Month 1 of 24

In just two short days, Arthur and I will already have been here for a month.  The time here so far has seemed to fly by so quickly.  Between exploring, settling in, looking for jobs, apartments, restaurants, and beaches, this first month held so many adventures.  It has been so much fun...

...and beautiful.

Arthur worked a short day on Monday because the branch is closed on Mondays so he came home and we were able to spend the day together.  Nothing new...but I still love it.  We were pretty tired of driving, so we spent time the area we will live in.  We had lunch at "Casa Cafe", which is delicious.  We then drove down to "American Village" and walked around there for quite a while.  It's a huge area, with tons of different shops and restaurants, as well as a GIANT arcade.  I don't think Arthur has ever been in an Arcade because he was fascinated at EVERYTHING.  He would stand behind people and just stare at them playing their game.  He would stop at every machine that had the grab-hand and was positive that everyone playing was going to win.  Then we spent about 1500 Yen ($15) and tried to win a bunch of candy.  We won one pack of cookies.  GO US!  It was still really fun though.  I was hoping they would have a Dance Dance Revolution machine so I could show the world my true skills but no such luck.  Sorry world, you're missing out.  They did have this cool soccer game though where you have to kick a ball and aim for the lit up numbers.  I read the directions after I started playing and lost.  So sad...

We then went on to a little cart that was selling juice so I bought a passion-fruit juice which ended up having a really thick texture and bitter after taste but it was still really good!  Arthur bought TWO snow cones because they are his favorite thing ever.  Those were really good too.

So excited about his snow cone.

We then decided to drive to the furniture store that is like IKEA because we are moving into our apartment earlier than our stuff will arrive and we will need a bed. However, we got lost on the way and ended up seeing this park off the freeway so we decided to find that first.  We found that really easily and I am so thankful because it was SOOO cool!  I think it was for children..but it really should be for everyone because it's so much fun!  We probably went down it like 7 times.... after all the children got out of the way and stopped cutting us. PSH. :)

View from the slide! So pretty!

WEEEEEE!!!

We then decided to search again for Natori (IKEA store) because we really need a bed.  It will work out well though because when we have guests come, they can just use the bed we bought that we will put in the spare bedroom.  We found a cute black bed on sale that will get delivered January 9th (the day we move) YAY!!!!  It's so adorable! They sell all their bedding for ruuulllly cheap here.  A comforter is around $15-25 and we found a down comforter for only $8.00!  So excited about that.

We went to another arcade last night because they are just soo much fun! After we decided to go get dessert at a restaurant in the mall.  Arthur got a strawberry snowcone and I got a coffee milk snow cone.. or something like that.  Then we shared a "3 piece Japanese dessert".  Anyone that knows me a little bit knows that I LOVE sugar.  So I was extremely excited for all of this dessert that was about to be happening.  But to my disappointment, most of it (besides Arthur's snow cone) was really really strange.  Not horrible, just not the best. My snow cone was topped with condensed milk (the best part) but not very much.  It also was topped with coffee jello, but I am pretty sure it was just black coffee jello.  Which was alright.. haha.  The syrup on the snow cone I am pretty sure was like a milk flavoring... not very flavorful.  It was still alright and I continued to eat it haha.. Then I got half way down and found some kidney beans at the bottom!! That wasn't it, I was also surprised with white mochi balls that were flavorless and strange....  It was such a strange combo.  I couldn't finish the whole thing though... I ate about half of it but I think the kidney beans just threw me off.

Looks like his has potential...

SURPRISE! kidney beans!!!

 As for the other Japanese dessert we got,  one was cut up waffle with sweet black beans (I thought they were blackberries :(...)  and whip cream.. it was good for the most part, kind of strange.  The middle was this weird flavor and really gummy-like brown jello in this brown syrup type stuff.  Ehh.... The third was matcha green tea ice cream and that was the best of the three.  I may have been a little disappointed but at least we know now!! :)

My mother sent a package that we finally were able to pick up on Tuesday full of goodies and gifts and hair gel (curly hair problems...).  It was such a sweet surprise.  She sent me this cute watch, as well dominos for Arthur, a cute canvas picture for both of us, and fudge, caramels, and pretzels!!! MMMM.  It was such a sweet surprise :)

Gifts from my sweet, loving mother!!!

