Painted Sky

It rained all afternoon. It's raining now. But the rain did stop long enough for me to enjoy this sight.

Not too shabby.

Oh What Fun

Nothing brings friends together like a good ol' game night.

And beer.

But mostly, game night.

Here are the ladies playing Mad Gab.

Again. And the guys huddle around Kent during Cranium.

Thanks for hosting game night Scherdens!!

Vive Mike's!

Our friends, Tom and Laura, returned from their summer trip to the states this week. We all met up for dinner last night at a Mike's Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed catching up, telling funny stories, enjoying the food and having out picture taken by the waitress for the restaurant's photo bulletin board.

Oh, and you may have noticed that Noa and I match with Tom and Laura. It was pretty funny to arrive and notice that Laura and I both had jeans and black shirts on, while the guys had khaki shorts and blue and white button down shirts on. I guess great minds do think alike.

We pretty much closed the place down and hung out chatting for several hours. I'm looking forward to the next Mike's visit.

Ah, good times! Vive Mike's!

Proper Garbage

The tenants in our apartment building often get reminded to put out the garbage properly. Here on Okinawa, recycling is a big deal and the way the garbage is distributed reflects this. Apparently, many Americans have trouble figuring out the system or are too lazy to adhere to it. Here some of the many posters we see each day in the elevator that explain the garbage process.

When it's time for Noa and I to empty the garbage, it's a big undertaking. First we tie up the "regular" garbage bag. The we have to bag all the recyclable items in separate, clear bags: cans in one bag, bottles in another, glass in another, etc. Boxes have to be cut up and tied together. Old clothes, towels, or other cloth also gets tied up as well as paper and magazines. Any large items have to be picked up separately and we are then charged a fee. Broken glass and hazardous materials have to be wrapped up and labeled "dangerous." Then we take all the bags and tied up items, bring them downstairs, outside and place them into 2 different bins: combustible or noncombustible.

It takes a lot to keep the villege* happy.

*Notice that the first one says, "Let's create comfortable villege together." The Engrish still cracks me up every time I get on the elevator.

Mismatch

Recently, our apartment was re-wallpapered due to the presence of mold on our walls. The guys who fixed it simply cut off the affected areas and put new paper in place. Sounds like a good plan - unless the wallpaper is different than the original!

It's hard to tell from this photo, but we now have patchwork walls in our place (see the lower right corner for the different paper). Thankfully they are the same color, just different patterns/texture.

It's true...

...he is a doctor! I had to drop off a key to Noa today at the hospital and I got to see him in full doctor mode. He was ready to deliver a baby (and had already delivered another before I showed up!). I've never seen him with the booties, hat, mask, etc. So, I had to take a photo, of course!

You go, Dr. Hammer!

Keys

I got my keys (those flat, rectangular things hanging on my key chain) today for school. So - it's official - I'm in kindergarten again this year! Yippee! Ya-hoo!*


Now, I have a ton of cleaning, arranging, and organizing to do. The teachers don't have to be back officially until next week, but I need a head start. I have a lot to do. You may remember that I left my classroom like this at the end of the year.

*It's probably a good thing I'm in kindergarten...who else uses words like yippee and ya-hoo, anyway? Certainly not a forth or sixth grade teacher.

Weekend Plans

I have a big test to take on Monday, so my weekend won't be very exciting - lots of coffee and practice test after practice test. At least we have Starbucks on the island.

Yomitan Pottery Village

Today, my friend Kim took me to the Yomitan Pottery Village. She and her hubby, Rob, recently moved to the area and I made them promise me they wouldn't check it out without me. Ha ha - I'm such a stinker!

Anyway - it was great! We saw lots of wonderful handmade pottery and glass. It was really random, actually. We just followed the signs to the pottery village and suddenly we found ourselves on this street, with little pottery shops located on the sides of houses. You basically go up one driveway to the next and check out the little shops.

Here are some photos of the glasswork. We found out that the pieces are actually made from recycled soda and beer bottles. This is part of the railing to the building:

This is a portion of a stained glass window - well, actually a door into one of the shops.

We also got to see them making the glass products. I don't know how they did this in the hot and humid weather of Okinawa. They were dripping with sweat.

The little shops sold lots of shisas. Kim's daughter, Mia, likes to say that Julie says, "Shisa Shisa!" Yeah, I'm a bit obsessed with these lion dogs - but they are just so interesting! I took pictures of the artistic ones.

I love these! I'm hoping to go back and purchase these or a similar set.

Our lucky find of the day was a shop that was far off the road. Kim and I saw a sign on the main road with some kanji writing and and arrow, so we decided to check it out. The road soon turned to dirt and we found ourselves driving down a dirt path in the middle of nowhere. At first we thought that we were going to really get lost in the jungles of Okinawa, but soon we came across a small clearing with some pottery pieces set out under a tent. The shop was right there too. You could see all the clay bowls sitting out, ready to be painted. The dishes were beautifully painted in traditional Okinawan style(at least that's what the woman told us). I picked up a couple of bowls and a gift. We'll definitely be going back.

