Heard From the Living Room

I'm on the computer surfing around.

Craig (starting a game of Warhawk on the PS3 with his new rumble controller - that can only be bought in Japan right now): "Ok, Mia - it's not your favorite screen, but you like Archipelago. It's zones."
Mia: "No it's not. It's death match."
Craig: "No... it's zones."
Mia: (no hesitation) "Death match."
...pause...
Craig: "....you're right."
Mia: "I know."
Craig: "How did you know that?"
Mia: "See the little squares up top?"
Craig: "Dang - you're observant."
Mia: "Ok, Daddy - pay attention - you just passed a tow missile."

(WTF is a tow missile? I don't know - some kind of missile you can control - but cutely enough, Mia was calling this a "missile tow" after she learned the term - quite fitting for the season.)

Craig: "Ok - zones is next."
Mia: "Right, and after that is capture the flag...."

Upon finishing the game and getting rid of some enemy, they high five each other and Mia says, "See, Dad? Guns are better than knives." Quote of the year. This is what you get with the daughter of a Marine/Warhawk addict.

Only In Japan

First of all, I'll share the picture from our balcony this morning at 7:45. 10 minutes after Craig opened his eyes and realized he didn't set the alarm to get Mia up for school since he's on leave. So the mad dash to get Mia to the bus stop at 8:05 was.... let's just say interesting. But the sunrise was purty.

Mia has gotten very creative and swirly. This is her new way of writing her name.
I am thinking the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I love to do lettering. And she's seen it before, so I'm all for fostering her amazing creativity!


Now - in the "Only in Japan" category... cell phone charms. Cell phones out here will NOT sell if there isn't a little space to attach a charm. I'm told the reason the iPhone was delayed here was because they had to make them with a place to loop the charm into. I believe it - EVERYONE here has jingly charms hanging from their phone! Well, I am not one to conform, but at the local photo/camera shop in town, they make charms where you can put a picture of your own on the face. There's a kid with a karate outfit, a panda bear - and this. A kimono-clad girl. Perfect for Mia's mug:
She's decked out with a bun, kimono, even little thongs. And you can't tell from the picture, but the face is contoured - the nose actually protrudes out a little bit. (If I had a macro lens, I'd show you - maybe one day soon). Here's the back:
Yeah, I sprang for it - and you know you want one now.

Lastly, Craig summoned me to try a demo driving game he downloaded on the PS3 this morning. It comes out for PS3 in January. I like driving games, and this one is really great. So I sat down and he told me what button did what - and as I began to drive - FAST - he was chuckling.

"What?"

"Well, I asked you to come try it because I wanted to see if you'd do the same thing," he says, as I swerve into a head-on collision with another car.

"What?!?"

"Drive on the left side."

"Oh. Shut up." And try as I might, I was huggin' that left. But I got lots of points for near misses.

OK, OK...

Wow - "Anonymous" is anxious for a new post, and who am I to deprive you, A?

Let's see - much happenings in the Oki hood. Chronologically:

Last Thursday afternoon, the kindergarten classes were to go caroling at the BX (base exchange). Well, it rained. Hard. And so the powers that be changed the morning caroling session to be held at the cafeteria.


Yup, adorable. And the crew left to carol at the classrooms after the performance. The above shot is only Mia's class - there are 8 classes of give or take 25 kids each. Yes - 200 kindergarteners, just at her school! The movie of the songs (very cute) can be found here.

Thursday evening, I had dinner with the most of the amazing ladies of Okinawa Hai!
Such fun - left to right it's Julia, Julie, Kaho, Kelly, Meredith (YAY! My photography sister in arms), Joelle and Kim.
We ate at Mintana, great Italian place. YUM.

Friday evening there was a bingo night benefiting PIE (Partners in Education) at Mia's school. Mia quickly learned how to play bingo, and we all had fun even though we didn't win any prizes.
Here are the kids that were there posing with Santa who made a quick appearance.

Saturday afternoon the 7th Comm Battalion's holiday party was held up at the Palms near Craig's work (where we had our ball). I sure didn't expect pony rides...

As well as 2 bouncies.

Mia's old buddy (and one of a few crushes) Nicholas was there to keep us company (and help her to finish her broccoli so that she could eat one of those treats!).

Again - one busy dude, Santa showed up. Nicholas got back to the table and announced he would never wash his butt again.

Mia had a nice visit.
It was a blast, great food too!

Sunday I attended a cookie exchange party at Erin's house. (Lovely Erin - our photography assistant and party thrower extraordinaire - she was sick as a dog all week and still did it all!) I had to make 150 cookies. Yes. 12 1/2 DOZEN cookies, as did everyone else. Here's the result of 20+ women making 150 cookies: (oh yeah, there are more under the table & in the kitchen...)
My chocolate almond cookies:
Amazing hand-decorated wreaths:

At the end of the party, 4 winners were announced; most festive, tastiest, prettiest, and most adventurous. Though my batch wasn't elected for any of those, we went home with a huge box that looked something like this:since we had to take home at least 8 of each type of cookie! DANG. Yes - my counter looks like a holiday cookie buffet.

