Churami Aquarium and Shikwasa

We spent the day at Churami Aquarium today-one of our favorite places on island!  We bought our last annual pass-it's sad to think this is the 3rd and final annual pass we will need.  (For those of you in Oki that don't know about it, the annual passes are a great deal.  They are 3600 yen per adult-which is the same as two admissions.  So, if you only go twice in the year, you've paid for it!  Plus, you get 10% off at the shops and restaurants.)

We typically try to go to the aquarium once every couple of months-if it were closer, we'd go more often.  In reality, it's not actually that far away-probably around 30ish miles-but it takes about an hour and a half to get there!  For those not in Oki, yes, that is a pretty accurate estimate.  Speeds here are very slow and traffic is heavy.  Even on the expressway, the speed is only 80/kph, which is just about 50/MPH.  The rest of the roads vary around 30-60/kph.

Kieran after he flung the sea cucumber.

Kieran and Daddy touching the starfish.

So, back to the aquarium.  Everyone in our family loves it.  The boys love the touch pool and today, Kieran was finally tall enough to reach in an touch one of the starfish.  He also picked up a sea cucumber and kind of flung it.  Oops!  Luckily, the touch pool attendants are pretty good-natured-as long as they see you are trying to keep the kids behaving properly, they mostly just smile at you.  Brendan loves to pick up the starfish and turn them upside down to examine them.  Both kids have zero fear of touching and picking up the touch pool animals.

Brendan checking out one of the smaller starfish.

After the touch pool, we ventured to the first of the aquariums.  Kieran promptly pointed out a "purple hish" and was quickly corrected by Brendan- "blue fish."  After watching for a few minutes, we headed to the next aquarium,  where the kids thoroughly enjoyed watching the bigger fish swim about.  Kieran yelled, "Hark, hark!" several times as the sharks swam by and then headed around the corner to hunt out Nemo.  We saw the shark several more times, as well as a sea turtle, gigantic eels and hundreds of other fish.

"hark Mommy, hark!"

 We continued on, looking at the smaller aquariums filled with various eels, lionfish, hermit crabs and all sorts of other water creatures, ending up at the cafe by the HUGE tank.  I believe this tank is the 2nd largest in the world.  We ate taco rice (the boys and Dad) and spaghetti (Mom) while watching the whale sharks, rays and tuna swim by.

After lunch it was time for the creatures of the deep-crabs, more fish, more fish and um, well, more fish!  By that time the boys were pretty antsy, so it was time to head outside to see the sea turtles and dolphin show!

Brendan waiting impatiently for the dolphin show!

Both boys love the dolphin show-I think it's their favorite part of the aquarium!  Kieran had a great time saying "Dolphin make a big splash!" every time one of them splashed water up.

 Brendan anxiously awaited his favorite trick-the dolphin spitting out the fish!  In this trick, the trainer throws a fish into the dolphin's mouth-and the dolphin spits it out.  This continues on until the trainer picks up the bucket of fish and shows it to the dolphin-who "nods" yes. The trainer throws all the fish into the dolphin's mouth and the dolphin eats them. Even though we see this every time and Brendan knows what's going to happen, he still gets a huge kick out of it!





After the show,we headed up to the plaza where they had some sort of Autumn Festival set up.  We enjoyed a little sea salt ice cream and some Shikwasa juice. Shikwasa is commonly known as "Okinawan lime" and is a citrus fruit (but not a lime, as I discovered on Wikipedia!) that can be used like a lemon or a lime.  It is delicious-and not sour.  In fact, I like the juice so much I wondered if you could just eat the fruit like an orange.  Lucky me, we had to stop at a market on the way home for some potatoes and I bought a small bag of shikwasa-and sure enough, mmmm!  They are fairly tart, but sweeter than either a lemon or a lime.  I will be eating them as is, but Jason thought they were a little too tart for him.  Brendan liked them and I expect Kieran will too.

After a long day of the aquarium and stopping by the market, we headed home for a steak dinner and bedtime for the kids!  Unfortunately, it's the end of the weekend....Monday looms.

Oh the Places We'll Go!

Now that we're on our countdown to leaving Okinawa, the big question looms...where next?!?!

Well, the short answer is:we don't know yet.

However, the long answer is:  Dear Air Force, please, please keep us overseas!  We tried for a long time to get an overseas assignment!

Brendan has offered to help.  He said he'll write the places we don't want with a "x" over them and send it to the Air Force.  I wonder if they'll listen to a 4 year olds pleas?


