An Okinawan Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We have plenty to be thankful for this year.  Our health, our friends and families, two precious babies on the way, and the opportunity we have been blessed with.

I cannot even believe we have been in Okinawa for a month already!  It has flown by, which I hope is not indicative of our whole tour here.  Needless to say, we are enjoying everything and I don't want it to be over too quickly.  What a wonderful, eye-opening experience it has been thus far.  Just tonight, I took Rosie out to potty and there were over a dozen fruit bats swirling overhead.  Normally I would have freaked out and worried that Rosie was about to be dinner - because they're as big as she is - but I read up and know that, as their name attests, they pretty much eat fruit.  They aren't aggressive.  Except maybe toward one another because I hear some pretty pissed-off sounding screeches sometimes.  Usually it's when one tries to land in a tree, because apparently they aren't good at landing and just "crash" into the tree, disturbing the others.  I think it's one of those moments when God got a little distracted.  Really, would he intend to make an animal  that could fly but not land?  Sort of like when he got distracted and forgot to give me a good singing voice...

Just in time for our one-month anniversary of living here, today was Thanksgiving.  So we celebrated, of course, with turkey and all the trimmings.  I cooked the meal and my trophy-husband cleaned the whole kitchen while I napped after stuffing myself so full that the babies couldn't even move.  Here's me having some turkey on our back patio:

Yep, I'm in a tank top and shorts :)  And those are chopsticks.  Don't be silly, of course it was just for the picture.  How could I eat sweet potato casserole wth chopsticks!?  Maybe that's why Japanese are thin...Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we spent nearly all of it outside, watching Adam jump in his bouncer (Thanks, Griffins!!).

On another note:  Last weekend we took a short drive up to Cape Zanpa to check out the lighthouse and beach.  The cape is amazing, with breathtaking views, but dangerous-looking rocky cliffs and crashing waves.  In case you aren't smart enough to take your cues from the thunderous waves, they warn you:

 

You can climb the umpteen-hundred stairs to the top of the lighthouse for 200 yen, but we opted not to on this visit.  I'm sure it's an amazing opportunity for non-pregnant-with-twins women and not-three-years-old boys.  Here are a couple of Adam & Rex (the dinosaur from Toy Story) in front of the lighthouse and then all of us:

On the way to the parking lot, we saw this sign:

Adam thought it was obviously a sign for a car wash.  Alan figured it was probably a sign warning us of robbers and not to leave valuables in the car.  He's probably right, but then why does the car have water droplets coming off of it?  Well, he says the car is "sweating" because it knows the robber is nearby.  If that's really what it means, then these are some funny people.  We really need to learn kanji.

We also took a picnic lunch and found a nice little beach to enjoy it on: 

Seriously, it was our own private beach.  I mean, there was the random snorkeler, but really nobody was there.  Some locals would come, fully-clothed in fall/winter garb (even though it was 80 degrees) and wander for a few minutes, then leave.  We aren't sure why, but they could have been frightened:

*26 weeks*

Whether we offended the locals or not, we collected shells and stuck our toes in the East China Sea and had a great day.  This is our happy little boy at the sight of yet another piece of brown sea glass or regular-looking rock: 

Memories were made, no doubt.  But I would like to leave you with one that I will likely never forget.  As we were leaving, I had to pee (of course) so I stopped at the bathrooms.  Here's what I had to use:

 

With an extra 30 pounds, mostly right on my belly, the goal is to squat and pee into this.  Imagine that, would ya'?

A Bunch of M&Ms

This one really isn't about Okinawa, but I thought it would be fun.  Yesterday I jotted down some of the random thoughts I had throughout the day.  Originally I thought I should explain some of them, but finally decided not to.  I think it's better left to your imagination.  Here is a collection of my thoughts on a normal Friday:

“158. 31 pounds in 26 weeks.  You kids better respect that!”

“Thank you, Adam, for making vacuuming just a little bit tougher.”

“(Gasp) I think my water just almost broke!...Nope. Thank you, God.”

“Hire a maid. Hire a maid. Hire a maid…”

“Wow. And it’s not even backwards.”

“Seriously, Rosie, how much can a 10 lb. dog poop? I wonder if Adam could handle searching the yard and picking it up.”

“Is it English that’s coming out of my mouth?”

“Yep. I’m huge. Stop staring.”

“What on earth could you be looking at in the middle of the aisle? Pick. A. Side.”

“No, actually, I’m not ‘about ready to pop.’ But thanks for pointing out for the tenth time today how big I must look. Note to self: Don’t ever say that to a pregnant woman again.”

“$35? That’s like half price! Sweet!”

“Oh my God, please don’t let that tip over and break!”

"Thank you, God."

“God, grant me a little more patience, please. As soon as possible would be great. I know you’re busy.”

“Oops. Wrong side. Veer left.”

"I wish I knew what that sign said."

“This looks like it will probably turn into a true Dayton project”

“Yes…and that would be my better idea”

“Can’t. Get. Up.”

"Huh.  That turned out not to be so bad.  Maybe our luck is changing."

“Anybody else wanna come in here?”

