As promised to many who've asked, here is a tour of our home...which kind of looks like every other building on all the military installations.... beige and square. It is a bit difficult giving directions (Turn left at the big beige building next to the green field, turn right at the small beige building at the hill, etc.). Luckily, you can just scroll below to "visit".
As you can see, the house is a concrete fortress. I know there are a lot of wives who don't like the style of the homes, but I love it!..Very modern.
The very large carport is loved by all of us as we are very close to the door. No more hauling groceries up to the 4th floor of our Fredericksburg condo.
This door is the entry we use each day. It is very rare that we open our front door, when I can get it open....you'll see in a moment....
We enter through our very large laundry room. As you can see I have a refrigerator in the laundry room and in the kitchen. Plus I have many, many closets and cabinets. (bliss)
The kitchen is rather large. I'd love to put an island in the middle, but then I like all the open space because it gets crowded when all of us are in the kitchen at the same time.
I love the palm tree outside my kitchen window, which, while small, lets in a lot of light. From the outside the home doesn't look like it lets in a lot of light, but I was pleasantly surprised that it is very bright in the house, even on a cloudy day like today.
The kitchen has three doors leading to it: one from the laundry room, one from the living room and one from the front foyer. However, I don't feel closed off because of all the light from the window and the cut-out to the living room. Mostly we leave the doors open, but they are nice to close when the dishwasher and clothes washer are running
This is the foyer, kitchen door on right and more closets on left.
If you look closely, our front door has 4 locks. No chance that this door will blow off during a typhoon and it is pretty much Camille proof, too.
Our great room walls are huge. We clearly do not have enough art work. I've thought of painting the walls the color of our palette from Fredericksburg, but am debating the merits since I'll only have to paint the walls back to eggshell before we move. The question is: How long can I endure so much eggshell! In any case, these walls will be getting more color one whether it is art work or paint.
Our furniture, well suited for the condo, gets a little swallowed up by all the space, but since we like open spaces it works for us. Plus, I have room to practice hula hooping!...more on that another time...
This type of embellishment is very popular in many homes.
It isn't easy to tell in a photograph, but through this triple canopy jungle, seen from our backyard, is Kin Bay.
This is the patio off our living room. I cannot wait to get a grill and outdoor furniture. I love our yard, the jungle is deep and rich in greens. The many textures and shapes and sizes of the tropical plants is soothing and the plants and trees are home to many birds that sing throughout the day. I find it relaxing to be outside. Again, hard to see, but Kin Bay is just past the jungle and down a cliff face.
Lilly. She came with the house. Just kidding. We adopted poor little Lilly who had a very traumatic start in life. She is beautiful, a little stand-offish, but coming out of her shell. She is also an amazing shake-down artist when she wants a treat.
Meezy is about as busy and nosy as her alert blue eyes suggest. While she looks at rest here, she was watching me organize drawers and it wasn't soon before she started to squeak, only to be satisfied when I picked her up and let her look into the top drawer.
Our home has 4 bedrooms and two baths as well, but I figured that would be TMI. I hope you enjoyed a look around our home, which, again is a fortress, so when you hear about our upcoming super typhoon (Yes! Another one!) you will no longer feel the need to worry about our safety. We live in a great big beige, concrete fortress worthy of safeguarding gold or, better yet, your loved ones.
The weekend of 8 and 9 September couldn't be any different from the weekend of the 15th and 16th. One weekend I was living in a tropical paradise and the next weekend that very tropical paradise became the stomping ground for yet another super typhoon.
Part I: Tropical Paradise
The activities of the weekend began on Friday, 7 September the boys returned home from school, John returned home from work and we ate a quick dinner before heading out to an Eisa Festival. Eisa is a form of dance unique to the people of the Ryukyu Islands. Traditionally, Eisa dances are performed to mark the end of the Obon Festival.
Briefly, the Obon Festival is a Japanese Buddhist custom that honors the spirits of one's ancestors. Japanese families gather to clean their ancestors graves in preparation for a visit from the ancestors' spirits. This festival is, in essence, a family reunion of both the living and the deceased.
The performance of the Eisa dance signifies the end of the Obon festival. The traditional purpose of the dance was to restore the spirits to a state of restfulness. The Eisa originated from a group dance called "esa omoro". The word "Esa" comes from a line in Okinawa's Omorosoushi, a book of ancient poems.