So the new question is...where do we want to go?  And the answer to that is, well, we're fickle and it changes all the time.  Top of the list is Europe.  But mainland Japan (Yakota in Tokyo) is looking inviting as well.  And of course, there's Hawaii....sucks to be stuck there for medical-but we could live there!  And we're looking at Korea again...

In reality, there's just no telling where we'll be.  We'll know as soon as March-or as late as August.  So, keep your fingers crossed everyone-and let's hope there's a reason to keep renewing those passports!

And PS- Mom and Dad-we're still hoping you find a civil service job wherever we go next!  Maybe?  Please?!?!

3 Years! Really?

We arrived on the island of Okinawa 3 years ago today and those three years have simply flown by! 

This is Brendan and me, Sunset Beach, Nov. 2007-our first time out exploring in American Village!  It's amazing to think that he's younger in this picture than Kieran is now.  I can't believe he's grown up so much!  I miss this baby in the picture-but of course, I love the ornery preschooler we have now.  <3

This past 3 years has been filled with adventure, on and off of Okinawa.  We explored, shopped, ate and made our merry way around Okinawa.  We added a family member-Kieran-and new adventures began with him and navigating his challenges.  Jason deployed and I took a Space-A flight with the boys to visit family in the States.  We went to Hawaii twice for medical stuff/surgery and then finally got to take a real vacation this summer to Hong Kong!  

This last year is going to be busy!  We've got two vacations planned (Sapporo Ice Festival and Tokyo), Brendan will start kindergarten and we'll be preparing to PCS.  Right now, we're just trying to fit in everything that we haven't done in Okinawa, as well as things we can't do once we leave.  I find it a little sad every time I look out at the ocean, knowing I only have one more year to see it whenever I want...but I'm definitely going to enjoy the last year we have here as much as I can!

And, here are a few more early pictures.

Playing at Marek Park (the playground isn't even there anymore!) Nov or Dec. 2007

Christmas 2007-First Christmas in Okinawa.  Brendan is 18 months

Baby Kieran is home!  Sept 2008

Halloween 2008

Kieran, 1 year!  This would be after being stripped down-he had cake and icing all over!

this and that

I'm behind on blogging about Hong Kong, and will hopefully catch up-but here's a little about what's been going on in our lives lately.

Me-not a whole lot.  I've been feeling not so great lately and have been trying to figure out what's up.  So far, nothing concrete. So, I'm back to a couple more doctor's appointments in the next couple of weeks.  And probably have to "donate" more blood. 

Jason-he started taking a Japanese class and is now learning hiragana.  Nothing like being here 3 years and taking it with one to go, huh?   In any case, he's catching on rather quickly. 

Brendan-being as crazy as ever.  That kid has the WILDEST ideas-and is seriously smart.  The connections he makes between things just blows my mind-and sometimes leaves me saying, "huh?"  He's been doing really well in preschool this year-almost zero problems.  He's still got attitude at home unfortunately.  We're in for a rough ride with this one I think.  He's starting to really "get" his letters and letter sounds-he's quick to tell us that he "just discovered that blanket starts with B" and other things like that.  I am now realizing how tricky English is-he thought that "seed" started with "c"-and had a hard time understanding why it actually started with "s." 

We had a very interesting conversation in the car the other day that went a little like this:

Brendan: "What's going on in China?"
Mom: "What do you mean, what's going on in China?"
Brendan: "I'm wondering if the battle of China is still happening."
Mom: "The battle of China?"

Brendan: "yeah, is it still happening right now?" 

Mom: "Where did you hear about the battle of China?"
Brendan: "I watched it on Mulan."
Mom: "Oh. That was a long, long time ago. It's over now."
Brendan: "Like 100 long ago?"

Kieran-talking more than ever!  People are amazed that he is just 26  months-he's literally holding entire conversations.  Sure, they are simple conversations, but full sentences and such.  It's nearly impossible to believe that he once had a speech delay-he's more talkative than most 2 year-olds we meet!  His current favorite thing to say is "okay Mommy" when I tell him to do something.  He's for the most part a very good two year old-the exact opposite of Brendan.  It's refreshing, that's for sure!  Nothing like a kid who (mostly) does what Mommy says!

