Sushi Zen

I'll admit that we haven't been the biggest fans of the food here. When we go out to Japanese restaurants, we almost always order something we like. But for the high price it's never anything we're completely blown away by. When we go out we find ourselves going to Subway on base a lot. It's not so much the sit down restaurants we miss about the U.S. (which we never went to that often), but the fast casual places (I think that's the word) like Chipotle, Panera, chick Fil a, Panda Express, Smoothie King, Pizza Port, and a variety of healthy, vegetarian places. When we know we're going to be gone all day we have learned to PACK FOOD.  The food is not so good at the fast convenient places. It seems that everything has raw fish slabbed on top or just greasy noodles in a fishy broth. The nice sit down places are definitely better, just different. And pretty expensive. We went to an average buffet once and  found out after we ate that it was about $30 each (except the kids). I've been told that it takes a while to really like the food here, so we'll see. I even got "somewhat" tired of the food in Italy (well....maybe not....). It's hard to beat back home where EVERYTHING is available. So I guess the food and the shopping are the only things I don't like about it here. The horrible shopping here is probably for the better, although I've taken to shopping online quite well. Also, walking around the Kadena BX with the Starbucks inside will have to treat my huge Target withdraw for awhile. What I would do for a Target right now!! I would go nuts inside. I don't need fancy malls...just a Target.

Anyway, the reason I mentioned the food is because Steve took me out to Sushi Zen for my birthday and we loved it!! So much that we went back with some friends the following weekend. It's a decent hike for us, so we probably won't be going too often, but it's nice to know of a great Sushi place that has vegetarian options and an English menu.=)

We started with edamame beans, salad with peanut dressing (our favorite), and yummy iced tea.

Steve roll. They were gigantic! I don't remember what he got...something spicy and raw...

I got a yummy shrimp roll (shrimp is always cooked) with cucumbers:

Then we went for a walk on the Sea Wall outside the restaurant. Sorry for the crappy pictures. Didn't have the nice camera with me. 

Where are the kids? Steve asked the neighbors to watch them without me knowing, so when he got home from work it was a nice surprise to have an evening out together. Our first date together here in Okinawa. Geez, that's sad. We've got to find a babysitter!

Noah the TV Star

So Noah and I came home from dropping off Avery at school, walked out of the car and there in front of me is my neighbor walking towards me with a camera crew following her. She asked if Noah could come over and play. So now the camera crew is following her and Noah and her grandson. I guess it's for a popular Japanese TV show that "everybody watches." I went over there too and was not happy about being in these shots considering my hair was up, wet, and I had no makeup on! I guess nobody I know will ever see it. I thought it was humorous. I still can't believe I've never seen a real camera crew for a show like that before. They must have been doing a feature on their family and their pottery business. Our neighbors speak very little English, so it's hard to just ask anything. There's definitely a language barrier.  Here's a few pictures:

When they had to go inside to film, we had Taico (their grandson) play at our house. He's come over before. Noah and him play very well together. There's never any fighting. Yah!

And just because, here's a picture of Noah painting. All his painting pictures have only orange and blue in them. Not sure why....when you ask what his favorite color is he says green. Go figure!

Summer at the Beach

We have the perfect beach within walking distance of us. A lot of the beaches here are really rocky and shallow, but not ours! You don't need water shoes to go in, and it's deep enough to swim without having to walk out forever. Also, they put up a net to keep the jelly fish out. We go probably twice a week. Sometimes the waves are calm, and sometimes not. That's actually when it's the most fun. We have yet to go to the pool, but we will soon so we can teach Avery how to swim. Moving water probably isn't the best place to learn;) Avery is very into doing "water ballet" in the water. Noah just doesn't like me to stray too far from him.

Noah and I at Torrey Beach (one of the more shallow beaches):

Avery and her friend Aubrey at Torrey Beach.

Uken Beach (by our house):

Avery likes bringing her doll stroller and taking her babies for a walk out to this peninsula.

Steve's been kayaking and paddle boarding a lot. It's convenient being right on the water because he doesn't have to load the board on the car. He just carries it out in front of our house. He's even kayaked to work a few times.  Here's a picture he took when he was out in the water.

Me in my beach chair.=)  These last pictures were taken when we went on the 4th of July. We walked there in the evening, and Steve and I brought a little Sangria to drink on the beach! (no rules about that here!) Then just walked back. We may be doing that again soon.=)

The puddle jumpers are wonderful.

Avery's First Day at Her New School

Avery started at her new school, Casa Dei Bambini, at the beginning of June. It's a half Japanese/half American bilingual Montessori preschool. So far, so good! It was a little sad as I knew she would cry a little the first week, but I knew she would end up loving it as much as her old school. I think we really lucked out finding and getting her into this school because I was about to give up the hunt! I met two ladies that highly recommended this one, and it's close which was a huge plus. She goes 9-2:30 M-F. In some ways it does seem like a lot for a 4 year old, but I know that the experience she's getting there with the Japanese students and teachers is priceless. She is picking up a LOT of the language. She will "read" us her books in Japanese. Even when we're out at stores, she is so enthralled with what the Japanese people are saying. She listens very intently. She's very happy to be a school kid again and always has plenty of happy things to say when I pick her up. She just loves it. She was begging to go back to school after her other one closed, and next year she'll be in Kindergarten which is full day here. So this school will be great for her. Noah and I sure do miss her, but the time flies by.

She wanted to bring her baby Jaguar on the first day.

We got cookies from Great Grandma that day which was the BEST surprise for Avery when we picked her up. They got eaten up FAST!

Avery trying to put her arm around Noah for a picture, Noah not thrilled about it...pretty typical!

"Look! A spider on the car!"

Celebrating with dinner (and dessert) out at Macaroni Grill that night (on base):

She couldn't wait to have chocolate cake.

This picture is a couple month old, but it's still the best one I've gotten of my kids together in a long time!

And because she felt like posing for me...

Reading her birthday card to her bear.

Shakers we made using plastic spoons, plastic eggs, and dry beans for Cinco De Maya

Tree House

I don't take the kids to the tree house across the street from us enough. It's so convenient being right there, and it's so cool! We've been in the habit of doing the exact same walk  every evening (to the beach) that we forget about this place.
The kids and I trekked up the hill one day (well, they were in the stroller for part of it). Here they are pointing to our house. The white one directly above Avery's hand.

The kids got a kick out of repeating the sounds the birds made. And chasing the many butterflies we saw.

We discovered a field/park area. There's a whole other side to the tree house we haven't even explored yet.

The Wonder Museum

The Wonder Museum is connected to the zoo with a small additional fee. When we went to the zoo with our neighbors we ran out of time for the museum so we went back with Steve to check it out. It was three stories with lots of fun stuff for my kiddos. Nothing like the Cincinnati or Indianapolis Children's Museums but not many museums are! It was oodles better than the San Diego one. We're getting passes, so it will be nice having another indoor activity option.

They loved making their handprints in these!

This reminded me of the big chair at the Columbus Fair.

After spending an ample amount of time in this block area (especially Noah), I realized that my children do not have blocks! (they did in California...didn't make it here). So I have since gotten them some, and they just love them. Legos will be the next big thing I'm sure!

 Avery playing dress up...notice the huge tower in the background...

After the museum, we walked through the zoo.

Give my kids a hill and they're happy....running up and down this entertained them for awhile.

Another pond of hungry fish to feed!

And some big birds..we tried feeding them the fish food, but they didn't want it. I guess they just wanted some fish to eat.