Entries in Okinawa (214)

Tuesday
Mar172009

Super Cookies to the rescue!

Super Cookies from Jimmy's Bakery Heaven...

Super Cookies from Jimmy's Bakery Heaven...

We received our first Japanese gift as a married couple!  As you know, gift-giving is an integral part of Japanese culture.  On the first floor of our apartment building, in a small room off the foyer, SKY Housing (a realty agency) just opened its doors.  We've been watching over the past few weeks as they fixed up the room and made it into a fully functional office. 

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Tuesday
Mar102009

Tortise wins the race...again!

I got a call from the Shipping Office on Friday, asking me to come in and provide them with maps and paperwork for our first shipment.  We were so excited and couldn't wait to get our own pillows again!  After getting the paperwork straightened out and setting up a delivery date of Monday (yesterday), the lady said, "Enjoy your household goods!" as I was leaving.  That stopped me in my tracks.  Househhold goods?!  What?!  No, this was our Expedited Shipment, wasn't it?!  Nope.  Turns out, in perfect correlation to the fable, the Household Goods shipment arrived first.  Tortise wins again!  (Or in this case, the boat was faster than the plane.  Go figure!) 

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Tuesday
Mar032009

I have my laptop!

Just thought I would let everyone know that I have now received my new laptop! :) However, no internet at home yet....

Sunday
Mar012009

American Village

The ferris wheel at American Village!  A great landmark for all the landmark navigation you have to do on Okinawa.

The ferris wheel at American Village! A great landmark for all the landmark navigation you have to do on Okinawa. "Turn at the ferris wheel." "Go two stop lights past the ferris wheel." etc. It's pretty lit up at night, too.

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Sunday
Mar012009

A Q&A Session...

Here's some great questions we got by email and figured if one of you had 'em, more of you were probably wondering, as well.  Sometimes we're not sure what's of interest to people, so keep those questions coming!

Q: Because the ocean is so close, should I worry about hurricane season? Seems to me that might be a worry?

A: They call hurricanes “typhoons” here. There are approximately three to four that come close to Okinawa every year, but we have reliable data that supports the fact that they haven’t had a big one through here in years (they haven’t had a “typhoon day” at work in several years.) While we can see the sea from our apartment, the Sea Wall is about 2 blocks walk. We may get pelted by rain and wind, but that’s about it. (And just to take away any further worry, the glass windows/sliding glass doors in our bedroom and several other rooms are reinforced glass. As they say in Jamaica, “No worries, mon!”)

Q: Even though you're not in what "feels" like Japan to you, will you get to see any of your friends from there? Is it close enough to catch them?

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