Koi Cupcakes

As I was surfing the Net for some crafting inspiration the other night, I stumbled across an announcement that the sequel to the cookbook, "Hello, Cupcake!" that my sweet cousin Mel had sent me was now available.  "What's New, Cupcake?" is purportedly packed with new cupcake recipes and adorable decorating ideas.  I'm adding the book to my Christmas wish list, but to tide me over til then, I found one of the tutorials online and just couldn't pass it up.  Koi cupcakes, as posted on iVillage Food. 

After some searching at the BX, the Commissary, and the Makeman 100-Yen section I finally found the ingredients I needed.  I even got to talk to my Mama on Skype while I started decorating the cupcakes!

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Row, row, row your kayak...

...gently down the sea!  Last weekend we decided to drag ourselves out from underneath the A/C unit, brave the heat and humidity, and go to the beach.  Since we're not big on just laying out at the beach (I need a book or something to write on or to go on a sea shell and sea glass hunt or do SOMETHING other than lay there baking in the sun), we decided we'd try our hand at sea kayaking.  Megumi and Roger were game, too, so the four of us rented 2-person kayaks at Torii Beach and off we paddled.

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Tiptoeing through the...lotus flowers?

Megumi and I took a trip to the Southern Botanical Gardens here on Okinawa last Wednesday.  Neither of us had been there before and we were lured there by promised of the lotus flowers in bloom.

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Climbing Fuji-san : The Way Down

To pick up where we left off: and just when our exhausted legs, knees, feet, and well, you get the point- thought they couldn't go any farther, we got to climb all the way back down.  Due to a trail being closed because of snow, we climbed part of the way back down the same way we had come.  Yes, it was a bit demoralizing.  So was being exhausted, looking down the side of the mountain at this:

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Climbing Fuji-san : The Way Up

Fuji-san, also known as Mt. Fuji or Fujiyama, is the highest mountain in Japan at 3776 meters (12,388 ft) tall.

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