メリークリスマス

Merry Christmas!! メリークリスマス!! Actually, there is no Japanese word for Merry Christmas so that is the English expression written out in katakana. Katakana is one of the 3 written scripts of the Japanese language.  

This past week leading up to Christmas has been something of whirlwind. I've had an awesome time reconnecting with my friends that made it to the island before me. On Saturday, our friends, Tim and Megan, introduced us to a house cafe. I didn't take any pics because I'm not sure what the etiquette is concerning that. A house cafe is at someone's home. They make the food right in their kitchen and we ate in their dining room basically. My understanding is that some are more set up than others. At the one we went to, there were about 3 tables set up in the living room/dining area next to the kitchen. We had some options printed out on a menu and the Japanese lady pointed out the food on the menu that they were not offering that night. 

Omg. The food. So incredible. We get several different appetizers to split and each was amazing. We even ate whole shrimp (head, eyes, and body), and it was amazing. I have no idea how but even with the shell it was perfectly soft and delicious. Our meals were awesome wasabi pork and beef. It was probably some of the best food I have had in my life.

It turned out that Christmas was upon us this week. Crazy.We found a 7.5 foot fake Christmas tree on sale and it has has made the house feel so much more Christmasy.

I'm probably going to keep this tree up till mid January, just so it can feel like Christmas just a little longer.

Since I just got here 2 weeks ago, I haven't completely adjusted to the time of the year. Its been a nice week and it feels more like fall/summer than winter. In fact, we are enjoying our little convertible and the warm allows us to keep the top down.

Kit loves riding around with the top down! 

Christmas Eve was awesome. My friend, Megan and I (mostly Megan) made all these incredible foods. I went shopping at the Japanese grocery store to try to find all our ingredients. It was quite and adventure and took about forever to try to figure out what items were. I probably would have never been able to complete task if I didn't have Rob with me who was a huge help with his limited Japanese. I love shopping there. I feel like the vegetables, meat and fish are far more fresh than the commissary on base that is probably importing all our foods from the US. The fish selection is, of course, amazing here. There are so many varieties of fish and all look so good and fresh! I have no clue what 75% of it is, but i'm sure it is all delicious. One of my favorite parts of the store is that they have sushi and food fried with tempura that you can buy to take home and eat for dinner. Its like in the States how we have those counters where you can get chicken, potato salad, and whatnot for a quick dinner to take home. Its soooo good and fairly inexpensive too! It took about 2 hours, but I was able to dig up most of the ingredients we needed for our Christmas Eve party.

                        My favorite dish was kimbap, which is Korean dish very similar to sushi. 

Christmas day was fun but also little strange for me. It didn't really feel like Christmas without family. My gift for Rob is still traveling the oceans coming here so the gift part of the day was a little short. I got to Skype with my family back home (it was Christmas Eve for them) and it was so fun to chat for a little while. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with a bunch of other Marines and their families that night. It was so great to celebrate with our new Okinawa friends. We ended the night falling asleep watching Elf. Pretty great Christmas overall!

PS. Sorry boys, no dragon in this post. You guys need to find me a dragon that I can write about

The Land of the Kitties

I've been in Japan for almost a week and I am so in love with this place! I am never going to want to leave.
First of all, this is the land of cats. There are cat things everywhere. Cat faces on dishes, cat faces on shop windows, cat backpacks, bumper stickers, trinkets, clothes, shoes, toys, purses, bags, statues. Cats everywhere. And it is awesome. The Japanese love cats. They even have several legends about cats. One legend that I see evidence of everywhere is the Maneki Neko, which is a good luck cat. Supposedly, some cat waved a paw at a Japanese man and he walked towards it. Seconds later, a lighting bolt struck where the man had been. The legend stuck and since then, cats have been a good luck charm. Businesses have it in their shops to draw in money. The hand of the cat is beckoning customers to come inside.

Oh hi there!

Another amazing, wonderful thing about this place: cat cafes!!!! My friend, Alicia, introduced me to one. Basically, you pay for however long you want to spend with the cats and then you go sit on the floor with all the cats. This particular place probably had about 20 cats. They were so sweet and playful. They sat on our laps and we pet them and just hung out with them. 

These two kissing kitties were overlooking a view of the city and ocean. 

I was super obsessed with this cat. He had teeny short legs and tail, probably about half the size they should normally be. I could be wrong, but I think his breed was the elegant exotic shorthair or the mini munchkin. I've never seen one before and he was simply heart meltingly adorable. 

The cafe was perfectly set up for their little friends. They had cat runs and shelves above the customers so that if a cat wanted to be left alone and go above everyone he could. There was even a section in the back of the shop where the cats could go if they wanted to be left alone. There were boxes and scratch posts and spots all over for the kitties to hang out. There was even a heated section of the floor for the cats to sit on. So fun!

Jojo was not amused by my afternoon with her Japanese cousins. 

Reunited with my person!!!

I've arrived in Japan!!!!! Jojo (the kitty), Kit (the pup pup), and myself traveled a 5 day road trip to Seattle then hopped on a plane for about 20 hours and arrived in Okinawa. I had a mini heart attack when I was trying to check in for the plane because there was an issue with Jojo's carrier. After I started to panic (I'm pretty sure my heart just stopped) for about 30 seconds, the airline decided to let me bring her. After that, the flight was as easy as it could be! Jojo was the perfect companion in the cabin with me.  Kit showed up all the panicked, whining and barking dogs and was the perfect calm and quiet angel (extremely rare for him).

Today is my first full day in Japan.  Rob and I drove around in our little red sports car and explored a little bit.

Back together again!!!!!!!!!!

I got a new cell phone (a gold iphone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It's the most beautiful phone ever. Just saying.

The base we are living on is basically right next door to an area off base called the American Village and we spent a few hours exploring it. We got some "American sushi" for lunch and, omg, do they know how to make sushi. Absolutely the best sushi I've ever had.

My view of the the American Village from the sushi restaurant. It is basically a tourist trap for Japanese and American tourists. Its full of department stores and stores similar to those in America but they all clearly have a Japanese influence. It was super fun to shop and explore. 

Christmas decorations inside the stores. The dragon has antlers in case you missed where the Christmas part is. There were some odd decorations. I think the freakiest one was some guy dressed in a panda santa claus suit. He followed us around for awhile and I was to scared to take a pic. He looked like some evil Japanese spirit more than a panda. 

We found the scariest pet in the pet store - a scarab beetle. Don't you want one in your house?

Habashu!!!!! This alcohol has a poisonous pit viper inside called habu. The alcohol dissolves the poison to make it nonpoisonous. Fun fact: supposedly this stuff is medicinal and it can give you immense energy and helps sexual dysfunction in men (go figure).

I'm too jetlagged to do anything else today. Ooo, we have the cutest Christmas decoration EVER. Rob had it out on our lawn to surprise me when I got in last night. 

It's Kit!!!!