Today, the Eisa dance is not only performed at the end of the Obon Festival, but at many other festivals throughout the year. "Approximately 20-30 young men and/or women dance, in a circular formation to the accompaniment of singing, chanting, and drumming by the dancers, and folk songs played on the sanshin. Three types of drumsare used in various combinations, depending upon regional style: theōdaik, a large barrel drum; the shimedaiko, a medium-sized drum and thepaaranku a small hand drum. "
The Eisa Festival that we attended was held a few days after Obon. Groups of Eisa dancers from local towns and cities performed. At any given time there were at least 4 to 5 groups performing along the length of a street, closed for the festival. Spectators gathered around each unit of dancers watching the swirls of colored costumes while clapping to the rhythm of the drums. Little children had their own small drums and banged on them along with the dancers.
Along the sidewalks vendors were selling kabobs (Okinawan style) and other various local specialties. The smoke of the grills and the smell of the delicious foods wafted through the night air. The beer flowed from the local taverns and, to our surprise, quite a few cotton candy vendors!
I took this video with my iPhone so while not the best quality you will get a good feel for Eisa Dancing.
Most groups included the female dancers who wore the adorable kimonos in the colors specific to their group.
One of the many vendors along the street. Too bad we had eaten because the food smelled delicious. It isn't just sushi and rice on Okinawa!
We did save room for dessert, though. We purchased a bag of cotton candy and as you can see they are huge bags in comparison with the American sizes and they sold for a reasonable price, too.
On Saturday, 8 September we awoke when we felt like doing so as our work/school days start very early and end rather late. Having stayed out late on Friday night we took the opportunity to sleep in and plan a day that involved more relaxation. So, without worrying about beating "shore traffic" we leisurely made our way to a Oura Wan Beach which is located on Camp Schwab, to the north of where we live.
The men...looking buff!
John is posing by our favorite location to sit in the water.
Perfection, Mother Nature style.
The art of vegging.
Sunday, 9 September was another gorgeous day. John John participated in a triathlon relay. He did the swim portion. I have photos to share, but I will save that for the "sports" post so that I can also share photos of Pauly on the football field.
Part II: What Happened to Last Weekend's Weather?!
As the next weekend approached we were told that our household goods shipment would arrive. And, on Thursday, 13 September we received our last shipment. We also learned that a super typhoon would hit on the weekend. This would make it the third time a typhoon hit in 5 weeks and each typhoon hit right after (1) We arrived. (2) Our advanced shipment arrived. (3) Our final shipment arrived. Some one said to me, "Perhaps you shouldn't have anything shipped to this island in the future." But, the arrival of the remainder of our belongings and our furniture did give us quite a bit to do while we were locked down for 24 hours.
So it was, on 15 and 16 September our tropical paradise became a windswept and rain battered island. Super Typhoon Sanba came in fast and furious. Thankfully, the typhoon did not linger and within 24 hours it cleared the area.
This is the satellite image of Super Typhoon Sanba and we are a litle strip of earth some where beneath that hostile swirl of clouds.
I took this photo from our window. The hibiscus bush laying on its side recovered and is standing straight, again. I had to lighten this photo for viewing purposes. It was very dark during the mid morning hours. What gives the photo the misty look is the rain being blown so hard that it blew through the seals on a few windows in the house. The rainwater dripped in and I had to keep towels on the window sills to soak up the water. I was shocked any of the trees had leaves the next day.
Before I get on with the main subject of this post I'd like to share the following information:
If you find you cannot live without hearing my squeaky voice I have a solution for you. My wonderful brother found a calling card plan that is incrediblycheap. Here is the information:
"The calling card company is Raza. They have a toll free number: 877-463-4233. All one has to do is call that number and say they want to set up a 'one touch' plan. Then, they provide your number(s). Once they process the credit card they will get a local number for each line they gave - I have one local number for the cell phone and one for the land line."
My Phone Numbers: Mobile 011-81-080-3567-1969 Home 011-81-6117-22-8729
Please give my brother's name and phone number as he gets points for referrals:
Paul LoRocco: Mobile 860-335-0076
Please keep in mind, if you call me, we are 13 hours ahead of you. So, for instance, if it is 8pm on a Saturday night for you then it will be 9am on Sunday morning for me.
