the other delicacies one can buy there.


Here's Noa's favorite San-A sushi platter. Just think; this is just a supermarket-type platter, not necessarily the most gourmet stuff around! It sure beats the sushi he used to get a our super Target (no offense to Target - as most of you know that's my favorite store and I miss it dearly).

Squid (yummy...)

These are fish heads. I'm not quite sure what recipie calls for these.

Since we were on a seafood theme, I picked up some dried fish for the dogs at the pet store. Check out these crazy treats. The dogs love them!!

Surprise Guests

My class is studying pets this week (yeah, it's one of my favorite topics). Today I had some surprise guests for the kiddos - our dogs! Noa had the day off and brought Sadie and Gunnar to school. The kids loved it and the dogs were great. They were surrounded by affectionate pats, kisses, and were given lots of cheese! I can't post photos of the kids, but here I am with Gunnar in the classroom (notice that he's more interested in Noa instead of the photo op).

Sunday Brunch

After church today, we headed over to the Rose Garden for brunch - a great place for omelettes, french toast, and crispy bacon (a rarity here). We ate with some friends and enjoyed conversing about Okinawa, travel, and told stories about "back home." As we were leaving we realized we had been there for about 3 hours! Although the restaurant staff was probably glad we were finally leaving, it was a nice way to spend a cool, rainy Sunday morning.

Here we are as we were leaving: Tom, Laura, Noa, Jen, and Perry.

And to you guys: welcome to the blog.

New Duds, New Attitude

A couple of collars came in today for the dogs. I thought I'd show them off by taking some photos. Look at what happened during my photos shoot:

First, I started with Gunnar, who is usually the difficult one to photograph. He doesn't like to sit still and he gets weepy eyes, so I usually can't quite get a good shot of him. Today, though, I finally got a few decent shots. Yeah!

His collar is called "sock monkey" which I think is perfect for him. Noa is not thrilled about it. He wants me to go back to his old camo collar, which is actually my favorite too, but not in it's current ratty condition.

Sadie was hard to photograph today. This was mostly because she was more concerned with Gunnar and Noa. She's here's a shot just to show off her new "cherry blossoms" collar, not my photography skills.

So, then I tried to get a photo of the two of them together and here's what I got:
My theory is that Gunnar was making comments under his breath the whole time and Sadie wasn't going to take it anymore. Yeah, these little dogs can be sweet, but it's WWF when you are not looking!

The Ultimate Experience

I'm going to warn you now and let you know that the following images are a little gross. Let this be a warning that you may not like the pictures in this post.







I bet you're curious now.....seriously, though...it is a little gross, so be warned......








Noa has decided that a fun bonding activity with some of our new friends is to play ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoons. Now, don't get me wrong, I think ultimate is great. My sister is a champion player in fact*. However, I didn't realize that "ultimate" in this sense meant ultimate injuries.





Check out the trauma from a slide during yesterday's game:

Noa's right arm:

Noa's right leg:

*Well, she didn't actually play in a major tournament or anything. However, she'd always be my pick for an ultimate frisbee teammate. She'll take on the best of them!

Traffic

One of the more comical (or death-defying) activities here in Okinawa is driving. I always crack up when I see this light (and I see it all over the place). What exactly is the need for the red light in this situation, might I inquire?

No going backwards, I suppose?