Here you can see it in finer detail.

Pearly Whites

Sadie had a minor medical procedure at the vet's today. She went in for a dental cleaning - and needed it bad - as any of you who have been kissed by her know from her horrible breath. I was nervous about it all day because I knew she'd be under anesthesia and IGs are sensitive to this. Thankfully, she did fine. Of course, I had to photo-document the before and after results.

Before: Notice the plaque - yuck!

After: Look at those pearly whites!! Sparkling!

Meanwhile, Gunnar is trying to convince us that he doesn't need a dental (which he doesn't, but when he's getting into trouble, I threaten it).

Look, ma! I'm ferocious with my white teeth!! Grrr...

Bathroom Behavior

It's always a gamble when using the public facilities here in Okinawa. What will the bathroom be like? Will I know how to use the toilet?

Thankfully, most of the nicer, newer bathrooms have these impressive toilets with features that can't be found on any ordinary toilet. Here's a photo of one in the Naha airport. Noa thinks these are the greatest invention ever.

Besides the automatic flush, the seat also offers a bidet (there's one for the male and one for the female - notice the difference in the 2 middle buttons). The function that I find most comical (yet practical) is the button with the musical notes on it. This button, when pressed, makes a flushing sound, so to <ahem> disguise any other noises.

Older restrooms have the standard "squatty potty" shown here. In the airport, you get a choice - there are diagrams outside of the stalls, indicating whether it is a squatty or a "regular" toilet. I'm getting better at using these, although I will never choose one of these if a choice is given.

In many Japanese homes, the toilet is separate from the bathroom. Literally, there's a room for the tub and shower; it really is a bath room. In order to utilize space in these small toilet rooms, I have seen many pint size sinks, but never one as "clever" as this: incorporating the sink and the toilet together as one unit.

Personally, I find it a little creepy.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

We've had storms on and off all day as a result of the tropical storm just south of Okinawa. I've seen several rainbows today and I finally managed to catch one on film just before it disappeared.

Adventures in....

SPONSORSHIP

This past week, Noa and I have taken on the role as sponsors to some friends who moved to the island recently. We had the fun part: looking at houses/apartments, checking out the "newest" vehicles on the car lots, shopping - you get the picture. Our dogs, however, also had to take on the role as playmates to their little girl Mia, who occasionally came over to play. I think they did a good job.

Mia shares the outdoor dog bed with the pups:

Mia wins over their affection by feeding them treats:

An interesting challenge came up this week as our friends moved into their new house. The house is a cute, 2-story Japanese home in a quiet neighborhood north of us. Upon moving to Okinawa, military families have access to loaner furniture from the government (think dorm room furniture in regards to aesthetics) and so, they signed up to get this delivered. Well, we found out that the movers would not bring the furniture to the 2nd floor, since the stairwell was too narrow*. So, the guys devised a plan in which the furniture would be hoisted up to the 2nd floor using rope and pulling it up over the balcony. It was a 4-person job so I couldn't get any photos - but here's one of Noa and Rob (with help from Mia) getting the rope ready to use to lift up 2 dressers and a box spring up over a balcony to the 2nd floor:
Although we gave the neighbors quite a show, we were successful!

SHOPPING

We took our friends to one of the local home improvement shops and I took some entertaining photos for the blog. Enjoy!

Noa found an interesting brand of work gloves. We purchased a different brand instead. I don't really see how pigs could really be excited and happy about these.

With these work pants, there is no fear of performing a gymnastic-style split on the job.
I found these ilustrations depicting some toilet features quite entertaining.
Noa tries to figure out how to bring back one of these advanced toilet seats to the US (by the way, the price tag reads 39,800 yen, which is around $375 for a toilet seat!!)

DIVING
We FINALLY made it into the water this year! Noa and I went diving with Jenn and Perry at one of Okinawa's premiere diving locations, Maeda Point. Although crowded, it was beautiful. I purchased a cheap disposable camera to see if I could get some good underwater shots, but it was no Nikon D50. So, please excuse the poor quality of these photos.

This is me, swimming though a channel in the coral. Overall, we saw a ton of fish, including flutemouths, long-beaked butterfish, clownfish, moorish idols, triggerfish, whitespotted blowfish**, and Perry and Noa even had an encounter with a moray eel! This was a momma clownfish (either a goldbelly or twoband anemonefish) with a baby (lower right of the anemone - hard to see) tucked in with this anemone, which was actually a ruby red color. We saw them at 100 feet!
The blogger herself!

*This reminded me of the couch-moving episode of Friends - "Pivot!"

**I didn't know most of these names at the time. I had to look them up. Not a complete list!

Mold Update

The owner, housing agency rep, and other maintence guys came out to look at the mold issue. They are going to try and replace all the moldy paper and see if that works. We also found out that the apartment below us has the same problem.

Always an adventure....