A Saturday's Wanderings

This Saturday Mike, David and I went A 'wandering.
(Matt was off globe trotting in Korea)




It wasn't really intentional...we were trying to go watch the Bull Fighting. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the Bull Fight, or any other part of the festival it was part of.
The local papers available on base often have wonderful events listed for the upcoming week...but details are often lacking! Finding the location of these events is challenging- often requiring hours of online research (and looking at lots of websites in Japanese!). They often list activities at events, but rarely list specific times (or list incorrect times).
You learn to go with the flow!!

We decided to give up on the Bull Fighting and located a nearby Castle ruins to visit. Hummm...did you know things are a lot easier to find when maps actually have names on the roads? And show ALL the roads so you can at least tell where you are?? We traveled around in good spirits, laughing about driving in circles all around where we wanted to go, but never finding the castle ruins (or any signs point to said ruins). After driving down lots of little back roads through farmlands and over hill and dale, we cut our losses and headed towards the coast.

Mike was a good sport as I would suddenly yell "Look at that! Go back, Go back! I need a picture!!" To humor me he finally turned around and pulled into a tiny marina at the Port of Maeda.





We sat on the wall and relaxed for a bit. I love the rock formations around here- they look like they have been eroded around the bottoms.




I decided to explore the tiny beach and after hearing
me "oohing" and "aahhing" Mike and David decided to join me.


The shells littering the beach were amazing. Mike ended up having to give David a piggy back ride across some of them since there were areas that had some very sharp shells.









There were SO many little hermit crabs. Some of them were unbelievably tiny- their shells only about 1/16 of an inch! This one was one of the larger ones. There were lots of them in the water too- they were much larger...some with shells up to 5 to 6 inches across.



This house (or it may be apartments) sits right on the beach. Almost ALL of the buildings here are cement....that could have something to do with all the typhoons they have here. Those people in Galveston Texas could learn something from these folks...



On the trek home we stopped at a FamilyMart to use the bathroom (you ask for a toilet here) and pick up a snack. The rice rolls were surprisingly good...have no idea what was in them, but they were good. The patty with the rice rolls was also unidentifiable...something similar to potato and also good.

Kubasaki Dragon Football Comes to a Close

1. Matt finished off his first year of Kubasaki High School Football with a trip to Daegu, Korea. The Dragons beat the Warriors 31-12. The players selected to go (only 22 of the varsity players), two coaches and two parent chaperons left for Daegu Thursday morning. They arrived in Korea and after a 5 hour bus ride arrived at Camp Walker in Daegu. The boys stayed in the barracks on base. On Friday they practiced and were able to go off base to sight see and do a bit of shopping. The game was at 2PM on Saturday. The Dragons' had a great game on Daegu's artificial turf field- Matt said it was the nicest field he had ever played on. The boys just stayed up Saturday night since they had to leave for the airport at 1:00 AM Sunday morning for a 8am Sunday flight home.

Football here is a bit different than in the states. Their regular season consists of four games against Kadena High School. This year the Dragons were able to play two additional games- a home game against Yokota, Japan and the away game against Daegu. The extra games helped spice up the season...gets a bit boring playing the same time time after time (especially since the Dragons have not beat the Kadena

Matt played many positions on offense and defense as well as Center and long snapper at times. His main position was offensive line. Matt was the only Sophomore to play Varsity all season.

We debated letting Matt go to Korea (even though the Football club picked up the tab for food and lodging, parents had to pay airfare, which was NOT cheap) but after much discussion decided to send him. Our whole idea about taking a duty station overseas was to explore and experience as much of the world as possible. So our 16 year old son has now been to a country neither Mike nor myself have been to! Lucky boy! Matt said you could definitely tell you were in a foreign country- even on base nobody spoke English. In the food court on base they did not have drinks...even though they were "American" eateries like Taco Bell and Subway, there were no soft drinks. When I asked him what they did for drinks he said they just didn't drink anything. One thing that really stood out to him was the horrible air quality. Matt said the smog there was terrible- you could hardly see past the skyscrapers. All the boys came home with sore throats and head aches. If the air in Daegu (which is only the fourth largest metropolitan city in South Korea) is that bad, it makes we wonder what the air quality is in Seoul.

These are a couple of cakes I made for the last "Pre-Game Meal" the Football Parent Group put on for the boys. Before every game the boys were supplied with a meal since they had to stay at school (some of the boys live too far away to get back in a timely manner) Game days were long days- school gets out at 1:50 PM and game time isn't until 7PM. The boys had a bit of free time after school, were served food at 2:45, then went off to view game films before suiting up around 5pm to practice before the 7pm game. The last pre-game meal was a fun one- Sub sandwiches, chips, pasta salad, bananas, Gatorade, goodie bags, and the cake. Boys loved the meals- we received so many "thank you's" each time.


Now that football has ended, Matt has just a week off before the next sport....WRESTLING!

Naha Tug-of-War 2008

October 13 was the Naha Tug-of-War. This Tug-of-War is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's largest tug-of-war. It takes place in downtown Naha, right on Highway 58 (the main road through Okinawa's largest city).

MORE TO COME>>>>>

Shishimai Fest

On Sunday the boys and I ventured to Uruma City for the Shishimai Fest and the 23rd Nationwide Shi Shi Dance Festival. The festival started at 6 pm- we have noticed a lot of the festivals here in Okinawa start late in the day or early evening- and a lot of them take place on Sundays. We actually found the Ishikawa Sports park in Uruma City rather easily- and even found parking close by. They had massive blue tarps spread out and nailed down on the ground for people to sit on. Of course, everyone took off their shoes before stepping onto the tarps. There were shoes lined up all around the edges. After a lengthy introduction (of which we understood only "Konban Wa" - good evening and "Arigoto"- Thank you) the dancing started.



The first act was fantastic and lived up to the article which described the Shi Shi dances as "colorful and Fast-paced, dancers moving to the heavy beat of taiko drums. The swirling and dancing invites lucky gods to come into the dance area, granting good harvests, happiness and prosperity." After that, things slowed WAAYYYY down. The next 15 minutes was almost painful to watch, with the the single Shi Shi lion on stage doing little more than shuffling a half a step at a time and clacking its jaws with every step. The boys were begging to leave and after the group of elderly Okinawian ladies came on stage and began a fan dance to another elderly lady sitting and singing (and I use that term loosely!!) I took pity on the poor guys and we left. After all it was getting late on a school night...and their pleading was rather convincing! It was a very interesting experience, and one I would have rather stayed longer and enjoyed...may next year





This was the first group to perform. The drummers were incredible- so much energy. Some of them were quite young- maybe 10 or 12.



After the performance, the Shishi dogs came out into the audience and "gobbled" up people. Everyone got a kick out of that- especially the younger kids who ran screaming and laughing.





This little guy (girl??) was a huge hit! Adorable.



This is where the older ladies came out and we finally left.



This was along the side of the park. A lot of kids were playing in the water and leaping from low stone to low stone.
Very peaceful area with the water and tall forms of the stones.