The Sunday Snapshot

Matt found these candies at a local convenience store: cola-flavored beetles and orange-flavored larvae. While adorable, I simply could not think about larvae while eating a gummy candy. I could not. 

The Okinawan Creperie

While living in North Carolina Matt and I found our first creperie and fell in love with the stuffed, delicate pastries. I honestly thought I was saying "adieu" to the French staple as I moved to the land of sushi and soba, but I was wrong! There is a cafe a few blocks from Kokusai street that serves crepes!

The decor is Victorian with dried flowers and ornate picture frames. For lunch we selected a savory crepe out of three or four options. Matt ordered a crepe filled with pork and topped with egg salad, and I opted for a crepe filled with cheese and potatoes. Each lunch set also comes with a tiny cream-filled dessert crepe just enough to satisfy your sweet tooth... Unless you are Americans like us who REALLY love sweets. We ordered an extra chocolate crepe to split. So worth it!

Their menus were hand-made scrapbooks. 

Anyone who wants to read more about this charming place can go to my friend Kassie's blog Mr. and Mrs. O. When paying our check I showed the owner Kassie's blog post on my phone to explain where we had first learned of the cafe. She recognized Kassie right away, and seemed happy that other English-speakers might soon be frequenting her establishment. She asked to take our picture, and I found it later on their Facebook page! Sometimes I fret about not knowing very much of the language or customs of this country, and I worry that I do not make a polite customer. When I realized our presence even as foreigners was celebration enough to take a picture it made me feel very welcomed in this adorable Okinawan creperie. 

The Sunday Snapshot

The cherry blossoms, or sakura, are beginning to bloom.

The Cosmos in Bloom

Spring has reached Okinawa mid-Janurary, and the first flowers in bloom are the cosmos. There are whole fields dedicated to these flowers that are used as rice paddies in other seasons. Matt brought his camera and was patient enough to use me as a model. Both American and Japanese families were taking advantage of the blooms to capture some colorful photographs. I never have to worry about being the only person taking pictures while living in Japan!

The Sunday Snapshot

A whole field of cosmos in bloom! More pictures to come...

The Imperial Palace: Tokyo Trip Part 4

On our last morning in Tokyo we traveled to the Imperial Palace. Since the Emperor of Japan and his family really live here, I knew that we would not be able to tour the palace. However, my guidebook assured me that the East Gardens would be open on a Tuesday. Unfortunately, Matt and I could not find any entrance without a gate and a gate guard that was checking the paperwork of everyone, so we could only admire the moat and the guard house and the little bit of palace we could observe from behind the fence.

The surrounding area was full of shiny skyscrapers filled with people in business suits. We ate an a little  sandwich shop that took us almost half an hour to find as we tried to follow signs in a huge office building. We nabbed the last table in the cafe filled with salarymen before we had to leave for the airport. While we only spent two nights in Tokyo during this short vacation, we have already made plans to return in summer 2015 during the climbing season for Mt. Fuji.

On the other side of the fence from the famous Seimon Ishibashi bridge. 

All the skyscrapers in this upscale part of Tokyo.

The statue of Kusunoki Masashige, a samurai. 

The Sunday Snapshot

This week the USO invited celebrity chef Robert Irvine to put on a cooking demo for military bases in Okinawa. We are HUGE fans of Robert Irvine, especially after Matt met him in Fayetteville as he was filming an episode of Restaurant: Impossible. The show was free, but I had to wait in line for hours as space was very limited.

The Lucky Bags

After the New Year's Eve with no sleep, I spent the entirety of New Year's day in my pajamas. After a nap, Matt was ready to go out again to run errands. I decided I would rather stay in my pajamas and apartment, but I asked him to be on the lookout for fukubukuro, or "lucky bags," as he went shopping. I had read about the tradition of lucky bags on a popular blog written by a Texan girl living with her Japanese husband in Tokyo: http://howibecametexan.com/2013/01/17/things-i-dont-understand-about-japan-fuku-bukuro-lucky-bags-福袋/.

In Japan it is considered very bad luck to retain unwanted merchandise from the previous year, so Japanese stores use lucky bags to liquidate their old stock in order to start fresh in the new year. All of the bags from a store are a set price, and the total of the individual items in the bag are usually double or triple the bag price. Lucky bags earned their name from the fact that they are sealed closed, so the customer hopes he or she will be lucky and purchase items that they wanted. Matt mentioned that when he was shopping many Japanese women brought nail clippers so that they could cut the plastic tie that kept the zipper in place and peek into the bags. I did not realize that most bags would be $50 to $100, which is too much for us to spend on a mystery! However, Matt brought me back a bag that was only $30 and filled with fluffy loungewear. That one lucky bag was so fun, so the next day we both went to the mall in search of more!

My first lucky bag!

For $30: house slippers, a matching mini-cape, nail clippers, a neck warmer, and a hot water bottle holder.

Frozen is HUGE here. This lucky bag shows exactly what you are getting: pajamas, scrunchie and a cape!

I found an accessory store with lucky bags for only $10. It reminded me of Claire's stores back home.

My loot. Pros: a jeweled headband and yellow necklace. Cons: a belly button ring and studded bracelet.

The Sunday Snapshot

Driving home with our new pet: Pascal, the bearded dragon.

The First Sunrise

My family will be the first to tell you that I am a confirmed night owl. I can stay up until the early hours of the morning completely by accident when absorbed in a good book, but I never accidentally wake up early. It takes multiple alarms and strong motivation to get me out of bed when it is still dark outside, but I had motivation to be out the door before 5am this morning. Our friends invited us to watch the first sunrise of the year from the top of Katsuren Castle.

The watching of the first sunrise of the new year is a Japanese tradition I had not heard of before, but makes sense when you consider that Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun. Our friends met at the castle at 4 am, but since Matt and I stayed up to see the fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve we did not drag ourselves out of bed until 4:30, leave the house at 5am, and stop for coffee along the way. The sky was still very dark, and on top of the castle there was no shelter from the strong wind that morning. We all huddled in blankets attempting to use the ancient walls as a shield from the wind. I had my face under the blanket, but when I emerged as the sky grew lighter there was a crowd of people gathered.

Everyone stood facing the sun and waited for the first rays to appear. The rays broke through the clouds as the sky turned orange. It was beautiful, and I thought we had successfully seen the sunrise. However, everyone waited until the sun itself peeked over the clouds, and a cheer went around the crowd.

We took pictures before heading down the many stairs and back home where I promptly ate breakfast and fell back asleep. I am so grateful we were invited to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity even though I am sure my friends did not know they were getting a very sleepy, cold Amanda without breakfast when they first sent the invitation.