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.

A Different Sort Of Birthday Gift

It happened. Well... it didn't just happen, but I helped it finish happening.
My little baby lost her first tooth! (On what happens to be my twenty-seventeenth birthday.)

She woke up, she said her tooth "hurt", and so I looked. That sucker was BARELY hangin' on by a thread. She was scared. She ate her cereal, and then I washed my hands, grabbed a piece of dental floss to help - and when that didn't work I just took my thumb and index finger (at a moment when her mouth was open and both hands weren't clapped on there tightly) and *snap* it was done!

The look on her face at the moment it happened was priceless. Like "Oh my gosh, WHAT?!?" A bit tearful from the worry about pain, and then just pure excitement, joy, and lots of tongue movement into the lower front quadrant of her mouth.

So it begins. I told her I thought the tooth fairy was Japanese here... there might be yen. She's ok with that.

Off to change my oil. I know, exciting right? More fun things and definitely some treats later.

**updated to add: HI, Heather! Nice to meet you. I think the tooth fairy is paying out about 300¥ per tooth these days. (Craig thought $5 per tooth and I almost fainted! DANG, that girl is gonna make $100 on her teeth?! That should go to the orthodontics fund.)**

Isaac & Rachel Sitting In A Tree

Like I said - STILL working on Ohio pictures (I took a LOT - and there are a lot of family members, and a lot of GOOD ones!). Allow me to share.

This is Isaac (one of Craig's first cousins) and Rachel, his lovely wife. (Doesn't she TOTALLY have a Kiera Knightley thing going on? She totally does.) They're so sweet, and they have never had any portraits or anything done - and Rachel requested I take a few photos and I happily obliged. This little pose? This was Rachel's doing. I love the look on her face when Isaac is kissing her cheek! That's why they call it "cheeky".


And THIS is Violet. Their daughter. Who was almost exactly one year old in this picture. With her eight teeth. What a smile, huh?
More of those - with aunts & uncles & such - SOON. I PROMISE, Rachel & Carol and everyone. Almost done.

Monday Night Randomness

So glad we have TiVo. We're having a Kentucky Derby Sunday Brunch Party with Mint Juleps! Derby starts at 5am, but I can fix that! AND fast forward commercials. Yay!

Ok, Ernie - what is this drink? It's soda - I realize - but why the marble in the pinched top? (That thing that's covered in bubbles at the lower part of the neck of the bottle.) Fascinating packaging.
Sign from outside Magnolia, Ohio. Just found it in photos I forgot to post.

Sea wall jacks. I know some of you are familiar with this particular warning....

STILL editing photos, mostly for personal friends. A recent baby shower (I'll post a couple for you here - but hopefully with BABY pictures too! Very exciting stuff.), a birthday party (Sena of the Jew porn - her daughter - so you KNOW there was some kinda amazing cake!) and still Ohio pictures. Yes. Still.

Hope this will tide you over for a few. Still having fun taking and editing pictures, and planning for future picture taking! And other things.

I Done Been TAGGED!

You know, I've read about this in photography blogs - but never did I imagine, even in this tiny little universe that someone would tag me! I'm so flattered... blush.

Elizabeth Pellette tagged me. She's amazing, and she found me through another blog I read (someone who's already been tagged, I'm sure). The rules. Ahem.

1. Link the person who tagged you. (check)

2. Mention the rules in your blog. (check)

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. (6? That's it? I suppose I'll narrow it down.)

4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. (will do)

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blogs letting them know they've been tagged. (will do too.)

Quirks:

1. I'm awful about reading directions. I'm kind of a guy that way - I'd much rather figure things out myself. And then I get annoyed when I can't and I have to take the time to read the stupid directions.

2. I am a food pack rat. I love cooking, and I do cook what I buy - but often my eyes are bigger than our 3 stomachs (hubby, daughter & myself) and I end up with stuff that I would love to eat but there just aren't enough meals in the day. 

3. I'd happily leave the house with a cap on my unshowered head, but I'd never leave without a stitch of makeup on. Even just a little mascara and something for the circles under my eyes. And maybe a bit of blush.... 

