Lockdown Lowdown

Sorry for the boring post (no photos), but I thought I'd give some more info as to what life is life in lockdown mode.  First of all, the recent incidents off-base involving military members can be found at Japan Update.  

Here's the rest of the scoop on life on lockdown:

What can you do?  What can't you do?

The lockdown (also called "the period of reflection") really only affects me on the weekends, since my weekdays are pretty simple: work, gym, and then home.  However, on weekends I am limited to doing things only on base.  However, I recently received notice that we can go to other people's houses off base (yeah!).  But, there's no going "out" in town:

• no going up north to check out the cherry blossoms
• cancelling an upcoming Cocok's appointment
• no 100 Yen shopping
• no Starbucks runs
• no eating out in town
• no karaoke 
• no grabbing a drink out of the corner vending machine (if you've been here before, you know that there's hundreds of those around)

How will the military know if you do these things?

The locals know about the lockdown and have been known to call the police when an American has shown up at the corner Lawson's or some other off base locale.  There's a rumor going around that Americans have been caught off base and were given 48 hours to evacuate the island for going against the order.  But, I don't really know if that's true or not.

What about church?  School?  Work? Taking care of business off base?

You can get a special waiver signed by the command that allows you to take care of previous engagements (for example, the Okinawa Marathon was this past weekend and all the American runners had to get waivers to participate in this off base activity).  If you attend church, school, or work off base, you do not need a waiver.  If caught off base without this, that's when you'll be in hot water.

How long is this going to go on?

No one really knows.  The person who decided to put Okinawa on lockdown, has not given any indication as to how long this is going to go on.  However, many of us speculate that after the lockdown, they'll be curfews in place so it won't be completely back to normal.  I'm not really sure how that's going to work.

Handstand Sadie

What do you do during a lockdown*?  Use your dogs for entertainment, of course!

We love how Sadie "protests" wearing clothing by doing handstands.  I'm trying to turn this into a teachable moment and trying to get her to do this upon command.

*Yup, you read that right - we're on lockdown status over here.  Due to recent events involving service members making poor choices in the local community, the head honcho has put all SOFA status folks (us) on lockdown.  That means we are limited to the bases, places of worship, residence, and education.  So, we can't go shopping off-base, get our nails done, walk the seawall, etc.  So, we're getting creative in finding things to do.  

Animé Addict

Another "classic" example of Japanese car decor:

I wish I could say this is unusual, but I see this often.

100

Today was "100 Day" at school.  It's the day that we celebrate 100 days of Kindergarten this school year.  For the 5- and 6-years olds in my class, it's a big deal.  It's a celebration that is up there with Christmas and Valentine's Day.

One of the fun things that we do to make this day fun for the students is to rotate the three Kindergarten classes.  Each class visits another classroom and participates in 100 Day activities.  In one class, the teacher read a book and then the kids had to help draw a picture of me (their teacher) when I am 100 years old.  Here's their "masterpiece:

Notice that they think I'm 34.  Their first response when asked how old they thought I am right now, was 99.  When the teacher said, "no, she's younger than that - much younger," they said that I must be 9 or 11.  Cute.  

WOOOT weekend

"What is WOOOT," you may ask.  WOOOT stands for Women On Our Own Time.  It's our new annual retreat where the girls head somewhere (this year we went up north to Okuma*) and hang out without husbands, children, or pets.  It was a blast and Okuma was beautiful.  It was my first time there.

Here are the girls who participated in this year's WOOOT retreat: (R to L, top to bottom) me, Melinda, Tritia, Mary Ann, Liz, Laura, Emily, and Jennifer

Giving our WOOOT shout out:

V-Day

Valentine's Day is a big holiday when you teach in elementary school.  This is one of the perks of the job; not only do you get candy and goodies, but you get handwritten notes from current and former students.

Notes like this make my day (this was a Valentine gram sent from one of my former students).

Twins

So Noa and I have been meeting after work to go to the gym.  We've been doing this for over a month now and haven't run into this problem yet...

SHOWING UP IN THE SAME CLOTHES!

And of all the days, I ran into some of my colleagues who saw us together.

Nice.

A Must See

I've aways been a sucker for musicals.  Maybe it's because I was an aspiring Broadway star as a 9-year-old.  Maybe it's because I can be a hopeless romantic.  Or, I just like to have material to sing in the shower.  For whatever reason, I love 'em.  

Which brings me to the topic at hand: you've got to see this movie.  Once is a low-budget, modern day musical that is not your everyday love story.  It even has a "Lost in Translation" feel, as one of my friend's put it.  The buzz for this movie started at the Sundance Film Festival, but I got wind of it this weekend while viewing it at a friend's house.  

Two things to know before watching this flick:

1 - There is language in it, especially at the beginning.  Be forewarned.

2 - I think it's best with the subtitles on.  It's a foreign film and although the characters speak in English, the accents can make it hard to understand.

Now I just have to get my hands on the soundtrack.

AM Resurrected

I was outside of school with one of my colleagues today and she was telling me about the AM tower that was getting installed outside our building.  This made me very happy because I used to be an avid listener of NPR - until I moved to Okinawa.  The amazing thing about the tower isn't the tower itself, but the 3 guys who climbed it in order to work on it.  You can barely even tell they are there in the first photo.

I would NEVER have the guts to do this.

And - KUDOS to Kate for helping me blog for the first time from my new little Mac - pictures and all.  Thanks, Kate!

Technical Difficulties

Sorry for the lack of blogging.  Our desktop PC is still very slow with some tasks and I'm trying to figure out how to use iPhoto with Blogger.  Keep checking back - I'll figure this out soon enough.