Maeda Flats, Hamaya Soba, Blue Seal Ice Cream

On one of those days that Tropical Cyclone Roke was threatening the island, we decided to venture out anyway, even with the possibility of getting a rain-out. It ended up being a windy, but pretty nice day. Here's what we did!

Stop #1: Maeda Point and Maeda Flats

A pretty lookout spot at the point, and cool snorkeling and seashell searching at the flats. Check out some of our finds!

Along with all of the shells, we found lots of hermit crabs and watched them crawl around most of the day.

The View from Maeda Point

Isn't that purple hermit crab shell gorgeous? I was hoping he'd trade out while he was in my bucket!

Ben writing the alphabet in the sand.

On our way back to our side of town, we drove by this place. I just thought it looked neat with all the plants out front.
So cheery!

Stop #2: Hamaya Soba on the Seawall with Megan, Mary Alice, and Owen

This soba (a classic Okinawan noodle and meat soup ) restaurant kind of looks like a hole in the wall, but MAN their soba is fantastic! Not only were they super yummy, but the food came out super fast, which is always a plus when you are outnumbered 4 to 3 (kids to adults).

The beautiful sunset from the seawall as we left Hamaya Soba. The winds from the Tropical Cyclone Roke were making the water pretty choppy. Usually it's very calm. Still absolutely gorgeous!

Stop #3: The Big Dip - a Blue Seal ice cream parlor RIGHT across the street from where we live (dangerously close - and I'm not even a real ice cream fan!). I always use the huge ice cream cone lit up in neon as a landmark for my turn into Camp Lester.  It's really a pretty cool little place. Not only do they serve local kinds of ice cream, but they also have real food if you don't want to eat only ice cream for dinner. It's kind of set up with a 50's diner type feel with a Japanese twist. We'll definitely go back!

A Kindergartener, a Tropical Storm, and a Navy Ball (on the way)

Ben looking a little nervous about his first day at EC Killen Elementary School as a Kindergartener.

Three weeks ago, Ben started kindergarten. I had been debating about home schooling him this first kindergarten year, but after 3 months home with him I decided he would be better off enjoying the socialization the public school offered. Plus, I just think he might be one of those kids who will perform for others but not me. So, day one went great! No tears, and happy when he got home. Days 2-4 Ben had some separation anxiety going on. Weeks 2 and 3 have been better, so I'm hoping for a tearless week this week! I know he's having fun because he comes home sharing songs and telling me all about his day. So far I've been very pleased about the type of work I've seen come home. The curriculum seems pretty close to what I've taught in the past, PLUS...they have some really neat "specials" classes that he wouldn't get in a public school in the states: Japanese Culture, Japanese Language, and Spanish. He comes home saying things in Japanese and brining home worksheets with Japanese phrases (I'm keeping them for cheat sheets for myself!).   I'm so happy that it looks like Ben is really going to grow from educationally this year, but I am hoping that he'll grow even more socially and emotionally.

The only thing about the school system that I'm not too pleased with was the process for getting a background check for volunteering in the school. Just like everything else military, it seems to be more complicated than it really needs to be. At the new parent orientation, Ben's teacher explained that there's the "mini-check" and the "mega-check" (they have other real names that sound fancy, but these will do) depending on how much you really want to be involved with the students. If you want to just work in the room with the teacher, you only need the mini-check. If you want to be able to walk a kid to the library to check out a book without the teacher there, you need the mega-check. So, thinking that with my experience I have to offer, I would go for the mega-check so I could really be put to use! Why not. My schedule is pretty free....

The teacher explained that the mega-check takes a long time to clear, so go ahead and get started now. I'm thinking, cool...I'll go fill out a form in the front office and they can send it off wherever and maybe by the first field trip I'll be good to go! Nope, this is not how this works, apparently.  The secretary gives me the packet and says I need to go by PMO to get it filled out. Ok, but what the heck is PMO and where is it? PMO is the police station, and she gives vague directions and after looking at the packet I decide I'll go by the next day and get 'er done. The next day, PMO's background checking program is down (of course!) and I needed to call back next week to see if it was back up and running. A week later, it is, so I go back and try again. No line, 5 minutes later, I'm in and out. Whoa! This is easier than I expected...which probably means it's too good to be true. So before leaving I check with the guy who just did the check and asked him if there was anything else I needed to do to have this background check complete. He looks at each and every page in the packet and says I am good to go. All done!

