For The Web Geeks, TV Geeks & Resort Freaks

If you have no clue what this means, it's ok. I only sort of do. It's our download and upload speeds on fiberoptic cable Internet. Basically... blazin'. Craig said it's yet another reason we're happy to be living here.

I love: So You Think You Can Dance, Swingtown, Mad Men (STARTING UP SOON), and Burn Notice. Please begin watching at least the latter three shows so that they stay on TV. Take my word for it, they're fantastic.

Now - about a 15-minute ride up the road from us starts the "resort" area of Onna. It's gorgeous at this time of year - the sea has jewel tones you never thought existed in nature. But wow, don't get out of the car or you might melt. Unless you're in the water.

We went to the Renaissance Hotel up in Onna this past weekend. Mia and I had been once, we took Craig to show him. he was just as impressed.

In the lobby, there were several resident tropical birds hanging out. This is Pinkie (their names are on plates for us to read in English or Japanese):
Craig calls him the Buckeye Bird now as he is donning Ohio State colors. I think that's cool.

This is Oscar. He has a friend, Charmie who's orange - but I didn't get a good picture of him as he was preening.. very busily. Behind Oscar there's a stairway in the lobby, the bottom is turquoise and has those cool circles underneath it. It's a very pretty and tropical-looking lobby. Occasionally they have a woman on staff making balloon animals for the kids! It's a very happy place.

Mia made a friend, and they insisted in trying to give Pinkie back his feathers. He played along though, it was sweet. The other girl's parents were smiling at them too.... they were cute together.

This is the INDOOR pool. With water slides. Kid heaven. I could just leave Mia there to grow gills, she'd be fine with that.

Outside we wandered around for as long as we could stand it. Those cone-topped buildings sort of reminded me of the Hotel Del...right? To the right of this bridge were enclosures where the dolphins swam. The dolphins you could swim with if you paid enough. They're rescued, and it's an amazing program actually - I hope to do that before I leave Okinawa. (Yes, Mia was going bananas over them.)

We took the glass elevator to the top floor (12th I think?) and at the end of the hall was this. The reflection is unfortunate, but you understand why I'd put this up here. I mean... wow.

Not a postcard. A photo I took from the top floor lounge on the balcony. I hate it here. It's not like being on vacation every day or anything... I mean really. Sigh.
This is the area past the swimming beach where they give sailing lessons, scuba lessons, and they snorkel and dive. It's gorgeous, I'm dying to get out there!

Ok, more soon - I have too many photos and not enough time! nothing new. And many cool stories to share regarding my new friend, Robin. Stay tuned!

Great weekend!

Wheeeeee!!!! This is Mia descending the water slide on Foster, where she takes swim lessons. Yep, definitely sucks to be her.

As for the rest of us, it's festival season (or as Mia and Leah put it "festible"). Eisa/Obon is at the full moon in August (which falls on the last weekend) and it's one huge party until then! We hit the summer carnival at nearby Sunset Beach in Chatan with Hector, Kristina, Lars & Leah (Hector works with Craig, he actually did at Miramar too, so we met them while we were still in San Diego.) Leah's 5, so instant friend for Mia, and Lars will be 2 in February. He's adorable. We had a fantastic time, left at around 6:30 after gorging on some of the best food ever, and made it home to sit for a while and chat until the fireworks started with a great view right out on our balcony. It's good here.

So basically.... you have not had good food at a carnival unless you've done so in Japan:

This was one of OH so many wonderful food stands - I wished it wasn't so hot and I was a bit more hungry. Mia & Leah (and even Lars) won all kinds of tchotchkies at the booths and had a ball. All the pictures here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d0hm29f.2fvcow5r&x=0&y=-fy9tyj
Great music, great company, and great fun.

Oh - and by the way - no fiberoptic cable until September because they're so backed up. -sigh- And so we wait!

We Are Online!!

However, it's slow - ADSL (300-someodd kb/min) so bear with us. LOTS has been happening, lots to tell - but not much time to type right now. Soon - I promise. Categories to include:
July 4th
Our neighbors
Restaurants/food
Shopping
More culture shock

To tide you over, here are some photos:
Starbucks inside of Jusco (huge department store/flea market/supermarket/mall...more pictures soon, maybe some video when we get a quicker connection).

