happenings from oki

i’m the world’s worst blogger.  for some reason it seems really hard to blog.  i clearly put too much thought into it. 

here are the things that i’ve been up to:

-work.  it's fine but i really miss my kids.  and my old co-workers.  this place lacks humor. 

-joined a book club.  we are reading “the memoirs of cleopatra.”  we meet june 5th to talk about it.  it's 1000 pages.  i just bought the book...i even procrastinate "fun."

-joined a bunco group.  i’ve never played bunco before so we’ll see how it goes.

-took a karate lesson.  grab my shirt or my wrist and see what happens.

-went to the dragon boat races in naha.  they do them every year during golden week (they have 4 national holidays in the space of a week).  the races were a bit anti-climatic but we had fun eating japanese street food and losing at carnival games.

-stood in line for 3 hours to see the avengers and for 2 hours to see hunger games.  movies are a big deal here because they show them so sporadically and in such small theaters on base.  like, they'll show a movie once and then again in two weeks.  it's weird.  it costs $5 to see a movie on base and $18 to see a movie in town so we generally go on base.

-paddle boarded on torii beach.  it’s actually the beach on the base where i work so i avoid going there to avoid my clients but it’s a great place to kayak and paddle board.  and super close to my house.

-went to round one.  it’s an 8 story place of awesomeness.  one floor is arcade games, one floor has a roller skating rink and mechanical bull, one floor is chair massagers and comics, one floor is a bowling , alley, etc.  it was really fun except for a little boy got right in front of my while i was roller skating and it was like he felled a tree.  i don’t remember ever having had the wind knocked out of me like that before.

-finally bought a tv.  i also bought an xbox and a kinect.  been playing a lot of "just dance."  i sweat here like i've never sweated before.  it's pretty gross.

-went to a Japanese thrift store.  

here are some things i'm going to do:

-buy snorkeling equipment and start snorkeling on saturday mornings. 

-hike mt. fuji in july and most likely go to disneyland in tokyo!  i'm really excited.  mostly about disneyland but mt. fuji might be cool too. 

-try to hit all of the beaches on okinawa one by one. 

-ride my sweet beach cruiser with the elderly okinawan men on the seawall by my house.

-go to hong kong or taiwan before the summer is over.

-study for my MAC test (master's in addiction counseling).  it's in september and if it don't pass, i don't have a job.  talk about pressure!

-not be the whitest person here.  my legs are transparent!

growing pains

i am a terrible blogger.  there, i said it.


part of the reason i haven't blogged lately is because i haven't done anything very exciting and part of it is that i have been struggling a little bit.  and when i struggle, i disappear.  when i signed up for this "personal growth" thing i forgot it included growing pains. good thing i forgot or i might not have done it because these growing pains are giving me a run for my money.   my learning curve in all areas of my life is pretty dang steep right now.  some areas are going better than others but i definitely didn't prepare myself for how much things were going to be different or harder.  but, i'm surviving and i have hope that it will get easier soon.  my new mantra has become "if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."  


in more exciting news, i finally finished the harry potter series.  only too me 8 years or so to read all 7 books.  now i have to watch all the movies.  it might take me another 8 years for that.


it's finally starting to get warmer here and the sun is starting to show its face!  i eat lunch at the beach the days its wam and soak up the sun.  anyone who has seen my legs knows i need to!  the japanese, on the other hand, are heading for their hats.  okinawans are terrified of the sun. they have these hats that look like bee keeper masks so the only part of their face you can see are their eyes.  


on a totally unrelated note, i have skype on my phone and a skype phone number so people can call me on their phone and i can answer on skype on my phone.  just putting that out there.

what cherry blossoms?

i went to see a japanese cherry blossom festival at some castle ruins.

the cherry blossoms were a little late this year due to a colder winter so several of the trees were this bare.  i did get to see some that had bloomed but they were kind of sad.

this trip ended up being a three for one trip.  i got to see the cherry blossoms, the castle ruins, 

and a traditional japanese wedding.  they had the wedding in the middle of the ruins and everyone who was there for the cherry blossom festival got to watch.

they did the traditional tea ceremonies, had the okinawan drummers, and i got to dance with the wedding party.  no pictures of that, unfortunately.

the highlight of the trip was getting a hotdog taco:

trashy

the u.s. government does not support blogging, hence my absence.  i recently got fiber optic internet installed so i have freedom of blogging back.  i also have a home!  and furniture!  my house is adorable.  i'll post pictures. 


today, i want to talk trash.  literally.


