Ocean Expo Park & Aquarium

One cool place. Kind of like Sea World- but maybe better. That's a whale shark. In an aquarium. It's big.

Missing Tooth

Be on the lookout for a missing tooth.

Would you believe that the Japanese Tooth Fairy pays in Yen?

Japanese Girls?

No text necessary...

Okinawa Marathon

While we were staying in our temp housing on base, the Okinawa Marathon occurred. Part of the marathon takes place on base and as luck would have it, they came right by our place. This was about mile 18 of the race. Erin and Brianna were quite the little cheerleaders, handing out water, high-5s, and cheering on the runners ... and aliens. Ummm, what?! Not sure, but there were more than a few racers dressed up in costumes. Can't imagine wearing something like that for 26 miles ...

Bullfighting- Okinawan Style

So we went to a bullfight. Unlike the typical bullfight that you are imagining however, the bulls actually fight each other. It's basically bulls doing sumo wrestling. I thought it was pretty entertaining but I don't know if I'm going to be able to convince the girls to go to another one. They also had some "halftime entertainment" which I believe they call "Eisa." It's traditional dancing and drum banging. It's okay too, but the songs they perform are quite lengthy and they use a guitar-like instrument with only 3 strings-and how many notes can you get out of three strings? But I guess they get into it quite a bit and there's big competitions and such. And don't ask me about the wierd people in the costumes?? Those are quite the horns, eh?

The ocean

Some fun at the ocean. The beach with the rock formations is called Toguchi beach. This is where they go to do the baptisms.

More fun places

Lots of cool parks and slides. And yes, that's a urinal. In a park. In public.

Eating

Here is some food data ... Don't ask me to explain what it all is. But I haven't run into anything that I didn't like ... or at least wouldn't eat. Big surprise.

Yes, the kids are still able to find plenty of treats. And, uh, how much is that in yen???

The first few weeks

Since I'm trying to catch up to the present, I'm just going to post random pictures of the first few weeks here on the island. The first is our temporary housing (hotel room) where we have been living for the past 6 weeks. The Kendricks were most kind and generous to us when we came. They picked us up from the airport, showed us around, invited us for dinner on many occasions, and took us to many fun places so we wouldn't get bored. Kendrick family consists of Clint, Verenda, Courtney, Nathan, Andrew, Hailey, and Lila. There is a popular dish here called Sobe, which is a bowl of soup consisting mainly of noodles, and then it has variations like vegetables, pork, and such. It's quite tasty.

There are some pretty fun parks to visit which the kids have really enjoyed. The "drop-off" slide was a big hit. And the "roller slides" are pretty sweet. They make your feet numb.

The trip

Here's some pics from our flight to Okinawa. Of course the girls found entertainment on the escalator with their barbies during the 3 hour layover in San Francisco.

In the beginning...

We made a blog. Let's just preface this with the disclaimer that anyone expecting a great blog from us may be sorely disappointed. You know how high tech our family is. Surprisingly, this is my first time blogging. Well, the only reason we even had email and internet over the last few years is because Breck was paying for it. Anyway, I suppose this is the best way to share with everyone about our adventures on the other side of the world ...

So it begins. But let's step back just a bit before the actual adventure begins and relive "the fatty." Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ... fatties. Okay, now that we've enjoyed that again, I'll post this and see if everything works. Then I'll start posting stuff from Okinawa.