Us- we're looking forward to a busy winter and busy 2011!  We're going to have visitors for Christmas-Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian are coming to visit and we're all pretty excited.  It'll be our last Christmas in Okinawa, so we're going to hit up as much of the holiday stuff here as we can.  Then, we'll be headed out to Sapporo for the ice festival in February-it's hard to tell who is more excited for that one! This will be Kieran's first introduction to snow, and Brendan's first time that he will actually remember.  After that, it's the usual Oki stuff until the end of May, when we go to Tokyo (and yes, Tokyo Disney!).  Then, in November, we'll PCS from Okinawa. 

Speaking of PCS'ing-we have no idea yet where we'll be going to.  We're keeping everything crossed for another overseas assignment, but also are being realistic-Jason will put on MSgt in April, and overseas assignments for MSgts in his career field are few and far between.  There was only one lone assignment on this last round...so we're not holding our breath (but toes and fingers are definitely crossed!).  We'll have two cycles to pick up an overseas assignment and if nothing is open....stateside it is.  We'll know by March at the earliest and August at the latest. 

Today we went up to the northern most part of Okinawa-so here are a few pictures from Hedo Point!

Hong Kong, part 2

Our first morning in Hong Kong we were up pretty early-a little before 7am.  I was up a lot of the night-had trouble sleeping, so by the time 6:45ish rolled around, I was ready to get going.

After getting all 4 of us ready, we headed down to our (free!) breakfast in the hotel restaurant, where, I am ashamed to say...we pigged out.  Really pigged out.  I've never seen my boys eat that much in one sitting-and I got fearful glimpses into the future-and our future grocery bills!  Breakfast was wonderful though-and it was great to fill up on a meal that was included in our room price!

Next stop after breakfast was back up to the room to load up Kieran in the Ergo and pick up our backpack with the waterbottles, sunscreen, camera and Kieran's accessories (diapers/wipes/extra clothes).  I'm not sure which weighed more-the backpack, or Kieran in the baby carrier!  Then, we set out to conquer the MTR.

We walked the 2ish blocks to Jordan Station-the nearest MTR station to our hotel- and descended down the steps into the "unpaid" area-full of shops, ticket machines, info booths, and aha-an ATM! We withdrew money ($1USD=$7.2ish HKD) and promptly realized that we should have familiarized ourselves with HKD denominations ahead of time!  Luckily, we're not strangers to foreign currency, so after a quick glance at what we got out of the ATM, we were good to go!

Next stop...info/ticket sales booth.  We had to decide exactly what type of MTR pass we wanted to get.  We decided to get the Tourist pass for each of us adults-72 hours of unlimited MTR rides, as well as including one ride on the Airport Express-and the regular Octopus card for Brendan-since he could use that at a child rate.  Kieran was free!

For our first excursion in Hong Kong, we decided to head to Ocean Park-why not start a vacation with a trip to an amusement park?  We thought after a day of traveling, it would be nice to start with a "fun" day for the boys.  Ocean Park is part amusement park, part aquarium and was quite a bit of fun!  Unfortunately, a good chunk of the amusement park stuff wasn't geared towards the kids, but that's okay-they had fun anyways!

In order to get to Ocean Park, we had to first ride the MTR a few stops, and then get off and ride a bus there.  It was a long ride-at least it felt that way-as it was standing room only on both the MTR and the bus.  I think it took about 45 minutes total to finally get to Ocean Park.  Luckily, we bought our tickets at the MTR station, so no waiting in line for that once we got there!

It was a very hot day-and very humid.  We're used to hot and humid, but it seemed even hotter and more humid (to me at least!) in Hong Kong.  We're typically not out all day in Okinawa-so walking around all day was definitely a challenge in that heat.

The first thing we noticed about Ocean Park is that it's pretty big-spread out-and not easy to navigate.  We spent a considerable amount of time just walking from place to place-not so lovely in the heat.  We initially rode up to the "top" of the park (it's on a hillside) on a series of outdoor, covered escalators.  While the covers were nice-keeping the direct sun off of us, they were not opaque, so there was a bit of a greenhouse effect while under them-and sadly, no breeze.  We were sweating it out by the time we reached the top!

We went on a ride with the boys-a moving observation deck type of ride-and got to see the park, and surrounding areas-it was quite the view!  We went next to one of the aquarium displays-it was so nice to be in the air conditioning!  The aquarium was nice-but we're used to the aquarium here in Oki-so it was a little underwhelming for us.    We did however go to the "Jellyfish Aquarium"-nothing but various kinds of jellies-and that was really neat!  There are so many different types of jellies-and they range in size from pretty darn tiny to wow!

