May 2013 Monthly Recap

Oh man, this month flew by.  Quicker than normal it seems. I still haven't been blogging as much as I would like to, but have been trying to stay consistent, and I hope you are all enjoying it.  We stayed really busy in May, and here are a bunch of pictures to see how we've been spending our time.  I do plan on elaborating on some of our adventures in the near future, so keep an eye out! 

(photo courtesy of Kassie)

Making new friends is cool.  Especially when you met and bond through each others blogs and living in a foreign land.  I met Kassie (of www.markandkassie.com) a few months ago, and in the beginning of May we met in person and attempted to go to the lily festival on IE Island.  Missing the ferry that day, we explored Kouri Island instead and had a great time biking all around.  We had so much fun that we attempted IE Island the next day, which was a huge success.

(photo courtesy of Kassie)

Biking around 2 islands in 2 days is extremely exhausting, especially on a rusted-to-shit rental bike.

I thought some of you would get a kick out of this.  A chocolate fondue set in the shape of a toilet.  I like that someone thought this was a good idea and then actually produced it.

We are huge fans of the sushi-go-rounds here.  We tried out a new one which, in addition to taking dishes off of a conveyor belt, you could order on a monitor and have a duck captaining a modern sushi cruise liner sail over to your table for delivery.  While we've had much better sushi elsewhere, this was still a fun place.

I've got the garden started.  A few varieties of lettuce, jalapenos, strawberries, lemongrass, basil, parsley.

While this is genius to wrap the watermelon in rope so you are able to carry it...I will NOT be purchasing a $24 watermelon while I'm here.  Thank you anyway...

I'm not going to get all into the politics of shit and living overseas with the military, but locals here have all sorts of feelings about 'us'.  Mostly, you only hear about the negative (typical, right?), but there are lots of people here who are thankful we are here and are willing to take the time to tell us.  I Love American!!!

We just recently started geocaching, which I think will be great for us, especially when we want to get outside but can't decide where to start exploring.  During our first day, we found all 3 caches we searched for AND discovered a park we would have never found on our own.

I know you love the signs just as much as I do.  Obviously, if you throw litter in the ocean, the fish will throw it back at you.  I really don't want to mess with that red one, he looks pretty evil.

During Golden Week, there is a dragon boat race in Naha (and other places around the island) to impress the gods and ensure a good and bountiful fishing season.  Each boat is powered by 30 paddlers and race to become the champions! There are dozens of competing teams and the races run from morning to night.  I went down with some friends and we enjoyed trying out the Japanese festival fare and cheering on random teams.

I really thought I would go the entire 3 years here without getting a Japanese pedicure.  I mean, it's just so much going on on your little toes.  I made it 3 months before getting one.  I LOVED it!!!  For $40(ish), you are pampered.  It's unlike any stateside pedicure I've ever gotten.  First, you are in your own recliner with an ocean view.  Then you are given a blanket and a delicious melon iced tea which is constantly being refilled.  There is also a bar and Japanese candies if so interested.  Then, you relax for 2 WHOLE HOURS!!!  And the leg and foot massage is incredible. None of this 5 minute massage crap, this goes on for at least a half hour, maybe longer.  I completely lost track.  The hardest part is picking out what to get on your toes since the binder of options is about 7" thick.  I think I can handle this while I live on an island.

We need a few Sammy shots in here, don't we?  Here's her mid-sneeze.  Oh man, cat sneezes crack me up.

As usual, I collected some more sea glass at my favorite beach hideout.

We went to the Okinawa Prefectural Museum down in Naha, where we were not able to take photos.  But it was a really nice place and very well put together.  If you want to learn the history and culture of the Okinawan people, this is the place to go.  As we entered, we really appreciated the umbrella 'check'.  Do they have these back in the states? I've never seen them, it's brilliant! Especially for here when everyone carries an umbrella with them all the time.  You just stick your umbrella in, close the little latch, and take the key out!

I still look up when a plane goes overhead.  You'd think I'd have whiplash living near multiple airfields, but so far so good.  Sometimes some really neat aircraft come through.  In this case, I managed to get a shot of a helicopter going over the cave I was in at the beach.

This is one of many elevator caution signs we've seen.  It seems a little excessive.  Maybe they have a door-closing-on-hands epidemic here we don't know about.

My friend Vikki and I went snorkeling for the first time since living here.  IT. WAS. AWESOME.  I can't wait to bring Aaron soon, and I can't wait to finish my refresher SCUBA class so I can get down deep.  This location at Maeda Point was great for snorkeling, it's definitely a place I'm going to bring people when they come to visit!!!

I appreciated the warning about angry waves.  Good thing they showed us some examples.

I definitely have to do a post on this over at Kacey's Kitchen, because it was so much fun and I'm so proud of my little bear bento.  For just a few dollars, I took a bento making class on base, made my own lunch, and was able to keep the bento box!!!

I wish she wouldn't disapprove everything I did.

Aaron and I have been wanting to do some woodworking projects for around the house.  Our main goal is to eventually build our own dining room table, but we wanted to start off small.  Here I'm scraping off excess glue for our cutting board.  I'll share more pictures including the finished product with you later.

I was really excited to dog sit this past week.  My neighbor was dog sitting and got busy so I hung out with this hairy guy all day.  We both took a nap in the sun.  Sammy wasn't too impressed...as usual.

We went bowling in May also, which always makes me want to join a bowling league.  I average an amazing 100 (give or take 20), but at least I got some good poses going on.  I'd like to enlarge this picture and frame it, what do you think?

(photo courtesy of KayCee)

That was quite a bit of photos this time, but you know, it's so hard to narrow a whole months of photos into one post.  Is there anything else you guys are interested in seeing here at Where in the World is Kacey?!?! Let me know, and I'll see what I can whip up for you!!!

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