An Earthquake and An Embarrassment

We're still not 100% sure, and there is no way to confirm (as far as we know)...but we had our first earthquake yesterday. It scared the begeezus out of me! My lucky mom (who wasn't thrilled we were moving over here) was on the phone with me as it happened. Michael thought it was just artillery, but we haven't had rounds go off since we moved here. In Lejeune it was a daily occurence to have our house shake...not here. Living so close to an Air Base we have had to become accustomed to crazy big planes flying overhead...but no artillery. I stepped outside and saw one of our neighbors...he thought it was an earthquake too. Cement buildings just don't randomly shake!

On a completely different topic:

Regardless of the Aggies football record this year, I believe Dennis Franchione should be fired! What an embarrassment to the Aggie legacy. Who thinks that SELLING insider info to anyone (including "boosters") is a good idea...let alone legal! I also think that Bill Byrne (AD) should be fired as well, because he knew what was going on and chose not to stop it. It is embarrassing that their names are associated with the university that I cherish and love so much. They obviously have no Aggie Spirit or integrity and they do not deserve a spot on campus.

Sushi Time!

We finally got around to making our own sushi rolls! We only used cucumber, crab meat, avacado, cream cheese, sesame seeds, and wasabi mayo (a California Roll of sorts) in these ones. Maybe next time we'll actually use some fish! I was the lucky one that got to make the sticky sushi rice (that was a trip!)
All of our ingredients:

Michael rolling the first batch (we definitely got better with more practice).

I rolled this one! It was fun to use our new sushi set too. That wasabi on the table is probably the hottest wasabi we have ever had--it's awesome! Michael picked it up at Jusco when he had to buy more dried nori (seaweed).

Enjoying the fruits of our labor!
Yumm!

The "Farmer's Market"

These next two pictures were on the expressway on our way to the "farmer's market". Notice the King Kong on top of the building.Everywhere you go there are hibiscus' growing! The side of the expressway was covered in them!
SO.....

We get to the "farmer's market"...and I will give Michael the benefit of the doubt, it looked like it was a market for produce. From the road anyway. Once you stepped out of your car the nastiest smell ever hit your nostrils! I think there was sewer runoff that ran directly underneath the market...you could see a "stream", and I definitely wouldn't be surprised if it was raw sewage. How people were able to buy and/or eat some of the food they were selling there was beyond me (just because of the stinch). It made me physically ill...we were only able to stay long enough to get a general picture that this was more a "flea market" than "farmer's market". There were even women there selling items that they had obviously gotten from the commissary and were re-selling (illegal).
I think this was Michael's reaction to:

this.all I can think of for a caption is: WTF?!?!

This was an interesting event for us, to say the least.

A Small Amount of Beach Time...

We found this beach after the "farmer's market" just off the side of the road. The water was SO warm (~85 degrees F). It was stunningly beautiful.Our traditional pose :)

I felt something prick the side of my foot while we were walking back up to the car and this is what hit it! I took a picture in case I died from it (just kidding everyone)...even I'm not that dramatic!
...it is still gross though, huh.

A New View

We took a wrong turn when trying to head to the "farmer's market", but ended up finding this neat lookout point! In the picture right below you can see some of base housing (where we live!).Directly below us were these older men playing croquet.

Expensive Fruit!

Having been raised in a highly productive farming state, I was used to picking my own raspberries, strawberries, peaches, apples, cherries, etc. from my parent's backyard! Now it is only a distant dream...over here the fruit is so expensive! I haven't seen one strawberry yet...anywhere. This is how they package their Asian Pears, peaches, regular apples, etc. It cost just under $10 for these 2 Asian Pears!

Here is an apple and a white peach (the peaches are some of the sweetest I've ever had though!)

...and our kids have decided that they can "share" the sunbeam now (instead of fighting for it)-- personally though, I think Bailey got tired of fighting and just fell asleep).

Something to Do?

I have lots of new pictures to upload, but I actually have things going on this week! We went to a different camp on Saturday where there was a "supposed" farmer's market. I'll post pictures and give a more detailed description later...We also pulled over to a nice little beach to take some pictures, and I was able to put my feet in the water for the first time over here! Back in NC the water was COLD! Not so much over here...it is at LEAST 80 degrees! It's warmer than bath water and I love it! On Sunday we hit the downtown area of some little town and found some neat paintings for our bare walls (eventually I'll do another video walk through so you can see how much it has changed since we first moved in). ..and yesterday I went to my first O-wife event! SO much different than Lejeune. I ended up joining MOSC (Marine Officer's Spouse's Club)...I think that is what it is anyway. There is a NOSCO too for Navy wives. So, hopefully, I can start meeting new friends a little easier over here. I joined this club that all we do is jump on Space-A travel and go to different places! At least that is what I gathered from my questions, we'll see what it really is. Of course I joined the Bunco group b/c I really enjoy playing bunco (where bad luck pays off sometimes!) and a wine enthusiasts group. Then my friend Laurie and I decided to add one more to our repetoire and we joined the Okinawa Int'l Women's Club (I could be way off on the name of this one too)...where it is a group of American women and Japanese women and one month we'll have a Japanese event and they'll teach us, and the next is our turn to teach them. We also break it down into smaller "Culture Groups" to have a little more interaction with people. Whew...we'll see if I can get a little busier now! I'll try and post pictures a little later.