Unfortunately,  the boys were too short to ride the two rollercoasters there...but Mom and Dad weren't!  Jason and I took turns riding the coasters-and taking a break from the walking around.  Brendan was big enough to ride the flume log ride-and he got to ride it-twice!  Once with Mom and once with Dad-what a lucky kid!  We also rode in a cable car from the "peak" of the park down the hill.  The boys really liked that a lot.

The other highlight of Ocean Park was the panda exhibit-this is the first time either of the boys had seen a real panda!  They both loved it-Kieran really loves bears.  He was very excited to see the real pandas...as well as the stuffed ones in the requisite exit-through-the-shop end!  Lucky for us, as silly as it seems, we collect magnets from each place we visit. The boys are thrilled-they get to pick a new cool magnet to stick on our fridge (at their level, so they can play with them) and we're thrilled-magnets are pretty cheap!  So, we avoided having to purchase one of the expensive stuff animals or t-shirts and came home with a panda magnet instead!

Day 2 in Hong Kong was for sightseeing.   We decided to go and see the world's largest seated Buddha-the Tian Tan Buddha.  It is on Lantau Island-the same island as the airport and Disneyland Hong Kong.  We took the MTR to the Tung Chung Station, and then hopped on a a cable car to Ngong Ping-a 25 minutes ride with some amazing views!  Unfortunately, the perfectly clear skies we enjoyed the day before at Ocean Park were nowhere to be found-a typhoon began heading towards Hong Kong (yikes!) and the skies were very hazy-so our views were definitely limited.  However, we rode in the crystal cabin-which has a clear bottom- and got to see lots below us-including several waterfalls!

We got off the cable car at Ngong Ping Village-basically, a little tourist attraction with shops, restaurants and 2 theaters (one showing a kids story- A Monkey Tale, and the other showing Walk with Buddha, about the life of Buddha).  We walked through the little village area and up to the base of the Buddha...and then up 268 steps to the top!  Kieran rode on my back in the Ergo (and slept the whole time) and Brendan did a terrific job of climbing all 268 steps!

The Buddha was so impressive-and encircling the base of it were more statues.  After walking around and looking at everything up at the top, and admiring what we could of the view, we took a quick photo op and then headed back down the steps-next stop-Po Lin Monastery.















The monastery was very beautiful-lots of gorgeous flowers, painting, lanterns, carvings, everything.  The ornateness of it was impressive-lots of detail on absolutely everything!

After walking to the Buddha and the monastery, it was time for lunch.  We found a Turkish restaurant and had some really good food-in fact, the dish we ordered for the boys was so good, we decided we needed to find a recipe and make it at home!  After lunch it was time to see "A Monkey's Tale"-a cute little interactive children's movie that illustratees some of the principles of Buddhism.  The boys (and us!) really enjoyed it!  After the show, it was gelato time...and then, unfortunately, as we were eating our gelato, the cable cars closed down due to the weather.  We ended up being stuck for about another hour or so-but the cable cars finally opened back up and back down the mountain we went!
Unfortunately, being stuck up on the mountain, we weren't quite sure what to do with the rest of the day-it was late afternoon and we were left with less time than expected. We decided that it would be a nice time to head down to Victoria Harbour and check that out.

It was still light out when we arrived at Victoria Harbour (we had quite a long MTR ride to get there) and we wandered around the waterfront area for a bit, marveling at the cityscape and enjoying the sights.  We decided to go walk a bit and find something for dinner.

As we headed into the city area around the Harbour, we quickly realized that we were unlikely to find an affordable, kid-friendly restaurant in that particular area-it was mostly high-end (very high end!) shops and hotels.  We ended up heading back down towards the waterfront and stopping to eat at McDonalds-not exactly gourmet fare, but not too pricey, and definitely kid friendly!  McDonald's was very busy-it seemed to be one of the few fast-food (and therefore, lower priced) options around.  After finally finding a seat, we sat down and enjoyed our dinner-while Kieran made a 2 new friends two ladies fell in love with his hair and spend a lot of time waving to him and snapping his picture!
 

We decided to visit a camera store near the McDonalds-we figured we had just enough time to stop in and then go see the Victoria Harbour light show.  Unfortunately, we spent a lot more time in there than we initially planned...and of course, in true kid fashion, Brendan had a bathroom emergency literally minutes before the show started.  By the time we found a bathroom and finished up-the show had already started and we missed a good bit of it.  We decided to come back again another night-it was too impressive to not see the whole thing.

After the show ended, we headed back to the hotel and crashed-we were all exhausted-and Disney was the plan for the next day!