Fresh fish/noodles/sushi/fried things we have no idea what they are market in the middle of Jusco.
This is one side of the "American Village" - that mall designed to look like a San Diego mall. You can see McDonald's, and I think "Deep Blue" is a clothing store meant to be like Old Navy.

This is the view if you look to the right from the last picture - Sega/Sonic is everywhere - as are game rooms, pachinko & slot machine places.

Sunset view from our ROOF. That platform on the left - yeah, there's a hot tub up there. Not our first order of business when it doesn't ever get below 80 degrees and humid outside, but come winter we are SO there... And a giant plastic mug of beer - no idea why that's there. Maybe if someone was drowning you could throw that in there for 'em.


Daytime views from our roof - there's a dog park down there, and there's a small playground next to it too - apparently the moms call it "poopy park". Guess they aren't cleaning up after their pets too well.

That Hawaiian/Japanese restaurant? It's not on the 1st floor, it's on the ROOF! This is it - right above our apartment. The menu looks amazing - I'll be trying it tonight with our neighbors. Very cool bar in there too! Do you love it that I can grab a drink on my rooftop bar or in a beer vending machine? Sweet.

Inside the aforementioned restaurant.

Here you go Ryan - this guy was chirping away on a ledge above a doorway. These are everywhere... any clue what it is?

I'll Be Going "Dim" As Of Monday

Unfortunately we won't have any Internet at our home for 2-3 weeks. So to email and to post to this blog, I'll have to hit "hot spots" on the base. So - I'll be a bit incommuincado for a while. Also, we have a Vonage phone, which works off of the Internet (VoIP for those who understand) - so our old home phone number won't work for that same 2-3 weeks.

Trust me, you will know when we're online, I'll shout it from the rooftops.

So I have a cell phone (already working now) and a home phone (which will be hooked up on Tuesday 7/3), if you want either or both of those (if you don't have them already) please email me before Sunday.

Craig is off to work today, and Mia and I just might get our toes done in town. We'll also find out about her school district, and later we'll pick up the title to my car.

WE ARE NO LONGER HOMELESS!

You read correctly; we have a home. It's a 3-bedroom apartment on the 4th floor of a hotel. You walk in the front door, there's a desk person, an elevator, and on one side of the building it's hotel rooms, and on the other side there are apartments! So there's also a restaurant and a spa on the ground floor! Oh yeah baby - stumble downstairs in my pajama pants for pedicures and massages - loving THAT!

It's 1/2 a block from the beach, and a walk away from convenience stores, restaurants, a fantastic park (with a skate park, playground, and tennis courts), and a very short drive to shopping and other stuff. We have 2 parking spaces underneath the building, and enough square footage to put our big American bed and couch. Not a large kitchen, but we'll make do.

So here's the complicated process: Our household goods are still being shipped here, due at the end of July. So we need to borrow beds and a dining room table and a couch for a month. It takes a week to get that stuff. So we arranged to move in on Monday 7/2. We have to start up Internet service - that's separate, and they don't know if we'll have to use DSL or fiberoptic (fiberoptic is ideal because it's blazing fast) - depends how close we are to the "switch" or whatever other lingo there is involved here - that's Craig's gig. The housing company we got the place through arranges to start up gas, water & electricity. We are going Saturday to do a walk-through. We also need to arrange to get a satellite from the Military, as well as a fridge and a washing machine. It's all very drawn out & complicated- oh, we still have to find me a car too! Add to all this the whole converting-yen-to-dollars stuff and whatnot. Lots of money and hassle and confusion.

Mia, for one (Craig & I too) are very happy not to have to search anymore, I'll tell ya!

2 more things - 1. Okinawans loooooove vending machines. You'd never die of dehydration here if you always kept 110 yen in your pocket for the iced tea/coffee/soda/juice machines that are EVERYWHERE. Pictures to come.
2. this place has the cleanest bathrooms on the PLANET! I went into a convenience store bathroom (like 7-Eleven) and it had a STUNNING bathroom - nicer & cleaner than some homes I've visited in the US. These folks aren't necessarily rich, but they're clean! gotta go sign a lease!