New Years Eve was a lot of fun! I found a hotel online that was throwing a "Countdown Party" and since the typical Japanese New Years consists of going to shrines or worshipping ancestors (typically), I decided this would be our best bet.  The party was free, all you had to pay for was any drinks that you wanted.  They had casino games (blackjack, roulette, etc) set up around the room where the party was happening.  We met this nice couple from Tokyo and played games with them for a while.  The games were free too!  You just walk up to the table, they give you fake chips, and you play!  When you're done playing, your prize is CHOCOLATE.  How great is that!?!  We counted down the New Year in Japanese (or at least tried...) clinked glasses with the people around us, NEW YEARS KISS, and pulled the poppers the staff handed out.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to bring in the New Year.

New Years Eve :)

Before we found the hotel that the party was at, we found this other REALLY nice hotel just down the street.  It had so many christmas lights up all around and it was so fancy!  We walked around it to see what they were doing for New Years and to look at their restaurant.  We found this adorable wedding chapel overlooking the water that looked so nice. We were wondering if everyone would have come to our wedding if it was here...  Tickets to Okinawa are only $1,500... No big deal ;)

Could this have fit our 200 guests?

New Years Day was spent sleeping in until noon, I cooked us breakfast, and we laid in bed watching a two hour episode of Top Gear that Arthur really wanted to watch.  After relaxing all day, we decided to finally get up and go to dinner.  We drove around looking for a place for a while because most businesses were closed for the holiday.  We found an indian restaurant in the American Village area that looked really good.  Unfortunately, the experience was pretty bad... There was probably only about 3 people working so it took us more than 30 minutes to order and more than an hour to get our food.  Luckily by that point, we were really hungry...

 We went out to dinner the next night at a place where you pick out your own fish with tongs and thats the one that you get for dinner!  It was really interesting.  It was a very traditional meal for Okinawa.  It's pretty hard to eat fish with chopsticks considering it falls apart so easily... but we are working towards becoming chopstick masters.  Almost there...

 While washing my face the other night, Arthur shouted and pointed to something on the ground... something I could barely see through the soap in my eyes.  I ran out of the bathroom terrified, eyes burning and heart beating.  It was a little lizard!  Our first pet as husband and wife.  It wasn't long lived, but I like to think his name was petri.  Hopefully next pet we get can be a cat.  Anyways, we trapped him and set him free outside.  It was terrifying but cool.  Arthur said that people say if you find one in your house, it's good luck.  I don't consider soap in my eyes good luck.  :D

Sunday funday was terrific!  We scouted out a church Saturday night so we would actually know how to get there Sunday morning.  We made it to the church and we both really liked it!  Ive been really blessed at Ekklesia with great worship so it's kind of hard to compete in that category, but it was still really good.  We sang most of the songs in English first, then Japanese.  The message the pastor spoke was great! We really enjoyed the church.  Im not sure if we will check out one of two more just to see what is here, but if we don't, I know I would be happy at the church we went to.

After church, we headed to some islands on the east that we had only seen at night.  We drove around the islands, checking out different beaches, taking tons of pictures, and stopping for snacks.  We stopped and had lunch at this cute little bread and pizza bakery where I got this little mouse!

We also ate delicious, colorful thai food.  SO good! We found a lot of beaches that were beautiful.  When we cross the main bridge to get to the smaller islands, the water is so still and peaceful.  It's also really shallow for a ways across.  It looks pretty strange because fishermen will be standing in the middle of a place that you would think would be deep, but its only to their calves.  The water is so pretty here and some of the beaches are so quiet and serene.  We found a cool shell hermit crab on one of the beaches that was terrifying considering that we didn't realize it was a crab until after we picked it up and were staring at it.

This is what a lonely man on a deserted island looks like.

We also found a really cool private beach!  It was beautiful!

wittle hermit crab!

cheesy? maybe... but I like it!!!!

We found this really cool house on one of our drives that was covered in ivy.

Arthur and I are constantly trying new snacks and drinks anytime we go to one of the convenient stores here.  There are so many little markets everywhere that sell tons of different snacks.  I also read that there are 200,000 vending machines on Okinawa.  That number actually sounds like it could be correct.  There are vending machines on every corner, in every store, down every street, EVERYWHERE.  So we are always able to try different things... but so far, I think we both found our favorite drinks.  Arthurs is CC Lemon.  But not the regular one.  There is a sour one and its SO good and SO sour.  Besides that one, my drink of choice would be one we found the other night called Teas' Tea - but the almond milk tea one.  It smells and tastes delicious!! 

Sour CC Lemon.   MMMM

Almond milk tea MMMMM

We have been having a blast here, but do miss our families and friends back home.  We hope everyone is having an incredible New Year and oh yeah,  GO DUCKS!!!!!!!!!!  That game was SO good!