“It would be fabulous not to cook dinner”

"Thank you, God."

“Priceless. This is why we decided to have more. Try to remember this.”

"There’s that noise again. What is it?”

“A bowl of cereal would be good. Or a bunch of M&Ms.”

"Really?  Right now?"

"Seriously. What is it??”

Tourists in Our New Town

How long do we have before we aren't considered tourists anymore?  I hope we can be considered "permanent tourists," since we do reside here, but really only temporarily.  I'm going to go ahead and take the liberty to classify us as that.  I hope that means I can always take pictures of restaurant menus and funny Japanese people without feeling a little bit corny.  That being said, here are a few places we've gotten to explore in our new country.

Adam happens to be a connoisseur of aquariums so last weekend we took him to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.  This aquarium boasts several firsts:  The world's first to successfully birth a manta pup in captivity, the first in the world to house several whale sharks in one tank - maintaining the world record for the longest times kept in captivity, the world's only to hold schooling manta rays (the largest of all the rays) in captivity...the list goes on and on.  Until Atlanta opened, it was the world's largest.  The bottom line is this place is AMAZING.  If it didn't look like this,:

it might still be just as amazing...but probably not.  Honestly, this helps a lot.  Here are some highlights of the tour:

This is us near the entrance of the aquarium.  Really, I needed a break because the walk from the parking garage was a little long, so it was a good excuse to stop and take a picture.

 

At the first exhibit, Adam got to pet a starfish...

...then strangle a sea cucumber. That's Alan reaching to release the death-grip

This is a Japanese Spear Lobster.  The educational sign next to it (loosely translated into English) says it doesn't have any claws...as if that should make us feel better about a chance encounter.  Seriously - bigger than Adam.

Next came the Whale Shark exhibit.  I like this picture because it shows the whale in relation to the people standing by the glass.  There is really no relaying how big these things are.  But, if it helps to imagine it, here is also a shot of Alan and Adam standing in an open jaw:

Next, we ventured outside the main building, where the sea turtle pool, dolphin pool & theater, and manatee pool were.  Here are some sea turtle shots...of "Crush," of course:

Finally, we were just in time to catch the dolphin show at the theater, which included a "False Killer Whale."  Here's what we saw when we paid attention to the (completely Japanese-narrated) show:

Don't get me wrong - the show was really cool, like one at Sea World.  But here's what we saw if we turned our head to the left, which was way cooler:

Here is the obligatory belly shot of me outside the manatee pool, at 24 weeks:

A Few Other Firsts & Some Random Funnies

McDonalds:

American Village (think Chinatown, but for us):  There's a big ferris wheel that we haven't been on yet, but Adam insists he wants to, and a place called "Yogurtland" that's like Maggie Moos, but with frozen yogurt.

Seriously, why do they have this?

We Americans would call this "Cat Karaoke"...not sure what it really is called, but I'm pretty sure it's karaoke and it might also be a restaurant.  We also have "The Monkey Man Store" and "the Bunny Store" only because those animals are on the sign.

To end, I give you a picture of my first meal at Mike's Tex-Mex here on Okinawa.  It's no Alamo Cafe or el Jarro de Arturo, but it was a "happy ending" for me:

The Best-Laid Plans...

When Alan came to Kadena (which, for you non-military folks, is the Air Force base we are actually stationed at on the island of Okinawa) in August, we agreed it would be a great idea to go ahead and start looking for a car to buy.  For one, he could get his license and we could hit the ground running when we arrived, saving someone the trouble of either shuttling us around or lending us a car.  Also, he was going to be here for six weeks, so having a car would be nice.  Well, not long into the trip he found a car that was in great condition, especially compared to most of the cars you see other military people in.  We agreed it would be nice to have something smaller on this island, but still fit two carseats.  You probably see where this is going.  So here's the car we bought in August:

I was so excited!  After imagining the beater we would probably own, this was a Lexus.  It's actually called a Honda Legend - leather interior, heated seats, new tires and breaks...good stuff.

Here's where the story turns into a typical "Dayton family curse" example.   A couple of weeks after making that decision, we received some big news:  We're having twins!  Just in case you're all, "Wow, is she saying twins is a curse?"  No, I'm not.  I'm saying we put so much thought into this decision to buy a car, certain it was a good decision, only to find out it was actually a bad one.  Alan was still in Okinawa, driving this car around, when we got this news so it didn't take him long to come to the realization that three carseats were not going to fit in this car.  Japan law says you must own a car for 120 days before selling it, so we kept the car and parked it at a friend's house while Alan came home.  We would be returning in a month and we could make a decision then.

When we arrived we immediately began looking for the new family car.  There aren't many options here that fit three carseats.  Most of the cars on this island are tiny.  So we're left with a full-size van - which I was against because it's too big for the streets and also it's a full-size van, those smaller Japanese vans that could roll over at any moment and look like you chopped off the front end, or a station wagon (which is what they call a minivan here).  So, here's what I got:

It's a Nissan Bassara.  It holds three carseats and is exactly what we needed.  Plus, it has Japanese t.v.  They say it's a "station wagon," but they aren't fooling me.  I don't even want to talk about it.