This week has been pretty relaxed so far; the Neathery family left for southern Cali on Wednesday morning, so I enjoyed a great last couple of days with Anne and Mia said a goodbye for now to her two local buds. We're feeding their turtles for them and they'll be in LA & San Diego, so we helped with the SD part! Not much going on this weekend besides prepping for Santa & the haps on Tuesday and enjoying time together while Craig's on leave. More soon!

Something I Love About Okinawa

No pennies. At the on-base places, if you buy something for $19.93, they give you a nickel back. I no longer have ANY pennies in my purse! Not only a good thing because pennies annoy me - but a good thing because I have to carry 2 different types of money around, and yen coins are big.

Now if we could just find a way to get rid of one-yen pieces I would be content. Oh well, one coin at a time.

Araha Beach

I know I posted about this back when we first arrived, but we went again this past weekend and it's just so neat. Mia loves this park at Araha Beach (aka "Pirate Ship Beach" for obvious reasons) - and this time when we went, she was up there with a crew of kids she had never met, leading the siege on the enemy; the moms & dads!

Randomness

I got my car washed on Monday for the first time. YES YOU READ CORRECTLY! For the first time since we bought it in June! It rains. A LOT. And so Mother Nature kinda does it for you. And I keep a clean car (inside) so it wasn't THAT bad. But it was pretty bad, so I washed it. And as I did, I wondered why a. I hadn't done it sooner, and b. I hadn't brought Mia!

This is the car wash:
JUST a wash (this machine, no frills, no tire wash, no waxing, no interior) is $2. There are several washes in between, and a Premium Wash (which I sprang for cuz - ya know, it'd been 6 months and all) was $12. Plus a couple of dollars for a tip because that woman vacuumed up dirt that was probably in that car since its first year of existence, 1998.

A staff member guides you into the car wash, and the tire goes up against this little bump, and you are directed to fold in your side rear view mirrors, and put on the emergency brake. Then the blue 3/4 square brush, soap, and water machine proceeds to move back and forth slowly on the tracks as you sit inside. I realized that I would've been car sick had I not fixated on a point outside- you know when you're at a stop light and there's a big bus next to you that starts rolling forward but you think you're rolling backward and you stamp on your brake? Yeah - it's like that but all around you! Crazy. Mia would've DEFINITELY loved this experience of getting to stay in the car while the machine is going. She begged to stay in the car in San Diego at the wash (and WHAT ever happened to that anyway?? My dad used to take my brother and me to the car wash and we could sit in there while we rolled through and it was like a fun weekend thing to do! We LOVED it - they don't have that anymore I don't think.) - this is Mia's opportunity to be inside!

Anyway, after that you drive to the side, they wipe everything down, clean the tires, vacuum like crazy, and voila - sparkly clean Cube.

Here are Mia, Logan and Nikolas starting their houses at the gingerbread house making contest last Saturday evening. Nice surprise - we got to go chill for 2 hours while the kids played! I must do things like this more often. And of course, it involved lots of SUGAR, so the kids loved it and my kid was bouncing off the walls when we got home because she ate at least one hundred pieces of red stringy licorice.

The finished products:

We also attended a REALLY fun Hanukkah pot luck, where I met some fabulously friendly and fun MOTs (members of the tribe) here on Okinawa. It felt so comfortable and fun, and Mia played with friends the whole night as I kibbitzed with the yentas. And some really cute nice Jewish boys, I might add- I felt like I should set them up, but for sure not here! No pictures, it was shabbat and I didn't think the camera would be welcome.

I might have mentioned a while ago that they sake experience here is a bit different. Maybe some of you have eaten sushi at a restaurant that did this, but I experienced it again the other night and did some research to be able to show you this really interesting (and generous) ritual.


Tuesday night, Anne & I went to Sushi Zen down the street, and as we were perusing the menu, I ordered some cold sake (daiginjyo), which was served in the typical way. The server put down a cube-shaped wooden cup called a masu box, and placed a tall slender glass inside. She unsheathed a large green bottle (like picture a magnum of champagne) and started to pour, and when it got to the top of the cup, she kept going. The sake overflowed into the square cup until it too was filled. This is a gesture of generosity and hospitality.
So after you've drank what was in the glass, you drink what's in the masu box. Good night, Irene. We did eat some delicious sushi & sashimi too - I love this place. It's a 2-block walk away (hence the sake) and the owner lived in Queens, NYC for 25 years -he's awesome.

Flower roll (avocado/tuna/roe/deeeelish):
Hello, hamachi...

Nummy rolls.

In The Car Yesterday

Craig: "Mia, who's the best Mommy and Daddy in the world?"
Mia: "What are my choices?"