So busy!

It has been a while since i posted but i have been busy this week and keep getting distracted. Felicia left to go back to the states (for work) so for the next three weeks it's just Joe, the kids and me. In this first week he is has been doing this thing where he is working like 12hr shifts so that means i have to look after the kids while he is at work (6pm-6am) and while he sleeps during the day :( but at least they are giving me extra money for it.

Last week was good, i got to go to an autumn festival (aki matsuri) it was the first festival i have been to since i have been here. There were fireworks, dancing and good food - it was fun. I also went to a hawaian resturant and out to see some sights. My friend and i went past these neon covered hotels and he told me they were 'love hotels' so you can imagine what they are used for...at least they are pretty. I also saw feilds of these flowers (i forget the name) with small lanterns over them to simulate the sun - i wish i had my camera on me because it was so beautifu. I got to go shopping in Naha (largest city in Okinawa) finally so that was fun - many shops :)

The weather at the moment is really nice - it's not too hot but it's still sunny, and there is a lovley breeze. I was sitting outside yesterday and looking at the view wishing i could be doing something fun :p hopefully it will still be nice on the weekend. I have been practicing my Japanese and picking up bits along the way. I bought the DVD fruits basket (anime) on amazon and because Joe has a p.o. box on base it should come really quickly (and the postage is cheap too) yay!

Well i am pretty tired - i never get to sleep in here so sometime i am going to need to go sleep at someone else's house (you try going out late then getting woken up early by noisy children every weekend!) Last night Ariana woke up at 11:30 and when i asked her what she wanted she said 'candy' so i was kind of annoyed. On a good note the kids and i found a new park - it is part of some school or something but there was nobody there so we played for a while.
Halloween is comming up soon and although Japanese people don't really celebrate halloween they decorate everything for it so it's kinda cool. I am hoping to get a carving pumpkin from the grocery store on base and do one of thoes. I did one once in Australia but it wasn't really designed for that and it took ages to scoop all the insides out. Also people take their kids on base and do trick or treating there so i really want to go do that too!

Anyway that's all for now, i will post again when i have something interesting to say. But check out my photo gallery beacuse i have updated it http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc177/From_Japan/

Jya ne!

After 1 month work...

Hi again. Like i promised i made a photobucket account to put my crap quality photos on so here it is http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc177/From_Japan/ I uploaded some photos but there is a photo of what looks to be a kitkat drink - but it wasnt. I saw it in a vending machine and i swear it was the only chocolate and it was in a glass container. I only bought it coz i thought it was a drink but it had 4 kitkats in it - i was kinda dissapointed. There is also a glass jar with these candies in it - i saw them in an anime and wanted to buy some. Oh and halloween pocky! It's really nice there is pumpkin flavor - so if anyone wants me to send some down i will. The cigarettes are candy - i just thought it was weird to see them coz they were banned in Australia ages ago. There are some more things i will put in there when i get the photos, still waiting on my camera too.

Not much to say about the begining of the week but on Thursday i met my friend Saori at chatan town after work, we went shopping and at this hippy store i bought incense for my pig and a t-shirt. Later we went to an Okonomiyaki resturant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki) and i had a negi (leek) and bacon one. It was really cool because there is a hotplate on your table and they make the food in front of you.
On Friday morning when i was getting ready the kids wanted to go outside and i said ok. After a while i was wondering why it was quiet and the kids had opened the gate and got outside! Luckily nothing happened but i was so freaked out! Later on i went out with another friend to an izakaya which is a traditional Japanese pub. We ate some really nice food and i drank some sweet sake.

On Saturday i got up early and went out with some people snorkeling. It was heaps of fun but the waves were a bit rough so we didn't see much. Later we went to a beach called sunset beach which is kinda enclosed so there weren't many waves which was nice. We had a giant enflatable bed thing and you take it to this area and people inflate it for you so that was good. I ate taiyaki today which is a fish shaped desert and we went to Coco's which is a curry place that makes Japanese curry. I ate something called pari pari chicken curry and it was really nice! I also picked up a magazine called Okinawa living which has lots of things to do or things that are on in Okinawa and it's in English so it's really helpfull. In the evening Joe Frank and i went out to gate street where there are lots of clubs etc. First we went to Club Fujiyama which is an American/Japanese rock club and it was interesting. Later we went to the airman's club (which is on base) and had a few drinks.