The drive up to the aquarium

These may be a little blurry b/c they were taken from the car on our way up North.
These next 2 pictures are of Japanese Tombs. There is a special name for them, but I can't remember what it is right now. I kind of have a morbid fascination with them too. During certain festivals, ancestors of the deceased will come and worship and celebrate at the tombs--which means there is an area in the front where you can often see remnants of candles, flowers, etc. These line the road at any given time and are really detailed!

These are just a couple of spectacular views... The surf was huge because it was the day after the typhoon hit.

and finally...to show my parents that there is a Marriott over here in case they want to come over on points :)

Okinawa's Aquarium!

On Saturday we finally ventured up to the Northern part of the island so we could see the aquarium! I have been wanting to go to this aquarium since before I learned we were moving over here. It is one of the biggest aquariums in the world and it didn't disappoint one bit! They even had a specimen of a giant squid--one of the few ever captured!

Here we are down by the turtle ponds:

This is the view when you first walk in to the Ocean Expo. It is so amazingly gorgeous! There are all sorts of attractions, including an orchid garden, a butterfly exhibit, the aquarium, turtle coves, a dolphin show, etc! Some of the things you have to pay for, but others are free. For the aquarium it was about 1800 yen (~$18) per adult.
They had so many of these "animals" that were made out of plants--so cool!
This is the actual entrance to the aquarium:
Michael was obsessed with the big ugly fish, hence the pictures of them.
One of the neatest things about this aquarium is that it is divided into categories. It starts with a touch pond, goes into the coral reef and areas a little deeper, and then goes to the DEEP parts of the ocean!! I'd never seen half of these critters before!

This is a Spider Crab...it was so spooky looking. It was hard to get a picture of the animals down in this area b/c it was kept dark to help simulate their natural environment.

This was the neatest tank I have ever seen! It was GIGANTIC!! There were 2 Whale Sharks in there (each about 25 tons!).
This was another funky looking lobster that I took a picture of. I'm going to stay far away from these guys if we ever get around to diving!
and finally...the turtle ponds! They have a "breeding ground" where they've been the only successful aquarium to have Hawks Bill Turtles hatch!
They were so big!

This was the beginning of the breeding ground. The cement rocks gave way to actual sand where they could lay their eggs.
Baby turtles!
Anybody that comes to visit we will definitely have to take up here--completely worth the 2 hour drive!

This and That

I was finally able to take a picture of what it looks like driving on Camp Foster. Breathtaking isn't it!? I don't think I'll ever take this view for granted!

Here are some of the "regular" vehicles that I think are kind of strange. This is a delivery truck:

and this is actually an Air Force "work truck". They just stick what looks like a shed on the back of a truck and use it as a maintenance vehicle. There is actually a guy riding in the back of this one!
This is what our kids do while I'm playing on the computer (such as now)...Piggy is our little Jealous Wonder:and has to have a bed of her own...
but she's so dang cute when she is sound asleep!

Prepared?? umm...maybe.

Not much has been happening over here...except that we're getting ready for our first typhoon! Michael called to tell me that we were in TC2 (Typhoon Condition 2) and that I needed to get to the commissary (he's been shooting at the range all week). We've since been upgraded to TC1. It was pretty much hand-to-hand combat. The wait for a cart was about 5 minutes and I think they even ran out of water, but since we have our own 5 gallon jugs we, thankfully, didn't need any. Back in NC I was fully prepared during hurricane season--our pantry was stocked and we had tons of batteries and water. Since we've only been in our house for about 3 weeks we hadn't gotten around to making sure we were "typhoon-prepared". Nothing like an impending typhoon to speed up the process! At least Michael is here this time--he didn't have to go through ONE hurricane in NC...I had to go through ALL of them by myself!! Now to find where we unpacked all the flashlights...

Island Pictures

These pictures are from our first visit to Jusco (Japanese-style Walmart)... when we saw this "machine" I had to take a picture. Maybe this is why most Japanese women are so skinny!

So then Michael had to give it a go...
The next weekend we headed up North towards Nago and we wandered upon this beautiful beach. We weren't exactly sure where we were, but it was a great adventure! These were the steps that we first saw...

and then we walked a little further and this came into view... (the steps led down to the beach and resort area)

Here is where we were standing looking at all of this:

and to the other side of where we were, we found this little alcove:

I love these types of places!! There were little treaures everywhere...at one point it looked like the rocky areas were moving b/c there were so many little sand crabs! There was even a sea urchin that I could look at and analyze-- When we first got there, there was a local fisherman on the big rock casting into the ocean and by the time we were ready to leave he had lots of fish to take home. You may need to pull this picture up bigger to be able to see the crab...

This was the view we had from our hotel room on base...

These were taken down at the Beachwalk in American Village. Our sponsor, Doy (in the pic below), took us down there to look around. We ate at a sushi place that has the conveyor belt where you can pick whatever you want to try off the line and everything is priced by the plate colors! Afterwards the waitress comes and counts your plates to see how much you owe. This is also the same ferris wheel that we can see from our house!

There was even a small ampitheatre right by the walkway with a huge fountain at the top: