Zanpa Beach

We went for a drive on New Year's Eve day and found a great new beach. We love living on an island and discovering the beautiful beaches that surround us. I love watching the boys race with the tide and search for that "perfect" seashell. As the most life changing year for our family draws to an end I can honestly say we are happy. We are enjoying learning about a new culture, exploring new areas, tasting new food, and turning a small piece of Japan into home for our family. I look forward to the adventures that are in store for our family in the coming year.

Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas!

The boys posing in their new Christmas pj's. And yes, the temperature has cooled down a bit here (50's at night) making flannel pj's quite nice. We had a good first Christmas here in Okinawa. It was our first Christmas away from family and I am very thankful for web cams that helped our families feel a little closer. We spent the day with good friends, eating good food, and playing all our fun new Wii games.

Krishna's Indian Restaurant

To my beloved Ann Arbor friends Janie, Andrea, and Becky who I was constantly suggesting to that we have lunch at Shalimar, my favorite Indian restaurant.... We found a fantastic Indian restaurant here in Okinawa. Can you believe it? I am still in shock. Here is a picture of my plate to prove how authentic the food is. You may think it doesn't look like much food, but it is! The naan is 12 inches long!!! The choices are few, either chicken/lamb curry or chicken marsala and tandoori chicken, but they just happen to be our favorites. We were laughing as we paid our bill, here we are Americans paying for our yummy Indian food with yen. We are really enjoying our experience here in Japan, but every now and then we do something or go somewhere that makes this place feel more like home. Krishna's Indian restaurant is now on my list of things to do when I need the comfortable feeling of home.

Our Pet Snail

This is the coolest snail we have ever seen and it lives in our backyard. It will disappear for a while but it always reappears to the delight of the boys (including Josh)!

Sushi Anyone?

Before moving to Japan Josh and I tried sushi once. Lets just say it wasn't a very pleasant experience. With a little pressure from friends we decided it was time to give sushi a second chance and what better place than Okinawa. They have these great sushi places that the Americans call Sushi-Go-Rounds. Here is a picture of the place. Sushi (and other delicious items) are served on a conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant. When something passes by that you want, you just take it off the conveyor belt. The plates are color-coded according to price so when you're finished eating the waiter counts up all the plates and gives you the bill.
If you look close you can see 2 juice bottles on a plate. Brand and Max were kept happy with the juice bottles and jello cups that passed by our table.

We have decided that sushi is pretty tasty. Our favorites are Nigiri-zushi which are little fingers of rice topped with washabi and a fillet of raw shrimp or tuna and the spicy tuna California rolls. We also like these little vinegar flavored rice balls that are wrapped in fried egg (the labels were all in Japanese so not sure what to call them). We can't wait to take all of our visitors out for sushi!

Toothless Grin

Brand lost both his front teeth this past weekend. He banished his "eager to help out dentist dad" from the room and pulled them out himself.

This photo was taken after the first tooth came and out. Brand was trying to convince us the second tooth wasn't ready to come out. Within hours it had been pulled and a great toothless grin was left behind :)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to everyone! We were able to have a relatively normal Halloween in Okinawa. Of course the Japanese don't offically celebrate Halloween, but with all the Americans on the island the tradition lives on here in Japan. Aunt Michelle was great and sent costumes since the selection here is pretty slim. The commissary has pumpkins shipped in (the tricky part is finding one without mold already growing on it). Josh took the boys trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and the boys filled their buckets to the brim with sweet treats. Only a few things were missing from our holiday; beautiful autumn leaves falling to the ground, a brisk cool temperature (it is still a very humid 80 degrees here), and trick-or-treating with our beloved cousins.

Max was obviously Spiderman (check out the cool muscles) and Brand was Captain Jack Sparrow (doesn't he look great with long brown hair).

Brand carved with own pumpkin for the first time.