Feeling very proud and accomplished, I march into Ben's school the next day to show them my completed packet (having finished it in record time, for sure). The OTHER secretary looks at the packet, and asks what kind of clearance I was wanting in the school. I explained to her I wanted to be able to take kids to the library without the teacher having to hold my hand, and then she kindly explained to me that I needed to complete the packet. What?!?! It's done! I went to PMO....but apparently PMO is only the FIRST stop along the long and tiresome road to getting the mega-check complete. Ok, deflated now. I'm so confused. I asked not one, but TWO professional individuals if what I needed to have done and neither explained that I needed to not only go by PMO for a records check, but the Substance Abuse Counseling Center, the Base Housing Office, AND the Family Advocacy Program must also run their own records checks on me before I'm in the clear. (Just so you know, there are papers in the packet addressed to these other places and I DID notice they were not complete....but I just assumed it was all connected through PMO. Lesson learned: Never assume that one person knows everything when working with the military.)

For heavens sake! It just shouldn't be that hard to get cleared to work or volunteer for the military. Why can't ONE government location take care of every check that needs to be done? Finger print me and run my name through whatever military database there is to check out people and be done with it! It just seems like a big waste of time and money for people to do basically the same thing over and over again. And I never even get fingerprinted. I have not completed my School Volunteer Application yet, nor have I figured out where the three other places are to get the forms completed....

Changing subjects...

Some of our finds from Torri Beach

We have lucked out so far missing the two tropical storms that hit right before we got here, and then having another divert itself before landfall. The fourth storm, Tropical Cyclone Roke, spent an entire week snaking back and forth over the island with some rain and a little heavier wind. Living so close to the water, and having the amazing view that we do, it's really eerie to be able to see the rain roll in the way it does. And you can tell by looking out into the usually calm ocean how gusty it was becoming by all of the white caps that are usually non-existant. Roke was really just a tease for us, but poor Mainland Japan! A breeze took Roke and turned it into a Typhoon that caused a lot of flooding for them (and a lot of delays in produce and mail for us). But it also brought some neat treasures onto the beaches here, and the kids and I had a fun time exploring a Maeda Flats and Torii Beach for coral, seashells, and sea glass. I now have a pretty little beachy arrangement on my dining room table.

Chris's work is going pretty well. He stays on call or back-up call most nights. But life as an attending physician at a Naval Hospital is nothing like life as a resident in a Level 1 Trauma center, such as Greenville Memorial. Chris gets to come home and stay home most of the time when on call in the evenings. And work days aren't that bad either. He stays busy, but not insanely busy like before. Most days he's going in around 7 and home around 5. I can't complain one bit. The only downfall of being on so much call is not being able to go too far from base together as a family. Oh well. Life could be a lot worse! We have a beach within walking distance...it's really not that bad having to stay close to home.

As I said before, it's a little different in the military than in residency....One day Chris came home from work and says, "I need you to ask around and see who's going to the Navy Ball...and then decide if you want to go." A ball? A chance to get all dressed up, see my handsome husband in uniform, and get out of the house sans kids...uh, yeah! I mean, in Greenville I got all excited about Dr. Taylor's anual Christmas party and The Ashmore Graduation Dinner, but a "ball" just sounds a little more exciting! I've picked out my dress (keep your fingers crossed for me it arrives on time AND fits!), got a babysitter lined up, and have convinced a few friends to come with us. It should be fun!

Big fish, Pizza in the Sky, and no AC

Our first major outing outside of Chantan (the area of Okinawa we live in) was to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium with one of our sponsors and their kids. Megan, Mary Alice and Owen helped navigate the Bailey clan in our sweet new mini-van to this phenomenal aquarium about an hour away.

(Megan is an internal medicine doc at the hospital, and her husband Jeff is a fellow surgeon with Chris. Jeff, unfortunately, is "attached" to a boat and they are currently on a "mission." We are all hoping he gets home soon!!)

This aquarium puts every other aquarium in the universe to shame. Really. I mean it. It's kind of the like a Six Flags of aquariums.  Or maybe even better....Disney World? I don't know. It's just REALLY cool! Multi-story tanks with huge manta rays, whale sharks, giant groupers (if you knew Gordon the Grouper or Cooper the Grouper, these guys make them look tiny). And just about everything else you can think of. Glow in the dark fish. Creepy jellyfish. Garden eels. Sea cucumbers in a touch tank (yep, I asked if they were an animal or vegetable... What?...I know now. They move.). I mean, the inside is absolutely unreal. And then the outside has an awesome net structure play area for older kids, and a Telatubby-type play area for little kids.  There are shops selling beautiful glassware, restaurants, a dolphin tank, and so much more we didn't have time to explore. The grown up's favorite part was sitting in front of the jumbo aquarium eating a snack and enjoying an Orion on draft. The kid's favorite part was the outstanding splash fountain that was "choreographed" to music ranging from traditional Japanese drum beats to Celine Dion. After about 4 hours at the aquarium (which was WAY not enough time...we will have to go back and bought season passes), we headed to the next "must see in Okinawa" destination...Pizza in the Sky.

