Mr. Miyagi: Evil Spirits Beware!

Mr. Miyagi is my Shisa Dog (he is old and wise). According to legend a shisa dog saved an Okinawan village from an attacking sea dragon, so now EVERYWHERE you go there are shisa dogs on roofs and entry ways warding off evil spirits.








Since it is essential to have shisa dogs protecting your home, we had a girls day out to an antique store that lets you make your own guardian shisa. The cutest man, Mr. Sachi, helped us along the way. We started with just a frame and a pile of clay. While working Mr. Sachi would come around and help us out by adding claws, a nose, a mane, all kinds of things. We loved Mr. Sachi!!




Traditionally there are two shisa that protect your home. One has an open mouth to ward off evil spirits(male), and the other a closed mouth to keep good spirits in(female). We will be going back soon so I can make Mrs. Miyagi. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Quilting a plate of Sushi :)

Twenty girls including myself got together and made an Okinawa Memory Quilt. Each girl chose something that reminded them of Okinawa, designed a quilt square, and made 20 of them! We then got together and exchanged all of our squares. So at the end I ended up with 20 different squares. Here is what some of the girls did: geta shoes, sanshin, kokeshi dolls, goya, kimono, whale shark, map of Okinawa, and goya. I made a Sushi Platter!!


It was a lot of hard work but it paid off in the end. Now I need to learn how to piece a quilt together!? My goal is to finish it by the time I leave the Island. Rick thinks it will never get done. Blah, Blah, Blah.... :)

Happy Anniversary!!

Ricks out of town and the kids are in bed so what am I finally going to do.........blog-it-up!!!

For our 7th anniversary Rick and I took a scenic tour of Okinawa in a little Cessna plane. Of course Rick thought it would be lame but after the flight he admitted that it was fun. Rick sat in the front with the pilot and got to fly the plane a little. The views were amazing!! The water is so clear we could see all the coral reef that surrounds the island.

Our flight was uneventful until it came to landing. After touching down the pilot heard a pop and lost the brakes and steering on the right wheel. He did manage to slow us down and get us off the main runway before loosing all brakes and steering. We ended up going into the grass to stop. Since we lost control and ended up in the grass it was an official crash landing!! Emergency vehicles came out to make sure we were all o.k. Our pilot kept apologizing but we assured him that we thought it was a perfect end to our flight!!

Expo Park

A couple weeks ago we visited Expo Park which has one of the world's largest Aquariums...big enough that they could put 3 full size whale sharks in the tank with room to spare!

Evelyn just started preschool this week. She goes 3 days a week in the mornings. Evelyn thinks preschool is too much fun, and Wendy is greatful for some time with only one kid in tow.

The other picture features Will following a little spill he took into the concrete the other day. It looks really bad but besides being a little worked up right when he got hurt Will has been all smiles...we're just worried that people will think we beat the crud out of our kids!

Typhoon Sinlaku

Typhoon Sinlaku is coming straight for us! Currently Sinlaku is a category 2 storm (winds between 96-110 mph), and the forecast is projecting that he could grow into a category 4 (winds between 131-155 mph). It's looking like this storm will be in full swing right about the time it gets here to Okinawa...hopefully we'll survive.

California Summer Vacation

Strike a Pose

Evelyn was happy to put on a show for the camera in her new swimsuit. Wendy's instructions to Evelyn for the first picture was to show a scary face. Picture number 2 is supposed to be a sad face, and number three is happy. All three of them look like crazy faces to me.

Here's a couple recent shots of the kiddos. Evelyn and Will are both getting big. We are looking forward to a vacation back to the States next month.

This posting will sum up our holiday adventures in Okinawa. This is the first time since we've been married that Wendy and I haven't spent Christmas with our Families in Lancaster. I must admit that I really don't miss Lancaster, but we sure did miss our Family. In spite of that we still had a great Holiday, and had several adventures with our new friends in Okinawa.

Top left you'll see Will on Christmas morning. He loved all of his gifts, but the boxes and wrapping paper they came in were an even bigger hit. Top right is Evelyn at the Okinawa Botanical Gardens. Every Christmas they deck out the gardens with lights, and put on this psychadelic laser show set to Christmas music. Bottom left is Hedo Point. This picture doesn't really do the location justice. It's the most northern point on the Island, and it's beautiful. Lots of tall cliffs and jagged volcanic rock. The surf was high that day, and the waves would crash against the cliffs kicking up huge blasts of water.

Finally, the two pictures on the bottom right are from a trip that we made to Pineapple park. It's a large pineapple farm/farmer's market that they've turned into a tourist attraction. You get to go for a little ride in a golf cart that they've made to look like a pineapple, and then you get to sample all sorts of different pineapple products at the Farmer's market. They have recreated the pineapple in about every way possible, and you get to sample all of it. There was pineapple juice, wines, cookies, chocolates, and cakes. One of the more interesting items was pickled pineapple... I wish I could say that I liked it, but it was pretty gross. From the picture you can see that for Evelyn the highlight of the trip was the pineapple icecream cone that she got at the end.