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.