Springtime in Okinawa

Well I guess springtime is here already? Whatever the case, the cherry blossoms are out. So we took a drive to the cherry blossome festival at Nakijin castle ruins and spent some time wandering around. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and close to 70 degrees.


Not sure what this has to do with cherry blossoms, but of course Bri was all over this photo op.










Is it just me, or does Holly look like she's been eating too many Okinawa donuts lately?

JK- she looks B-E-A-U-tiful.

Mochi tsuki

Well, it's not as cold as Utah, but the weather here has been a little chilly and wet during January. So we haven't been out doing much. But a week or so ago, we went to a fund raising festival at a local orphanage, where they made mochi. Mochi is made from a special kind of rice. They steam it and then they pound it with big wooden sledge hammers until it forms this really gooey, sticky, chewy substance. Then they shape it into balls and dust it with corn starch or something, and put stuff on it or in it, and eat it. I like it.

Here we are pounding away...

Mochi with peanut butter. Holly can't get enough peanut butter lately...

I'll just add this for kicks. Our farmer neighbor asked me the other day if I liked lettuce. I said sure I like lettuce. He asked if I wanted to try some of his. I said sure I'd like to try some if he had a little extra. A little while later he knocked on the door with 4 ginormous heads of lettuce and about 10 lbs. of potatoes. We've been eating a lot of salad this week.

Winter in Utah

We were lucky to get to spend the holidays in Utah with our families. Holly's Uncle Mike was kind enough to set up a horse riding event through one of his friends. Erin loves horses. It was a dream come true. Thank you so much Uncle Mike and Danny!!!!!


Got to enjoy some of that fine Utah snow. Something we don't get a lot of in Okinawa... Some great Dad-Erin time on the ski lift together.


Look at Bri go! Notice the wave as she passes. LOL.


I put this one on especially for you Tyce. Hope you enjoy it.


Thank you to all of our families and friends that we love and miss!! We are so thankful and blessed that we were able to spend the time with you.

November 2010 w/ the Baileys (the elders)

Well, I finally get around to blogging again. It's been a while. But the Bailey's were here for the month of November, and then we were pretty much gone for the month of December. But I thought I should at least put some highlights from my parent's visit...

Let's start with snakes.



And another snake.



Here they have some cooked fish and some raw fish. Our neighbor Iha-san treated. Bet you can guess which one they didn't finish.



This is Big Dip. We must have hit this place a half dozen or more times.



They hadn't picked up on the chopstick thing yet, so I had to ask for forks. I guess all they had were kiddie ones...



Here, Lon Cousteau is preparing for his snorkeling excursion in the East China Sea.



Exploring beautiful Maeda Flats at low tide.



And, what trip would be complete without a visit to a ginormous 100 ft. tall bird made out of cement?

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...