Empty Mailbox..

On Saturday, Isabella and I went out to get a gift for a friend's daughter that was celebrating her birthday in the evening, and on the way there, we stopped by our post office. Living on base, we don't have a street address or a mailbox by our house, so we have to go to the post office to get it. There are many rows of these brown shiny boxes! Isabella thought it was funny to look for the right number, but she was too short to reach to turn the knob. She was upset that she couldn't open the box, but it isn't the easiest anyway! Really, I have to keep doing it as I always mess up somewhere along the way...and if you turn it just slightly over the number you need to stay on,  you have to start all over again. After the fifth time, I lost count...:) But, even when we got it open, it was only some bills in there. "No fun mail", as Isabella said! Well, to get some "fun mail", we probably should send some, and as everything is digital nowadays, I'm v e r y guilty of not sending out postcards or handwritten letters anymore..Maybe I'll get on it now to get the Christmas cards out in time for once!!

 She found it! Before we leave Okinawa, she might be tall enough to turn the knob!!

Seriously, it doesn't sound very hard, but really, it's driving me crazy every time!! 

Cassie was invited to a sleepover at another base at a new friend's house, and Chris had to work in the evening, so it was perfect to take the little ones for this party where they were showing the movie "Book of Life". They hadn't seen it before and they liked it. Pizza and cupcakes is always a good combination at a kid party!

The party was meant to be held outside, but due to rain, it moved inside. I still brought the kid's chairs along as they were in the car, and they were comfy sitting there eating and watching the movie!

Fish Market & Japanese Lunch

One day, we decided to go and check out the local fish market in Awase here close to our home. We had heard pretty good things about their variations of fish and that they also had an attached restaurant. So, with the kids in school, and Chris having half a day off, we left there with hopes that we could maybe eat some fresh fish for lunch.

What we didn't realize was that they only took Yen, being a really big market, we took for granted that they took card, so we weren't able to eat there, but check out their colorful displays of fish that we don't know the name of!

The Tuna and Mahi Mahi was the only ones that we recognized, but we are very interested to find out more about the colorful ones. I have to make some research to see which one to take home, it would be so much fun and hopefully tasty to try one out on the grill!

Something that we will go back and try for sure is these huge shrimps!! 

They were almost a foot/30cm long!

Colorful octopus is pretty to look at, but not my taste!

So after checking out what they had, and realizing that we couldn't eat there this time, we went on a little adventure to find a restaurant somewhat close by to have our lunch before it got too late. We had to be back home at 2.45pm the latest in time for when the kids get home from school. 

Our choice fell on a small Japanese restaurant. It was a traditional Japanese restaurant with a huge menu of small little things. None of us had the desire for sushi this time, so we were lucky that there were plenty of pictures to get an idea of what we were ordering. Chris wouldn't have a problem in just picking something, he is much more adventurous when it comes to food than me, I on the other hand, need to know what it is that I'm eating!

Chris ordered a little menu with steak with cabbage, Misu soup and rice. The rice comes in a separate bowl. He also got another little dish that I don't remember what it was under the lid. It came with a little salad, the divided dish in the front is minced garlic and chives for the steak.

My menu came with a dish with rice with tempura shrimp. It also came with the traditional Okinawan dish, Hot Soba. It's like a hot soup, beef broth with some Japanese thick noodles with a slice of boiled pork normally put on top. I'm not a fan, so Chris had some of it.

On the picture in the menu, the shrimp looked very crunchy as it normally is when it's fried in tempura, so I was very surprised and disappointed that it turned out that they did not only put a lid on the bowl, keeping the steam in to keep it warm - but also made it very soggy. They had also put an egg on top of the rice, and that was now of course all soggy too. So my dish wasn't a great choice. I did however order a single serving of tempura shrimp, which was OK.


After all, for us it's not that common that we are able to go out for lunch together, so that was all worth it! And even if it wasn't the tastiest food I've had, you have to be appreciative of the experience!

In the window, it's common by many restaurants to have plastic food representing their dishes!

Zootime With Friends

A Sunday, a little while back, we decided to take our friends the P family with us to show them the Okinawa Zoo, that we go to pretty often here. It was a warm day, not too hot and it was lovely to hang out and the kids were getting along and having a great time too. Cassie, who had a huge Japanese test on the following Monday, decided to stay home to study. To be able to have the house quiet, as there was a lot of oral test and comprehension test on the computer to practice on was something that she wanted to take advantage of. She is doing great, it's a LOT and they go fast forward in the class, but so far she has done exceptional well on her tests!! Even if it sounds sad that she didn't get to go on this family outing, she wasn't too upset about it. She has been a couple of times before, and wasn't too keen on coming anyway.

Our first stop was to go to the giraffes and elephants. The mommy and baby elephant were out and the handlers took them up to the fence, that's why it was pretty crowded as everyone wanted to get to pet the elephants.

Waiting with a little Japanese boy to pet the baby elephant!

Here he is! 

We were not lucky this time to be able to reach over and pet him, before he walked away, maybe another time. But very very close!!

Mommy elephant wasn't too impressed with the families that were there! 

She said hello to a few of the kids standing there by the fence, they were able to "shake" her trunk, and then moved away to go and eat! And it was time to move on for us too to see the rest of the animals.

 Three little monkeys!

T is photobombing!

Love these two!

 Old Shisas in the park!

After a long walk around the park, it was time for lunch and a much needed rest in the shade. After that, the petting zoo that is next door to the cafe. The bunnies were out this day as it wasn't too hot, and our bunny lovers thought that was fun!

 Feeding the guinea pigs!

 Kids happy to take off in the train!

Cuties!!

Family P and the kids coming back from the train ride!

After the rides, we went to the favorite part of the play land, the motorbikes! The kids and parents had a great time together!

After feeding the carps, it was time to go home for this time!! We all had a great time, but now it was getting late and time to go home for dinner and Sunday evening preparations for the Monday morning!