On Sunday i didn't do alot, just bummed around Joe was hung over from the night before. I went to the shops and bought frozen gyoza dumplings which i had with Japanese mayonaise and smokey BBQ sauce ^_^ I also picked up some sweet potatoe chips which were really interesting.

On Tuesday the satelite guy finally came and fixed it for us - now we have more than one channel in English! Not much else to say really i plan to go to Kyoto in November if i can and hopefully Tokyo in December and then to see the snow a bit further north. I hope everyone is having a good time in Australia!

One more thing, i keep seeing weird sentances in English and some of them are funny so i am going to start putting them on here. So here is the first weird sentance of the week: You can't hold down a joyfull heart.
Jya ne!

Woot - long weekend!

This week i met up with a few more people from the net. One guy's name is Hiroto and he was pretty cool. We went out to chatan town and had tea, it was at one of thoes sushi train places (exept they don't call them that here :p). I lost the stylus for my denshi jisho (electronic dictionary) and i had to go to the electronic store and order in a new one, luckily they only cost around 315yen. I also bought a new bikini and it is pink :) very pretty. We went to the beach (not to swim) and there were heaps of cats around! They are all strays and so skinny - i wanted to take one home.

Joe picked up a radio thing for me that can play my ipod too. I am happy but we only get two radio stations here - one in English and one in Japanese. I like to listen to the Japanese one at night when i am going to sleep.

This week Andrew has been waking me up early (like 5-6am) and Ariana has been sleeping! I don't mind so much beacuse one child is easier to look after than two. During the day i was doing the dishes and Ariana and Andrew were upstairs. They were being quiet so when i went up there i saw they had got into the paint! It was a big mess :p

I really wanted to go swimming on the weekend beacuse i finally got a bikini and there was a typhoon in Taipei. Because of this it meant that the weather here was crap and i couldn't go to the beach or Rocktoberfest because it was cancelled.

On Friday the bad weather started and the kids and i made a fort :p so that was fun. I had been waiting for crap weather before we did that because it takes so much time and effort to set it up. Anyway later on i met up with another person from the net named Ayami. She and i went out and just hung out for a while. We bought some fireworks but when we went to set them up we got told we couldn't :( Eventually we did it anyway but not many. Hopefully we can do that again sometime :)

On Saturday i initally planned to go to a Japanese pub with my friend Atsushi but he wasn't feeling well :( But i did go to the shops and pick up my stylus and see some fireworks on the way home which was nice. We also got some tapes for the video camera so i was able to play around with it in the afternoon.

On Sunday Hiroto and i went to the Shurijo Castle park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuri_Castle (they go there in Azumanga daioh). It was really beautiful and we had some sweet ice. After that we went to Uruma city to do more sightseeing and i saw the weirdest thing! The toilets in some places here are in the ground - meaning you have to squat :( They flush and everything but i still think it is kinda gross :s This picture i got of the net but it is exactley like the one i had to use. We also went into a pet shop and in the small animal cages you can actually put your hand in and pick them up! I was holding these adorable hampsters and they also had squirells, feretts and weird looking birds. I was amazed about how tame they were - now i want one! On the way home we were driving and there were these weird guys in suits on the side of the road. I had the camera right there so i filmed it but i had no idea what they were doing there!

On Monday Joe and Felicia had the day off so it gave me the day off too! I went with Felicia and Ariana to the shops and bought a new skirt. We also had lunch out and i had a teriyaki chicken burger - it was really nice! I met a few more of Felicia's friends and came home.

