Koinobori - Children's Day

May 5th is Children's Day in Okinawa. A holiday celebrating children. Right there during Golden Week. We went to the Hija River, not too far up the road from us, to check out the Koinobori. Koi are carp, "no" is possessive in Japanese, and bori is banner, so it's a carp banner. It USED to be Boy's day, but they changed it to include all children.

Mia asked for it - as recently as Sunday when it was mother's day (mind you, AFTER we celebrated Children's Day with icees and a boat ride!) - "When's kids' day?"
"It just happened, Mia. Not to mention, EVERY day is Mia day!"
The response was pouting. We're hard at work on a plan to get the selfish out of this only child.

Anyway - here's the view as we walked from where we parked toward the small festival.

The koinobori swayed in the breeze.... and Craig and I wondered aloud, "How do they get those things up there?"

We spent a few yen, donned some life jackets, and hopped a quick little boat ride out the river mouth and into the China Sea. Mia is one boat-lovin' sea-farin' kiddo. She was smiling like this the whole time! (Note the still very loose other bottom tooth that hadn't yet been pulled out by yours truly for a rope of licorice. Yes, I know. The irony. I offered licorice if she let me pull out her tooth. And let's have more teeth falling out. Shush.)

This was the view looking up at the flags from the boat.

And this is a zoomed in view from the shoreline. It wasn't really that windy.... sometimes those things were horizontal.
A gorgeous day. I find myself wishing the weather would stay like this. Feels like San Diego out here right now. Alas, I know the scary sub-tropical stickies are headed this way, sooner than I'd like. For now I'm enjoying amazing weather and the last weeks of Mia being in school for 7 hours a day.

Kitone Festival At Murasaki Mura

Good afternoon! I've been out & about a lot this week - it was a holiday week here in Japan. I like how they do this here - they don't have many holidays, but when they do - they sure party.

This week is "Golden Week" in Japan. Probably only behind Eisa/Obon and New Year's here in Okinawa's holiday hugeness scale.

During Golden week, which is made up of several different celebrations, there is sort of an Earth Day type thing called "Nature Day" or "Greenery Day". I think this might be what this festival (Kitone Ichi) closely relates to because there were lots of handmade natural cotton things there, organic foods & drinks, and friendly "hippie" culture types all around. Those who know me realize I was REALLY at home here. Friendly vibe, awesome sangria, and a gorgeous day outside (of SHOPPING - hello) made for one heck of a lot of fun. Some of the sights of the day:
(anyone know what kind of flower this is?)
handmade truffles.
hi, peeing shiisa




happy lady selling handmade dolls
love these!


ICEE TIME! Sebastian, Eli & Henry (L to R) enjoyed some colorful icee drinks. Too fun to resist lots of pictures.More from my next trip to Murasaki Mura with Kassia in the next post. And some killer sunset shots and maybe some stuff from Children's Day on the Hija River.

Sakura - Japan's National Flower

The Japanese gave a gift of cherry trees to Washington DC. They bloom every spring, much to the dismay of those with allergies. Cherry blossoms are a big deal in Japan, and Okinawa being sub-tropical - gets the first bunch of blooms. Yes, it's January - but they're in bloom here now.

We headed to Mount Yaedake (aka Mount Yae) for the festival yesterday. It was either raining or drizzling the whole time. Which bummed me out because the camera cannot be out in the rain without a jacket - which we do not have for it. Alas, using an umbrella, and early on "stepping between the raindrops" we got a few shots of the festival and the blossoms.

After we parked, this is the scene we approached; this was at the "base" of the mountain. There were booths with crafts, games, food, food, games... did I mention food?!

The wet blossoms.

Huge selection of fried and grilled ANYTHING (squid on a stick to pork ribs to yakisoba and takoyaki - basically octopus fritters), including soba (mmmm....soup) which I personally lunched on.

This tree had busy bees among its flowers, this is my favorite of the day - and trust me, there weren't many pictures.

I also love this lantern shot taken at the stand where we got lunch. The lanterns were lit and so warm & inviting on a chilly wet day.

As you drive up the mountain, the trees line the narrow windy street as it switchbacks up. The cars are often single-file to avoid hitting branches - and pedestrians with umbrellas!

More through the windshield. If it wasn't raining, I can't imagine how crowded it might've been!

Mount Yaedake is apparently the island’s second highest point at 453.4 meters (1487 feet), and has more than 4,000 Taiwan cherry trees. FYI, the Yaedake area is also the orchids capital of Okinawa. These cherry trees are different from the light pink blooms you see on mainland and in DC (as you can tell from the pictures). They're a darker pink, and they last longer - about a month. Along the streets on the way to and from the area, there are sakura for sale by the branch to put in vases at your home. There are also lots of mikan (tangerines) for sale since they're in season - DELICIOUS!

On the way back toward home (after frustration really ensued from having to take pictures from inside the car....) we promised to visit again on a clearer day, and also to visit Naha in February when the blooms moved south. We also stopped by the Nago City festival, but as it was raining pretty hard and the crowds were kind of crazy, we moved on. We'd had our festival fill for the day. Here's a shot of Nago City from a bridge above it where we definitely weren't allowed to stop. Suwanee rightfully stated a new mantra of mine - "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."

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!

Off Subject

Ok, this isn't normally what I'd use a blog post for, but this video is really cool. Hang in there, I know it's 8 minutes long, but it's fascinating. Ryan, I think the guy that shot this sounds like you a little bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

Things are pretty much status quo - Mia's in swim class every day for a few weeks, Craig is at a seminar this week with a bunch of guys (at at least one woman) of his rank. We have been enjoying local food, meeting some more neighbors & stuff, and I just bought tickets to "Okinapa" - VERY excited for that! ( I hear from everyone that has been here for past Okinapa wine festivals that it kicks butt!) It's $25 a head (adult thing) for wine tasting, amazing food, and they sell the wine you taste also, and give you a 10% discount on mixed cases. One of the tickets I bought is for a friend from my dive class who even offered to be the DD. YESSSS!

This weekend Craig will probably play golf at some point. Saturday morning I have to take Mia to the family practice building (doctor) to get a form filled out that says she has all the immunizations & such she needs to attend school. Hopefully she won't need any shots, but I've prepared her for the possibility.

Otherwise, things are great! Some pictures soon - a weekend is coming and I plan on getting out to do something fun - Obon & Eisa festivals are this month - that means lots of dancing, drumming and musical performances - I'm bringing the SLR for that stuff!