Okinawa Festival

-
On the way to the festival...


The battleship Mikasa

Uh...Captain Mikasa?  Hans?

Double click to see the Okinawans in full regalia.




"Monkey Island"
 
No, he's not in jail...yet.



Mikasa Park is directly across from the base.  If you look closely, you can see our McDonald's in the lefthand foreground.


The kids had fun with the water until the police came by and nicely said "NO".  That was the end of that...and we mommies know how easy it is to keep kids away from the siren-call that is water, right?
 
 
It was hot.  That's about all I have to say about the Okinawa Festival.  Damn, was it hot.  The heat here makes Virginia's sweatiest days seem mild by comparison.  All of the older Japanese ladies are covered head to toe, pants and long-sleeved shirts, hats.  I just can't imagine.  I had on full-length pants yesterday, but a tank top and my new, gigantic hat.  I see ladies wearing sleeveless shirts, but they wear these black, fingerless things like sleeves that cover their arms and hands--I am assuming to block the sun, not for fashion.
 
I had some excellent noodles with some nice cabbage thrown in and I just picked up the chopsticks and ate it like I know how to use chopsticks.  I don't normally have luck with chopsticks, but for some reason, residing in Japan has made me able to pick up the smallest morsel of rice with chopsticks.  Interesting.  The kids made faces at EVERYTHING.  They had french fries...yes, apparently french fries are an Okinawan delicacy.  Who knew?  They did try some awesome fried chicken on a skewer and Annika ate some corn-on-the-cob on a skewer.  Will tried a bite of my noodles.  Good thing I packed extra food.
 
It was hot.  Just so, so damn hot.  I wanted to hear 7th Fleet band play at 1:00, but we were worn out by 12:15, so we found a shady place and the kids played in the water features until we got a stern no from the policeman.  Right, dude.  It's 206 degrees and the kids aren't going to dip a toe.  Eyeroll.  They did get their feet out of the water though--apparently they respect all OTHER figures of authority, except their mother.
 
We saw the band play one song and then we had to go...they were just so whiny and incapable of doing anything but crying about their imminent demise due to heat stroke.
 
Well, at least we went.  We tried.  And that has to count for something, right?  Sigh.

Comments

Mom said…
you always get an "A" for effort, Rach...guessing the kids enjoyed it more than they let on too...someday they'll tell you that!
September 2, 2013 at 4:12:00 AM GMT+2
DD4 said…
I'm sorry about the heat – I hope you have A/C in your home.

The kids looks so cute! I'm glad you took them to the festival. The place looks very interesting.
September 2, 2013 at 4:47:00 AM GMT+2
Anonymous said…
Sounds like a great outing to me! I do like how they respond to the outside authority figures ... it means we have hope, right? Sent my monkeys (two of them) off to school today. It is surely not the same with out the DeFors ... and both my boys go in the side entrance now and had no need for me to come inside. We had, amazingly enough, a surprise visitor accompanying us to school today ... DAD. He went into work and came home in time for the walk ... during that walk, we realized that it was his first time making it for the "First Day of School" ... and that he did not know that Jake walked into the side of the building all year last year. I think the comment was ... "I had to have walked them to school once last year." Nope, but happy to have you here today :)
September 3, 2013 at 5:34:00 PM GMT+2
MamaD4 said…
I'm so glad that Cory made it...I have to give Hans props, he used to walk Josiah to kindergarten in Stuttgart every morning, but then, his hours were a little more lenient, too. He picked the kids up from LES a couple of times, but we never had to take them over since we were first right there and then they took the bus from Rolfe.
September 4, 2013 at 7:20:00 AM GMT+2
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday

-
Moody, cloudy Sunday morning in bed with coffee and a new book.  Wrapped up reading a book that could have been so much better, had the characters had a little more...character.  It was a skimmer, for sure.  As I've gotten older, I have given up the notion that all books were meant to be read start to finish.  I've waded in as much as a couple hundred pages before letting go and putting one down.  There are too many books and too little time to waste on a book that doesn't keep my attention. If the rain holds off, I'm looking forward to hooking up this cleaner spray to my hose and spraying my windows and siding.  I know, I know...life is so exciting, right?!  Have I described where I live, the pipestem?  That is the Virginia vernacular term for a little offshoot lane that branches from the main road, upon which are a few homes--in our neighborhood, probably 4-6 houses on each pipestem.  We have four.  Next to us is Car Hoarder Neighbo...
Read more

Cherry Blossom, Part II

-
Image
Tired of cherry blossoms yet?  Oh good, because here are a few more:     These are from just a few hours ago...the cherry blossom or sakura, is truly ephemeral.  The blossoms appear almost overnight and won't last more than a few days, depending on weather.  It's important to get out and appreciate them while you can.  The Japanese actually have a term, hanami, for the "sport" of viewing sakura and there are many, many places in Japan where people flock to see sakura in breathtaking settings.   I'll settle for CFAY, since I'm still single parenting and the Japanese school children are on spring holiday, so the crush would be intense anywhere we would go.  If you saw my last post, you know I had to bribe the kids with ice cream for a two hour trip down to Miurakaigan to view the blossoms a couple of weekends ago.   It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I had a new class start up, just the other half o...
Read more

This is 45

-
I think I need to get into it a little more to really FEEL it, but this is 45.  Middle of the road?  Maybe.  Both of my grandmothers made it past 90, so we shall see. All of the most important people in my life wished me a happy birthday today, including the adorable people who made me and brought me into this world.  It is my habit now to thank THEM for my birthday, because let's be honest, if that man didn't love that woman, I wouldn't be here,  right now.  Thanks, guys...totally, 100% serious. The Captain was out of town for my birthday weekend, he got back at supper tonight, unerringly arriving just in time to sit down and eat.  It's really OK.  I started out my weekend on Friday at my favorite shopping joint, then returned home, changed into sweatpants and settled in for some trash TV watching (in this case, the completely stupid "90 Day Fiancee" (don't get into it, it's like watching a car wreck that you could see coming miles away))....
Read more