We had been having some trouble with the "new" van's AC (a downfall of buing a used vehical) but Chris had added refrigerant and we were pretty much good to go. Nice and cool and the way up (whoohoo!) However, it didn't seem to be working when we got back in the car. All nice...and sweaty...and sticky...and cranky....and hungry....and no AC. Great. Three babies in their 30's, and four kids 5 and under. So we rolled to our next destination with the windows down. Unfortuntely for the rest of us, we had to listen to Claire complain (scream at the top of her lungs) the whole way there.  Claire HATES to have all that beautiful hair of hers in her face, and ever since she was a little baby she acts like she's being tortured when we ride with windows open.

We made it to Pizza in the Sky, which is a tiny little pizza place tucked in the nook of a mountain overlooking the beautiful ocean. Many say it's one of the best places to get pizza around. You can sit inside or out (we said out even though it was pretty hot).  They have a limited menu, but it was all really yummy. You could order their one salad, their one pizza (which happens to be pepperoni, pepper, and corn, yes corn),  a variety of fresh fruit juices, Orion beer on draft, and frozen mango slices (tastes like heaven!). We ordered a little bit of everything, and loved every bite. Chris and I were thinking how funny it was that our favorite pizza place in SC was Side Street pizza, about an hour away in Trion, NC (way up in the mountains) and now we have another favorite pizza place in the mountains of Okinawa. We totally agree that both the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and Pizza in the Sky will be destinations for future outings, and hopefully places we can take visiting friends and family.

On the way back to Camp Lester,  all we could do was laugh when we figured out the AC problem. After an HOUR of ALL four kids crying, the teacher and two doctors figured out that we needed to push the universal symbol (icicle) for cold air button to get cold air to blow.  Go figure.

So I said I'd never drive a mini-van...

Well, I never thought I'd do it, but...I bought a teal green, crome side-mirrored, wood-grain interior, sonar parking systemed, gps navigation systemed(in Japanese), mini-van...for $3000. It has some -isms, but it'll do. It's not REALLY a mini-van. It's kind of like an old-school SUV (at least that's what I'm telling myself because it looks REALLY mini-vanish). The doors do not slide open on the side, which to me, does not put it in the same category as a van.

It's very functional and I can't believe I actually bought a vehicle that was larger than the 4-door sedan I was already driving, not because I was scared to drive a large vehicle (heck, I've been driving Chris's trucks around for years), but I'd heard how hard it was to drive a large vehicle in Okinawa. The streets are narrow, there is much back-in parking and parallel parking, and although people drive pretty slow around here (max speed limit anywhere is less than 60 MPH), there are the white-lining scooter drivers who are quite nerve racking. But...it's not too bad really.

The street signs are a little different, like the stop signs are in the triangle shape that yield signs are in the US. And it's illegal to turn on red (unless you're on base). And it's illegal to talk on your cell phone  on base but legal to talk when you're off base. Like so illegal that you lose your license right away. Yep, no talking while driving will I be doing! I personally think it's a good idea.

Driving on the left side of the road is probably what intimidated me the most. Even more than getting lost (because you can't really get that lost...it IS an island, after all). I thought, "Oh my gosh...I'm totally going to drive down the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic with my babies and run over some crazy scooter people." But, like I said before, it's not too bad, really. You just get used to it, and with everybody else driving the same way, you can do a good bit of following what others are doing. If you mess up, you have an American letter on the license plates so the Japanese can just shake their head at you and give you a break. I've driven down the wrong side of the road (momentarily) before ON base and thankfully not off base yet. I just have to keep telling myself, "Left, left, left, left, left. Close to the line, close to the line..."

Chris bought a pretty awesome "toy" truck for $1800. I say toy because it's tiny, but SO cute! I wish we could pack it up and take it back to the states with us! It's rusty, stinky, has no radio, completely standard transmission, and painted jungle camo. Like I said, awesome...and unmistakable. There are several little trucks on the island, but only one as unique as Chris's. Especially now that he has a longhorn on the back window. :-) The other cool thing about Chris's truck is that the bed converts completely into a flat bed if you need it to. I swear, the Japanese think of everything!

A street address? No? Really?

