'Twas the night before Obon...

'Twas the night before Obon, and all through the dojo
Not a creature was stirring, not even a gecko.
The swimsuits were strewn over doorknob and chair,
In hopes that no mold would start growing there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Eisa danced in their heads.
And Holly in her silk robe, and me on the blog,
Thinking pretty soon now I'll be sawing a log.

When just around midnight there arose such a clatter,
I raced to the window to see what was the matter.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear?
But a wierd looking clown, and a bunch of people dressed up playing really loud drums, and a couple of guys playing a 3-stringed electric guitar-like instrument called a sanshin.

This is the annual 3-day celebration of Obon, when the Okinawans welcome their ancestors' spirits back from the other world. This "Eisa" group marched around the neighborhood two nights in a row. They play from about 8 until 3... a.m. The kids enjoyed it. The first night we were all in bed when they came, so we got the kids up and went outside to join the festivities. The second night we went out again for a bit until it started raining. The kids were sad they didn't come around the third night, but my eyes were kind of heavy the next few days at work.

Dragon Fruit

Our friend Sayuri brought us over some dragon fruit. It looked pretty on the outside.


To our surprise, it looked just as pretty on the inside. No, don't adjust the color on your monitor. It was that bright.


But here's how it tasted...

Actually, it was pretty good. Tastes a bit like kiwi.

On Minna Jima we did...

We walked around and explored the island. It's not very big. Takes maybe 15 minutes from one side to the other.

We swam...


We practiced some new audibles for the upcoming season. Blue 42! Blue 42! Hut!

Holly disappeard for a little while and we finally found her on the other side of the island on the 2011 Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

On Minna Jima, we saw...

Beautiful red flowers...

Beautiful white flowers...

Beautiful wildlife...

And more beautiful wildlife. You may want to zoom up a bit to appreciate. This is like one of those optical illusion graphics. Which one of the red circles in this picture is bigger?

Minna Jima (Island)

An expedition to a semi-inhabited island- Minna Jima, Population: 48. I think that includes the cows. Based on 2008 census data. Anyway, on the ferry ride over in the morning, Holly was "hittin' it" pretty early...

Destination can be seen in the background. The ferry ride was only about 20 minutes.

Arrival was celebrated with much jubilance. Brianna, in typical Japanese fashion...

Doggy Paddle... sort of

Brianna "swimming":

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

Here's a few pics from my last dive. Not the greatest or most exciting, but... If you buy a cheap camera, you don't get very good pictures. Huh, go figure?

Head! Mooove! Now!

Does this picture make my head look big?

The four guys on the back row are all brothers from the Miara family. We know them from karate class. They all came over with their families for Sunday dinner. It was fun. They brought 3 things to eat: gyoza, which are AKA potstickers; inarisushi, which is balls of sticky, pickled rice with ginger wrapped in a tofu pocket; soy pudding with black sugar sauce. All three were quite tasty I thought.

That night, I cried myself to sleep on my huge pilla'.

Fantasy Island

A few weeks ago we discovered our own little fantasy island. And while there were no midgets to greet us, it was nevertheless pretty sweet. So when I say "island" I mean a small rock that is separated by water from the big rock that is Okinawa. And when I say small, I mean about 1/2 mile long. At low tide, we walked through a hundred yards or so of relatively shallow water. At high tide, you might have to swim a little. But we were the only ones on that island. We spent most of the day walking around the island and exploring. There were even some goats up on top of the cliffs. We snorkeled around a bit. Of course, here are some pics of the adventure...

Even more Maeda Flats (3)

This here's what we call a sea cucumber... and Erin's fingers...


This here's what we call a sea star...


And this here's what we call a plumber's crack... but, if you can get past the crack, this hole in the coral at low tide makes a pretty sweet aquarium.

These here are what we call perdy blue fish...

More Maeda Flats (2)

Maeda Flats (1)

Spent a good part of Saturday at a place north of us called Maeda Point. We went snorkeling when we first got there. I bought a cheap underwater film camera- so we'll see how those pics turn out. Haven't got them developed yet though. Then we walked over to Maeda Flats. It was low tide and there was lots of AWESOME stuff to see...

This is sugar cane. One of the main agricultural crops here. You kind of hike through these fields to get down to the water.

Look Mom, no Hands!

Guess who learned how to ride a bike?

Shisa Dogs

Seems like I posted this picture already but I couldn't find it, so here it is (again). We went to a place in Naha and the kids got to make some Shisa Dogs (for a "nominal" fee). This actuall occured sometime last month, but I'm just getting around to it...

Dragon Boat Races

They have a pretty big festival every year on May 5th. It actually culminates a week long Japanese holiday called Golden Week. May 5th is called kids day. The kids are out of school for the week. We went to the Naha port to witness the annual dragon boat races. In recent years, they have also invited the Americans to participate in the races. So the different military branches also enter the race. But the Japanese always win I think.

Geico

I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. The girls had a guest in their room for a few days.

Japanese Visitors

The relief society had a "cultural exchange" night where you could offer things or sign up for activities with members of the Japanese wards. Holly offered for people to sign up to come over to the house for dinner. Apparently it was quite a hot commodity. We hosted several dinner guests. Look carefully at this picture- Erin is becoming quite Japanese-ish. That's our karate teacher in the front. His name just happens to be Mr. Miyagi. And I make him call me Daniel-san.

In this next picture, you'll notice Brianna attempting to be Japanese. The guy on the right claimed to be a relative of Saddam Hussein. See the resemblence?

This week there was a lot of women in the house...

This little piggy went to market...

We went to a fish market and for some reason they had a pig head there. A whole pig head. Wearing sunglasses.

Then there was the freaky-deaky skinned porcupine fish. Yikes.

And the beautiful rainbow fish. Too pretty to eat don't you think?

There was a restaurant up above the market and you can pick out the fish or creature that you want and have them take it upstairs for you to eat. They might even cook it for you.

Forest Adventure Park

Our office went to this pretty sweet place called Forest Adventure Park. It's kind of an obstacle course through the jungle. Mainly you ride 10 or so ziplines above the jungle and climb some rope ladders and bridges. It was pretty fun- and a whole lot more fun than work.