Smugglers

Smugglers is an Irish pub near Kokusaidori. They serve one of my favorite drinks there, a black and tan. It's nice to have little pieces of home to visit here in Okinawa. Several of the staff speak English as there are many English speaking patrons.

I have a JET friend whose boyfriend plays in an Irish band. I found out they were going to play at Smugglers, so I went to check them out. They were a five member band, mainly Japanese or of Japanese descent. This was the last time they were going to play together. One of the members was taking a one or two month trip to Tokyo and the boyfriend is leaving in July to return to Canada. I was very lucky in getting to see the last performance of this group as a whole. I hope they can find new members so they can continue playing. They were truly amazing. Watching them play made me want to take up the violin again. I played for nine years and then haven't picked it up seriously since my first year in college. I'll have to find the time when I return home.

Ikei Island

I know I haven't seen much of the world, but I must say Okinawa has some truly incredible, beautiful beaches. If I weren't so afraid of driving here I think I would have liked to have gotten a car just to drive around and visit as many beaches as I could here--and I'm not really a beach person. I do love seeing beautiful things in nature and this is the place to do that.

By the way, if you're wondering why a non-beach person chose Okinawa, I'm also a Cheimaphobic or Cheimatophobic, a person who has a fear of the cold. (For more phobia names, check out phobialist.com.) When I applied for JET I asked for a place that had mild winters. I didn't care how hot the summers were, and that's how I was placed in Okinawa.

I was invited to a BBQ and beach party at a friend's house. Really, it was her grandmother's house, I think. Apparently, to have a house on Ikei Island is something special, and after having been there, I can see why. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the house, it was low tide so I wasn't able to go snorkeling. I was able to see some new things I hadn't seen before in other tide pools, so that was nice. Oh, and if you go, be careful. It's very slippery. The beach was nice. the company was fun. And the food. When I was told it was going to be a BBQ, I assumed they meant Japanese BBQ, like yakiniku, which I also love. It was a very nice surprise when I found out they meant Western BBQ with BBQ sauce and ribs and hamburgers. It was too delicious! I ate and drank waaaaay more than what's good for me, but I don't care, It was so good. I was definitely a nice break from my everyday fare.

Moon Beach

A few friends and I got together to go to Moon Beach. I got to try snorkeling for the first time. I loved it! I am so glad I spent the thousand yen on water shoes, though. Totally worth it. We had this tiny beautiful beach all to ourselves mostly. There were a few intruders. The most annoying was this group of three guys. They kept insulting each other by calling each other girls.When will that stop? When will men realize that's a compliment? ;)

Fortunately they didn't hang around for too long. The only other interlopers were quiet tourists, mostly Japanese, who stayed for a little bit then left. While we were there we also shot some footage for the OkiJET DVD. If you get to see a copy, be sure to watch all the way to the end of the credits. I really had fun making the DVD. I wish we had had more time.

We stayed until sunset so we could take pictures as suggested by one friend. She got totally aggravated, though, when nature didn't go along with the plan and moved clouds in the way of her glorious sunset. It was still awesome, I think. I'm really going to miss the tide pools.

Happy Anniversary!

That's all I have to say about that. :D

Slumdog Millionaire

Last night I went to see Slumdog Millionaire at the theater at Main Place in Shinotshin with a couple of friends. I loved it. I had no idea what it was about when I walked in but I had my own idea based off the title. (I was wrong.) It was really good. It was really expensive, but it was so good I didn't mind the 1600 yen price tag. Although, the fact that the triple set (hot dog, popcorn, and a drink) was only 500 yen did make me feel better. I also found out that Wednesday night is lady's night, which means the price of the ticket will be 500 yen cheaper. Yea! (For you guys reading this, Monday night is men's night.)

Shoe Shopping

I need new shoes. Now. See the picture? Yeah, now you see why, so yesterday my friend and I set out on the mission to go buy me a pair of shoes. I just looked back at the title and realized I could have called this one "Mission Impossible" for real. Everyone said that stores do not carry the larger sizes of shoes here. I understood what they were saying, but I thought I would go buy a pair of Chucks since they come in men's sizes, too.

Once we started shopping, I saw several shoes that I wanted instead of the Chucks, though. They were cute and a little more appropriate for summer. I asked the woman if they had a 25.5 or a 26. (I wear a 9 back home but can sometimes wear an 8.5  in some shoes.) She looked at the little label and said that it only went up to a 25. I asked if I could try on the slide anyway. She brought it and I tried it and it was alright, a little tight. Then, I started looking at the other shoes and noticed the little tags under the shoes denoting the sizes available. For all the shoes there were only five sizes available: 23, 23.5, 24, 24.5, 25. That's it. I was and still am so amazed that the size of Japanese women is so homogeneous as to vary by only a few centimeters. Monday I will return and purchase the Chuck's...probably.

On another shoe note, the first store we stopped by had some interesting shoes. I'm pretty sure these in particular were for men, not women.

Yes, that is a spider bejeweled on the toe strap.

On a writing note, as of today I am nine pages behind schedule. 1500 words per pages times nine is a whole lot of writing to do. I better quit blogging and start writing, ne? Oh, and yesterday I did get a chance to read the first few pages to a couple of friends and the response was good, which is nice at this stage. Thanks, friends!

95 Days

Some people ask, "oh, are you already counting down?" to which I reply, "dude, I've been counting since January." I filled out the draft of my EIS (Essential Information for Successor) and I realized I really should have taken better notes in the beginning, but I do plan to pack in as much useful info as I can. And! I hope to make a video just for my successor. I hope s/he enjoys it. Well, I hope I make it. I've been busy, busy, busy writing. Well, that and being sick--again. I hope this is my last Japanese illness.  Note to my successor: bring a good immune system. ;)