4. I'm a bit of a video game junkie. I have a DS, a PS3, a PSP, and a Wii. Hubby bought them, but I admit. I definitely play more than he & Mia put together.

5. I used to read a lot - now I really don't anymore. I am an ADD kind of reader - magazines, websites, blogs, newspapers - not so much novels anymore, and that makes me sad. It's really not because I don't find it interesting or fun - my eyes start closing too soon and it takes me too long to finish a book.

6. I hate mayonnaise. Anyone who knows me, knows this about me. I'm phobic. Really. Can't smell it, can't touch it, and if it comes on my sandwich despite the fact that I ordered it without, I will either send it back or not eat it. **shudder, gag**

Gosh, six other bloggers. HERE WE GO:

Kassia, at Our Life is an Open Blog

Jen, at Sumeba Miyako

Edith, at SENIORITA MOMMY

Ayelet, at Ayelet Like It Is (HA! I will force you to post!)

Ernie, at Ernie Budo's Lab

and Pamela, at her UKreal blog

Sorry if you've been tagged before. Deal with it.

Photos coming OH so soon!

I Haven't Mentioned How Lucky I Am.

When we entered this adventure that is our 3 years in Okinawa, I knew I'd be in for some cultural education, definitely new sights, sounds, foods, and people, but I have to say I'm consistently surprised. I didn't ever dream of meeting the incredibly smart, fun, talented, and amazing people that I've been meeting.

We're all sort of in the same boat here - either military families or State Department or whatever - somehow put here by America or our choice to educate the Americans who are here. It's a strange sort of existence - just about everyone is only here temporarily. This spring and summer, I'm going to lose some of the friends I've made - they're going to head back to the states, or on to their next duty station wherever that may be. It's a sad part of the way it is, and we all know it.

But that being said, with the Internet, email, blogs, websites, Vonage - BLESS VONAGE!!! - etc., we'll all be in touch. If we want to be. I've gotten into photography quite a bit since I've been here, as all of you that read this little blog know. The support, comments, encouragement - they have had a profound effect on me.

At the commissary a few months ago, someone called me by name and told me she loved my photographs - and I had never met her before! She knew someone whose family I'd shot, and had subsequently followed my blog. Whether I've made these friends through my photography (like Suwanee or Annya) or through the blogosphere (like e or Ernie or Pam or even more people who are on their way to Oki and found me before they came!), or just by fate (you know who you are - Mere, Anne, Jen, Katherine, Ebeth, Casey, Sena, too many to NAME I must say...) - I thank you. I deeply appreciate your amazing words and encouragement and I really feel so incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to do what I'm doing. Even if I am horrible about emailing back - realize that if I could take the time to sit down for coffee once a week with all of you - I WOULD!

Lots of amazing things are to come in my life. I can't wait to hold your hand through my journey... thank you for joining me!

Neglectful. Again.

No excuse. None. Except that I have lots of plans and not much time to just play with the camera - and things are happening, but not really in a bloggish sort of way.... quite. Here's what I have for you. A couple more Ohio pictures - yet more to come, for those who care.

Left: Terri (old old friend of Craig's and his brother Ridge's). Middle: my father, eyeballing Terri's Muffaletta sandwich at Crave restaurant in Akron, Ohio. Right: Valerie - Terri's wife. Who I guarantee has taken better pictures.
Ridge (Craig's brother) leaning up against that awesome old Ford up on the hill by the farm. I think this is a great shot. Though I do rather wish I'd had him take off the sunglasses.

Uncle Ridgie with Mia, in the Ford.
A REALLY cool shot of Craig & Ridge leaning on some kind of farm equipment. And yes, the moment he reads this he'll remind me what this thingamabobber is called, but I'm a city girl and I don't need to remember that sort of thing. I just know the picture makes them both look pretty darned cool.

I just love this picture of Mom with her sons... that's Aine, my mom-in-law, beautiful inside & out. Not sure how I got lucky enough to get TWO amazing moms (and grandmoms) in this life, but I did. And Craig & Ridge really love their mom too, if you can't tell.
Ok - that's it for sharing today.... talk to you soon!