It's not like it would matter much anyway, since everything is written in Japanese, but basically when you travel around Okinawa, off AND on base, there's really no such thing as a street address. People give you directions by giving landmarks like: take your first right past the Spot Gate (Ok, but what the heck is the Spot gate?! I mean, I know now, but still. At least I think I know...) Another example would be a bit more complicated, such as: Once you get inside the Spot Gate, take your first left by that big brown building and go down the road until it curves and you'll see another big brown building. Park there and go around to the last building diagonal from the first building you went by. It will be big and brown. With some numbers on it, and I think the letter B. Or D.  (Are you confused yet? Yep. That's about how I feel all the time.)

Basically, traveling around Okinawa requires a lot of trial and error. Then try, try, get lost, then try again. I get lost pretty much everywhere I go. Even when I'm with someone who "knows" where they're going. It's comical, really. You just have to make sure you allow enough time for all those wrong turns. :-)

Before we bought vehicles we were very dependent upon our sponsors for rides here, there and everywhere. Our sponsors have been fantastic, by the way, and we are so thankful for toting us along to places they were going when we first got here so that we weren't stuck at home or at our hotel. Well, being as wonderful as they are, they invited us to eat at one of their favorite "Italian-type" restaurants. Turned out that another surgeon and his girlfriend wanted to join us too, so we all met at a central location, discussed directions, and planned to caravan. Only, part of our party went one way, the other part another. Back in the states, this wouldn't really be a problem because streets are labeled and if you get turned around it's easy to find your way back. We also have begun to rely heavily on GPS systems to mindlessly take us wherever we need to go, and reroute if you get ridiculously lost. Not in Okinawa though. If you get lost or separated from the group, you just might be screwed.

Back to the story...so we're going two different ways to one location. The directions that were given were: It's by Gate 2, across from the Yellow Box store. The correct directions were: It's by Gate 1, across from the Yellow Box. Guess what? There's a Yellow Box across from Gate 2 also, which makes these directions royally confusing.  One car went to Gate 2, and found no restaurant but parked anyway and started walking. The other car, the one I was in, got completely lost trying to find the other half of our party. Long story short, we finally found each other and ended up in a section of Okinawa that used to be "hoppin'" a few years back, but isn't so popular now. We ate at a completely random place (but it was still good food) and found a few little gems while we were there: a wonderful bakery and a fresh produce market. I'm not sure I could ever find where we were that day, but I might just get lost one day trying...

Other things worth mentioning:
-Most places serve food Japanese style, which means no shoes and sitting on the floor with your feet in a space below.
-You can order "sets" of food, which usually include small portions of soup, salad, an entre, a rice, something tempura, something gelatin, and a drink. Even kids get served this way. It's supposed to be just the right amount, but it's always too much for me. Using chopsticks for every meal definitely slows you down when you're not a pro at using them. I think it's a good thing though because I've been used to inhaling my food during my 15 minute lunch time.
-It's pretty cool how they cater to kids. Every restaurant I've been to has a kid's set too, and they use cute dishes and cutlery for the kiddos, and some places have cute little chairs they can sit in so they aren't too low to the table.
-Hello, my name is Jess, and I'm a napkin-aholic. I didn't realize how profound my addiction to paper napkins was until I moved here. Yeah, there's a lot less paper usage and abuse here than in the states. Napkins are more like tissues, really thin and kind of waxy. Some places actually put a Kleenex box in a fancy container on the table to use instead of napkins. Interesting. I'm not sure how I'll actually cut back on napkin use though, because: 1) I'm a klutz, and so are my kids. I always spill or drop. 2) I really don't like my hands to be messy because I'm a klutz, and inevitably I'll wipe something by accident on my face, on my clothes, or in my hair. 3) I am not a chopstick pro yet, and don't manage dumplings (which are pretty greasy) well with them. So I have to use my hands. Which means I'll need a lot of napkins. Oh well. I guess I'll either be bringing my own wet wipes everywhere I go, or I'll just get used to it.
-There is absolutely NO tipping here at restaurants. I like that one (but always feel bad about it). I guess I shouldn't though since I'm paying an extra 25 cents to every dollar already.
-If you eat somewhere on base, they will round up/down to avoid using pennies. No need for a "Give a penny, take a penny" pot here!
-Refills on soft drinks are usually a big no-no.
-There are McDonald's here (or as Claire says "Chicken Nugget's") which is a plus for the kids. Although it's a little different. For instance, the regular burger size is about the size of a happy meal burger. They have Fillet-O-Shrimp instead of Fillet-O-Fish. They serve corn instead of french fries in Happy Meals.

Always so much to say! Until next time...