Okonomiyaki- Hiroshima

Hiroshima area, I'm told, is famous for its okonomiyaki, aka Japanese pancake. I thought I'd throw in some pictures. It was quite a process to make one of these, and the chefs were pretty good. There are lots of these little "stalls" where you just gather around the the hot grill and tell them what you want. Then they create this pancake layer by layer: pancake, cabbage, sprouts, noodles, bacon shrimp, squid, cheese, egg, bbq sauce, mayo, etc., etc., until you get something that looks about like this:

As per usual, I thought it was quite delicious, and had to finish everybody's plate.

Iwakuni

On our trip, we stayed at Iwakuni Air Station. And the town which was near was coincidentally called Iwakuni. I tried this panoramic photo of the Kintai Bridge.

Here's a closer-upper photo of the bridge. On top of the hill behind is the Iwakuni Castle- see below. Bri's looking quite Hollywood.


Iwakuni Castle- see above.


Luckily, we found nourishment later that day. This is a unique little restaurant labeled affectionately as "The Chicken Shack" by the Americans in the area. Why, I don't really know. We did have some chicken on a stick, but that was about it. I got a pot full of charcoal to cook my own meat on. It was outstanding.


After dinner, we were walking around and of course ran into- you guessed it- angry samurai...


And even more angry samurai...

Luckily we escaped with our heads still on our shoulders.

Minna Island

This island was dubbed "better than Disneyland" by the kids. And all because of deer. If the kids would have had their way, we would have stayed in one spot the entire day, and would probably still be there today, petting the deer. Luckily, I'm bigger than they are... While on our trip to Hiroshima, we took a short ferry ride to Minna Island. In our travel guide book, this is one of the top 3 most scenic spots in all of Japan. Admittedly, it was quite nice. Have a look...




Ah, the deer...


I beilieve this picture was taken right after the big one had eaten my map. Hungry little fellas. And not very picky.





Everything was going great until we ran into angry samurais...


This building is on the way up to the top of the mountain and it's housing a flame that has supposedly been burning for over 1000 years. But the guy tending the fire didn't look a day over 900, so I don't know...


View from the top...


Finally, I discovered a very important life-truth on this beatiful island: I look a little bit funny without ears. Even more funny than just my normal everyday look.


Oh, and I alomost forgot another important thing. The world's largest wooden rice paddle. Words cannot describe the awesomeness.

Trip to Hiroshima

So we took a little trip across the pond up to the mainland of Japan. We were able to catch a military flight out of Kadena up to Iwakuni Air Station near Hiroshima. Here are a few pictures...

This is called the A-Bomb dome. It is one of the few buildings that weren't completely flattened by the blast on August 6, 1945. The hypocenter, or where the bomb was detonated, was almost directly above this building.

This is a model of the city. The red ball represents the blast radius one second after detonation. The A-Dome is right below it next to the river where it splits. As you can see, there wasn't much left. Everything was flattened or burned for some distance.

There was a Peace Memorial Park. One of the cool displays was the childrens monument. one story tells of a little girl who had radiation sickness. She believed if she folded 1000 paper cranes she would be healed. She ended up dying. But there are literally thousands and thousands of paper cranes in many display cases. Cranes are now a symbol of peace.

After a long day, the girsl enjoy some sushi. Well, semi-sushi. This kind only has a slice of cucumber in the middle.

Happy Halloween!!

And now, a scary halloween poem. What is it that makes clowns so scary?

Erin was a mummy. Brianna was a clown. We happened to carve our pumpkins as a mummy and a clown? Coincidence? I think not!

Inexpressible Joy

This blog post finds itself out of order, as I am not currently up to date. But it can not wait. I want to share it with you all, and if it were possible I would tell the whole world. Every so often, you have one of those days... Today was one of those days that has to be added to the Top 10, to sit along side the day I married my beautiful wife, and the birth days of my adorable daughters. Today, I had the privilege and honor of taking one of my beautiful daughters into the water and baptizing her, and thereafter laying my hands on her head to confirm her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and bestowing the gift of the Holy Ghost upon her. Were I the best writer/poet in the universe, my words would not- nay, could not- adequately describe the feelings that are in my heart. Obviously, I'm nowhere near that writer, but a picture is worth 1,000 words- so here's 7,000 words... Although I think these pictures are worth much more than that...