Onna Glass Factory and Kin Flea Market
As you may already know, we were not blown away by last weekend's visitor, Typhoon Bolaven. The typhoon began early Saturday evening and did not leave until Monday, early evening. Since we knew we would be house bound for at least two days, if not three, we took the opportunity to enjoy the lull before the storm and get out on Saturday.
We began our trek by heading through the interior of the island, making our way to the west side. (We live on the east side of the island...still east coasters!) The west side of the island, the East China Sea side, is more populated by resorts and related tourist activity than the east side of the island.
We opted to visit the Onna Glass Factory, one of two (that I know of) glass factories on the island. John, Paul and I (I feel so little!) are standing in front of the entrance. Had it not been for the blown glass street lights we might have driven by the factory more than the two times that we did, indeed, drive by.
Here is one of the glass blowers at work. The glass factory allows you to make your own drinking glass for a tidy sum....nothing is a reasonable price here.
These are called Shishi. They are also known as Chinese guardian lions or Imperial guardian lions. They are on the rooftops of all the homes and are said to keep evil spirits away. Traditionally they are made from clay (terra cotta). These glass ones Shishi are beautiful, but too fragile to put outside, let alone on a roof. And, like most Shishi, particularly the terra cotta ones, these were extremely expensive. In case you were wondering, Okinawan culture has links to China, which I will explain in another post.
This is the view(East China Sea) across the street from the Onna Glass Factory. As you can see, the palm trees are beginning to feel the wind and the clouds are amassing. At this point the winds were about 35-40mph.
After the glass factory we headed back to the east side, to a small, local flea market in Kin. This is a town near one of our northern bases and there is a distinct difference in the size and lifestyle of the less populated northern, more agricultural towns. The flea market was 1/3 vegetable market, 1/3 American goods market (black market food and toiletries) and 1/3 used American military clothing and accessories.
At the flea market John sat at a makeshift table and struck up a conversation with a woman who was sitting at the table awaiting an order of yakisoba. The make shift table of ply wood, surrounded by mix and match plastic chairs was located in front of a small hut under the corrugated roof of the flea market. It was in the small hut that the delicious smells of yakisoba made our stomachs speak out in hunger.
The woman that John befriended, Hideko, spoke English quite well. She told us that the large bowl of yakisoba, that she was served, cost 500Y, about $6.50. The pot of green tea that sat on the table was for our enjoyment, no extra cost. So, it was that the gentleman in the photo above experienced a "rush" as we ordered 4 bowls of yakisoba and settled into a conversation with Hideko as we awaited our meals.
Hideko and her husband, Tommy, had a stall at the flea market. After Hideko finished eating she excused herself, went to her sales table and promptly returned with ice cold green tea. Eating steaming hot yakisoba in 90 degree weather makes one sweat and Hideko must have noticed. She kindly supplied us with cold drinks. While I appreciated the gesture, the cold green tea tasted most unpleasant (tree bark comes to mind) while the hot green tea was much smoother.
Hideko had such a bright smile, but we could not get her to smile more than this in the photo. I wish she would have because her eyes sparkled when she smiled and the warmth we experienced in the rays of her smile was the epitome of hospitality.
Tommy was a panic! As soon as Hideko introduced us to her husband he cracked open the sweetest watermelon I've ever eaten and shared it with us. He also cut open dragon fruit, which was a bold magenta color and had a gentle, sweet flavor. When we asked him to pose in a photo with John he came from behind his table and insisted on holding the fruit.
As you can see, fruit was a necessary prop. Tommy is clearly proud of his produce, handing them to the boys to hold in the photo. Pauly is holding a papaya, John John has a watermelon and Tommy has the dragon fruit. We purchased these items in what turned out to be the most expensive fruit purchase of my lifetime!
Watermelon: 1200Y Papaya: 600Y Dragon Fruit: 300Y New Friends: Priceless
Tommy and Hideko gave us their phone numbers and we gave them ours. Then, they invited us to visit their home to enjoy saki with them. Something tells me Tommy's saki is of the same ilk as Blue Ridge Mountain moonshine and we might want to simply share another watermelon with our new friends.
