Small update.

I haven't put up an update in a while. Oops. Not much is going on around here. My job search continues, as does the quest to furnish and decorate our house. You would be shocked at how hard it is to find a card table on this island.

I am preparing a blog about the food here. So there's something for you to look forward to. In the meantime, check out this fabulous blog dedicated to everyone's favorite Olympic hero: Michael Phelps

Shisa dogs.

Taken from All About Okinawa:

Shisa lions (also known as shiisa) can be seen on top of roofs or at the gates of Okinawan homes and businesses, and even on street corners. From small to large, old and new, shisa lion statues help ward off evil.

Long ago on the Japanese island of Okinawa lived a young boy named Chiga-san. The small village that Chiga-san lived in was terrorized by an angry dragon. The dragon would suddenly appear from the sea to attack the village and its unlucky villagers. One day, after another attack, the king of Okinawa came to the village and approached Chiga-san.

"I saw the dragon and the troubles it is causing you," the king said and pulled out a piece of rope with a small statue attached to it. "Here, take this shisa lion and place it in front of the village. It will protect all of you from now on."

Chiga-san took the small statue and looked at it. It was a boring brown color. The face of the shisa looked like a lion, except much fiercer, with a snarl on its lips. Chiga-san bowed to the king and placed the shisa on the beach in front of the village, then went back to playing with his friends.

The next day the villagers heard huge waves crash on the beach -- the dragon was approaching. They ran out of their homes, their eyes on the beach where the shisa statue sat. The dragon leaped out of the ocean and swung its head from side to side, then stopped. The small statue of the shisa lion began to tremble. A loud sound came from it, like a muffled lion's roar, and suddenly the statue cracked open. A huge shisa lion sprang out and attacked the dragon. They disappeared under the ocean and the villagers feared the shisa lion was dead.

Suddenly, far out in the ocean, what looked like a fountain of water rose into the air. The villagers and Chiga-san held their breath. They heard the roars of the shisa lion and the bellows of the dragon, then all was quiet and the water slowly fell back to the ocean. The villagers gasped in surprise. A small island was now where there had been none.

Chiga-san frantically looked and looked at the ocean for the shisa lion, but it didn't reappear. Then, when he looked down at the sand, Chiga-san jumped back -- the shisa statue was there, all in one piece and not a crack on it.

The village was never bothered by the dragon again. Word soon spread around Okinawa of the shisa lion's bravery and protection of the village. Soon, other villages made their own shisa lions, and the shisa became known as the protector of the islands.

Homes and businesses will usually display two shisa lions -- one with its mouth open to scare off the evil spirits and the other with its mouth closed to keep the good spirits in.

And that is the story of these little guys.

From here to there.

Driving. Definitely not my most favorite thing to do. In all honesty, I enjoy my visits to the Dentist more than I enjoy a long drive (no offense, Crystal!). For the entire three years I’ve been driving, I would often (not too often) have minor panic attacks when driving on a two lane road alone at night. “Am I on the correct driving side??!! Ack! I don’t know. Oh, whew, there’s a car coming towards me on the other side of the road. Whew.” The dread of having to learn to drive on the left side of the road ate away at me for months before the big move. Fortunately, getting adjusted to left-side driving has been a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. Seeing drivers on American TV and in movies is still a little mind bending though and sends me into minor panic. Good thing I don’t drive and watch TV at the same time.

After the whole “other side of the road” thing, the biggest difference is that Okinawa is metric and slow. It’s island life, right? The fastest you will ever go (legally) on the island is 80 km/h (about 50 mph) and that is only on the Expressway. Most roads are between 40 and 50 km/h (about 25 and 30 mph). Pulling off to the side of the road (whether there is ample space or not) is also a common Okinawan practice. That is great for us Americans because we can sit on the side and scour a map to figure out where we are. Due to the hilly nature of the island, there is no semblance of a road grid here. Happily for Japanese non-readers, the roads all have numbers for names.

Shortly after arrival on Okinawa, we had to take a driving class to learn the differences driving here. First off, the signs are all the International road signs. They are super-easy to understand and this knowledge should come in handy if ever we are somewhere else overseas. There is no cellular phone use allowed while driving here. The strangest rule, to me, is no left turns (think right turns) are allowed at a red light! I sometimes cheat on this one when I’m turning onto the Base… Don’t tell!

Overall, learning to drive here hasn’t been too scary. I’ve always been a cautious driver, so I’m sure that helps. I might actually enjoy driving here more than driving in the States. It will be interesting to see how it goes readjusting to driving in the USA in three years.

Katsuren Castle Ruins.

We stumbled upon some castle ruins Saturday afternoon.

Click here for photos.

Like the deserts miss the rains...

Things I miss (possibly just because I know I can’t have them):

-Panera Wild Blueberry Muffins and Cinnamon Crunch Bagels. And the Frontega Chicken Sandwich. And the Baked Potato soup. And chips. So, Panera Bread in general.

-Target. Not a single Target on this Island. And so far, nothing even resembling a Target. Since moving into the dorms my freshman year, I have relied on Target for everything. Mascara? They’ve got it. Something to wear to a wedding? Check. Neato one dollar thingamajigs? In excess.

-Pizza Chain Restaurants, furthermore good pizza places. My dear friend Stacee has brought it to my attention that it may be possible that my husband and I are pizza snobs. Fair enough, but I think we earned that title the day our dear friend David Letterman gave us a pie on our honeymoon. Ah, digression. Pizza here is terrible. Or at least the one place we ate was terrible. Think of the worst pizza you’ve EVER had and subtract about ninety taste points. Thank goodness for the Secret Family Recipe.

-Dry heat. Self explanatory.

-Coldstone Ice Cream and Frost Gelato. It was both good fortune and a curse to discover the beauty that is Tucson’s Frost Gelato Shoppe. Good fortune to have experiences something so very delicious and not a curse because I crave it. And there is really never a time that I am not craving Coldstone.

-Wendy’s. Something about Wendy’s just conjures up great feelings of nostalgia. Maybe it’s because Theatre History class was never over until our crew was done with their Frosty’s. Maybe it’s the late night drive-thru runs. The “good-good” commercials do not help this craving.

-Non-tempura fried shrimp. Beer battered shrimp is my seafood restaurant stand by. Tempura shrimp generally tastes like shrimp dipped in oil. Fried shrimp here = Tempura shrimp. ‘Nuff said.

-InTouch Weekly. My guiltiest of guilty pleasures. The Island is not without InTouch, it’s just that the issues you can find are at least three weeks old. At least. By then, the news is proven, disproven, or just plain no one cares any more. And although I can get all my celeb gossip online, there is something cathartic about flipping through my favorite glossy at my own leisure. Oh, and I definitely miss “Who wore it better?”

Things I will probably miss when we leave the Island:

-Vending Machines EVERYWHERE. I never fear about having low blood sugar while driving here thanks to the plethora of vending machines. You literally cannot drive a kilometer on this Island without driving by an inexpensive drink machine. And it’s not just soda – it’s tea and about a million other types of drink that I’m not quite sure of but just can’t help but try.

-Cutesy-ness. Everything here is cute. Signs all have cute cartoons here. I saw one for a hospice that had a very happy old man in a tub with his family/caretakers all around him, equally happy. You can find all sorts of items emblazoned with the cutest things you could ever think of. And, it’s the home of Hello Kitty. You don’t get cuter than Hello Kitty.

More to come, I'm sure.