Mmmmmmmmm, bacon.

So, here we go... Somehow I, along with my coworker Clint, got roped into cooking a pig for an office function. A whole pig. So, we rented a pig roaster, and went to the commisary and picked out a pig. Yes, the commisary sells whole pigs for some reason. We got a beautiful 64 lb oinker. He was all cleaned and shaven. We ordered him about a week before, so he would be all thawed out. We picked him up the night before and put him to bed on ice. We started the next morning at 2:30 at Clint's house. It actually wasn't too difficult, but it took about 8 hours to cook. We finished up about 11:00 and loaded the pig into Clint's van and transported it to the party, where about 80 guests eagerly awaited. It acutally turned out to be quite succulent and was enjoyed by all. Right down to the ears.

Pic of said pig roaster:

Pic of said pig on ice:


Pic of said co-worker stoking the fire:

Pic of me "moppin'" the pig:

Pig is done. Note: we had not an apple to stick in its mouth. So we used what was available.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the best part. To save $25, we decided to return the roaster trailer on our own. Not many vehicles here have a hitch however. But of course that's not going to stop a couple of engineers. Surprisingly, the guy at the rental place said that's the first time he'd ever seen it tied to the bumper before. Hmmm. Of course we used the safety chains.

Supplies!!!!

The Saturday before Erin's birthday we gave her a surprise birthday party. Complete with hot dogs, balloons, face painting, pin the tail on the donkey, pinata, and various other games. WE had it at a park on Kadena Air Base. I think she was very surprised and she loved it.

Our little baby is 8!

Eisa Festival- an Okinawa thing

The Eisa (pronounced ay-sa) festival is an annual event held in September. Eisa Groups are formed according to geographical locations. So each town or area will have an Eisa group. You can here them practicing until about 10pm most every night for 2 or 3 months leading up to the festival. They drum, they dance, they play the sanshin and sing. They drink. They eat.

Holly, enjoying some yakisoba, a tasty dish of fried beef, noodles, and cabbage.

Corn dogs, corn on a stick, chicken on a stick, and lots of other yummy treats.

The Neighbor

Some of you have probably heard us mention our neighbor, Mr. Iha (aka Iha-san). He usually buys the kids a drink from the "quatah machine" every day (see below). One thing there is no shortage of in Okinawa is drink machines. You should never have to go thirsty here. They are pretty much on every corner. We have one within 50ft of our front door. So he gives the kids each 100 yen and tells them to go buy a drink. In this pic he must be helping Bri with her Japanese homework. He calls Brianna "numbah one friendo" and Erin "numbah two friendo."

This is usually the drink of choice: C.C. Lemon. It is especially delicious and has the vitamin C content of 70 lemons. There is often several in our fridge that we aren't able to keep up with.

Last post was 29 Aug? Really?

Wow, how time flies... Guess I'll just post some random end-of-summer pics for this one...

Speaking of random, how about this guy? Enjoying some ice cream at the Big Dip eatery.


Some sweet gogs. The kids were quite sad to see the pools close for the year :(

A restaurant called "Pizza in the Sky." Obviously terriffic views and the pizza was half decent by Japanese pizza standards. That's one thing where we've decided there's no comparison- American Pizza is the best anywhere in the world. I think that's one thing we've perfected. Unless of course, you like hot dogs on your pizza. Then you can get Japanese pizza.

This is an area called American Village. Lots of shops and restaurants.

And, something our neighbor gave to us. I didn't know if we were supposed to eat it or hang it on the wall. After taking a bite, I was pretty sure I had made the wrong decision. Still not sure what it was... But quite pretty.