Well that's about all i have to say for the moment. I plan to get a photobucket account and put mroe photos that arent so brilliant quality on there for you all to see. Including that one of thoes guys in suits :p I also bought a phone card so now i can call people :) yay! Sorry i have been late in replying to emails - there are many emails from home and new friends so it's hard to keep up with. Have a good week and i will post again soon

-Alicia

It's so hot!

Hey again. This was a pretty good week. On Monday and Tuesday i didn't do much exept go out for tea in the evening. On Wednesday i caught a bus for the first time to Chatown. The busses here are pretty expensive so that sucks! I went to the electronic store and bought a Japanese to English electronic dictionary. It was expensive but i was really happy to get one because i have wanted one for so long. It recognizes kanji so i can draw them in with a stylus and find out what it says so that rocks! I found some English instructions on the ineternet so i know how to use it. Later i went to the shoping centre and when i was leaving i saw these two girls doing this dancing/singing/rapping thing. It was weird but they were pretty good, if i knew what they were saying. Above is a picture if me and Ariana being silly in front of the webcam :p

I have talked to a few different people in Japanese and it has been good so far. Most of the time it is just sales people but sometimes i see this lady when the kids and i go for a walk and she always says hello. She asked me once wether the kids were my siblings and i didn't know how to say i was their nanny so i just said yes - lol. I have also been talking to alot of American people. I am not quite used to saying the words they use like ketchup and diapers also buiscits are not sweet they are these pastry things (they call buiscits cookies).

On friday it was airman appreciation day which mean Felicia and Joe came home early and i got the afternoon off! I went to the max value and bought a dvd, and even though it's in Japanese the kids still watch it (i am so sick of watching charlotts web and spongebob squarepants). I also bought a text book for my Japanese, i am trying to learn Kanji. The weird thing is the text on it, it says: "You are the only one. Heal your mind my singing voice." I also picked up a manga comic thing, i want to practice reading and there is kanji with furigana (the small hirigana above it) so that will help me too. I found a website with the kanji children in grade 1 in Japan learn (there are 80) so i am starting with that but there are so many to learn. There is a kanji dictionary called the Daikanwa Jiten and it contains 50,000 different kanji which is thought to be comprehensive but more recent mainland Chinese dictionarys contain 80,000 or more characters but most of these are not in common use in either Japan nor China. I got that information from wikipedia so it is probably true.

I was looking at stuff on youtube recently and i found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brh6KRvQHBc it is a live action version of the simpsons intro i thought it was pretty good. I also found this Japanese thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFVoLz88hiU it is too weird! I have been watching lots of naruto too ^_^ thanks mick!

I went to a 100 yen store for the first time on Saturday :) i bought a bunch of stuff - it was fun! I saw thoes party popper cone shaped things you see in anime alot and when i have something to celebrate i will buy some. I have been enjoying it so far here but i have been a bit lonley so i decided to make some Japanese friends. On Saturday night i met up with a Japanese girl from the internet. Her name is Rian, she is 20 and lives in Yomitan too. She is nice and we had a good time, we went out for drinks and to some random arcade. There was this little market on and it was really cool, i want to go back there sometime.

On Sunday Felicia and i went shopping and i ate at Moss burger. I remember one of my Japanese teachers Kaoru said was good - i told her if i went to Japan i would eat there and now i have! I had a rice burger which is like a normal burger but the patties are just rice - i liked it. The one thing we thought was funny was their slogan was 'hamburger is my life'. I have also tried a matcha (green tea powder) flavoured ice cream and it is nice, not alot like matcha though.

Not much else to say really, i want to do more shopping and go into Naha city but by bus it'll cost me $10-$15 one way so i am hoping one of my new friends can take me :) There are lots of things i want to see in the area like the castle ruins and Rocktober fest is on next week (Like Octoberfest but with Japanese rock music). Also i am still trying to find a bikini for myself - it seems really hard but it shouldn't be because it is so hot here (some days its over 30 degrees) and there are so many nice beaches! So that's all for now, thanks for everyones nice comments and emails i would love to know what's happening with everyone too. I will post again next week.

-Alicia