the trash system here is complicated and kinda stresses me out.   i have to sort my trash into:  burnable, non-burnable, glass, and recyclables, which is really just plastic bottles.  glass has to be double bagged and labeled.  cardboard has to be tied together.  they will not pick up certain items.  every city has different requirements and different mandatory garbage bags.  btw: the mandatory trash bags cost Y660 (which equals about $8) for 20 and they only sell my city's bags at like two stores.  they are hard core aka rule followers. if you don't follow one of the many rules, they won't take your trash.  in fact, they will leave you a nasty gram (said in the most polite way) that they won't pick up your trash until you fix whatever mistake you made.  i lucked out; my supervisor has six trash cans in her house.  i still got a lengthy instruction sheet about how to get rid of trash.  when i first moved in, i had to reference the instruction sheet every time i threw something away.  


needless to say, the trash situation here kind of stinks.


on a disgusting note, on the military bases, all trash is thrown away together and then hired contractors sort it.  


worst. job. ever.  

i haven't crashed. yet.

after weeks of being a passenger, i finally purchased a car.  i am disappointed in it's normal-ness.  it's a honda and it has a super boring name.  sm-x.  i was really hoping to score a "fairlady z" or even an "every."   it feels like i'm driving a mini-van because it sits so high up.  i thought about rocking a mini-van so this is the next best thing.  except, it's a three door.  two doors on the passenger side, and one on the driver's side.  super random.  my only complaint is that it smells like cigarette smoke.  whenever i turn on the heat or a/c, i get a nice whiff of smoke.  i need to febreeze the vents or take up smoking.

my pride and joy.  until i get my apartment.  i need to name her.  suggestions?


driving on the left side of the road has had me all worked up since i got here.  however, it hasn't been that scary or unnatural.  i think being a passenger for several weeks helped me to acclimate to the driving situation.  i do turn on my windshield wipers pretty regularly when i am attempting to turn my turn signal on or off.  i have not turned into oncoming traffic (knock on wood) but i have gone over a few curbs in my attempt to stay as far away from other cars as possible.

driving here is interesting.  the fastest speed limit i've seen so far is 60 kph (about 45 mph).  a lot of times it is 40 kph (about 25 mph) so it takes a while to get anywhere.  it's against the law to talk on cell phones while driving so people will just pull over where ever they are to answer their phones.  they put on their hazards and chat it up.  motorcycles can go in between the lanes so they are always zipping around, especially at red lights.  they go to the front of the line.  it's a bit terrifying.  people don't really seem to have road rage here.  they just smile as people cut them off or suddenly stop in the middle of the raod.  it's nice but i'm sure the slowness of it all will eventually drive me crazy. right now, i'm grateful that i'm not the only one driving under the speed limit.  speeding tickets are crazy expensive, like in the thousands, so that is another motivator to drive the speed limit.  they have speed cams and if they catch you, you get a hefty ticket in the mail.  parking tickets are upwards of $200.  american owned vehicles have "y" license plates and they sometimes target those plates because americans are rich.  it's a fact.

the road system is chaos.  my coworker accurately described it as "someone took a bunch of noodles, threw them on a piece of paper, and said 'this is how we should build our roads.'"  however, the nice thing about living on a small island is that you can't get that lost.  and there are so many military bases here that if you get lost, you just ask where the nearest base is and go there.


i could write 50 posts about the driving here.  it's a bit ridiculous, sometimes hilarious, and always a little bit unsettling.

food friday, #1

after the convenience store food found out about thirsty thursdays, there was an uproar.  hence, food fridays.

i very recently went to my first convenience store here.  there are convenience stores on every corner.  the japanese love their snacks and beverages!  

lawson's is where i had my first convenience store experience.  unlike most of the stores i had been in so far, there was not much in english.  therefore, i had to guess.  here is what i ended up with:

some random little green things in a bag, mitsuya cider, and a rice ball with plum in the center.  rice balls are a misnomer.  they are rice triangles.

the olive things turned out to pickled eggs of some sort.  i almost vomited after trying them.  and i attempted to look them up on the internets but no luck.  who knows what i really ate!  

the rice ball was pretty good but i was surprised by the rice ball filling.  for some reason, i thought it would be sweet plum but it was pickled.  japan loves to pickle their food.

the mitsuya cider was delicious.  it was like a less sweet version of sunkist.


maybe next food friday i'll actually pick something that is not pickled.

thirsty thursday, installment two

since the vending machine in my office is full of lame american drinks, i decided to get this week's beverage from the shopette on base.  

i wanted to be refreshed.

i picked the wrong drink.  it tasted like a watered down liquid cherry popsicle. not my favorite popsicle flavor and not my favorite drink flavor.  i gave it an honest effort but ended up throwing it away after a few sips.

i still need to get some good shots of a row of vending machines but without a car it's been difficult.  now that i have a car (see future post for the details), i'l be able to go where my little heart desires.  and it desires vending machines.