Cottage by the Sea

Finishing up our travels with Henry and Janet, we took them up north to Oura Wan Beach on Camp Schwab.  We managed to snag the cabin that is typically reserved for Colonels and above!

The view from our cabin’s front door.  The cabins sit high on a hill that overlooks the beach.  A patio runs the length of the cabin and has a rocking chair, bench, picnic table and gas grill.

Inside, a large living room with cathedral ceiling.

In many ways this place was nicer than our house.  Point #1—it has a master bath.  (One of two full baths; there’s a second bedroom as well.)

A pull-out bed made the perfect spot for Logan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Point #2—a reasonably sized kitchen!  And a refrigerator with an ice-maker!  Sigh . . .  Considering this is supposed to be a “cabin”, the kitchen was relatively well-equipped with toaster, pots/pans, dishes, etc.

We went to the aquarium of course.  New camera does a better job handling the aquarium lighting.

My view of Naomi through most of the aquarium.  In fact, this is my view of Naomi quite frequently: during neighborhood walks, errands, even sometimes doing chores around the house.

They had divers in the big tank; it looked to me like they were cleaning the filters.  A number of the bigger fish seemed to enjoy swimming through the divers’ bubbles.

The aquarium loans complementary umbrellas on rainy days!

At the dolphin show, Logan decided he would get a better view by befriending a Japanese family and sitting with them instead of us.

In Logan’s defense, they do put on a pretty good show.

After the aquarium, we finally made it to a restaurant we’d been trying to check out for a while.  (Gaffneys—Pizza in the Sky, remember?)  The food was good, the view was great!

Back at Oura Wan, I found some time to escape and get down to the beach by myself.

In yet another crazy episode, as we were leaving Oura Wan in two vehicles, Jake’s battery died.  So I dropped Henry, Janet and Logan off at Neo Park and Naomi and I backtracked to see if we could jump his vehicle.  No luck.  Jake and I pondered the possibilities over a giant shave ice while Logan and the grandparents continued their adventure with the animals.  Eventually, the whole gang piled in my car and we headed south; the next day we got Henry and Janet on a plane and then turned around for a crazy-quick trip to deliver a new battery to Jake’s stranded vehicle and come home again.  And thus ended our time with Grandma and Grandpa Wilde in Okinawa.

Life since then has been fairly normal—no more vehicle mishaps or missed festivals.  But every day is an adventure, and with two cute kids on a beautiful island, there’s always something to take pictures of!  And that, friends, is why I’ll be back with more soon.  Hope you are well and enjoying life!

Trick or Treat!

I can post pics of Halloween festivities and you are just waking up to Halloween morning! <sinister laughter>

(P.S. Yes, I know I still have to finish posting Henry and Janet’s visit.  I’ve been busy making Halloween costumes and doing other things.  I’ll get back to that!)

 
Thanks to Jake and Crystal our driveway was looking extra festive this year!

Some afternoon playtime—perhaps to preemptively burn off the sugar rush?  Or just because it was a nice day.

Jake’s driveway artwork!

  
Voila!  Homemade Tigger costume.  Not because I’m all that crafty or too cheap to buy one, but because I didn’t put enough thought into Halloween to order anything early enough for it to be shipped.  I think the costume turned out pretty well, and Logan looked cute in it.

Riding tricycles is what Tiggers do best!

I AM Naomi’s costume; together we are Kanga and Roo.  (I needed something that would allow me to wear her in the front carrier.)

My cute little Roo in her pouch.

The best shot we could get of the whole gang.  Seriously, and Connor/Spiderman has a bag over his head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met up with Daniel en route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logan was a little uncertain about some of the costumes and decorations we saw.

But he had lots of fun with his friends.

Happy Halloween!  (Pumpkin artwork by Scott.)

Giant Buddhas and Dancing Lions!

First things first: highlights from Naomi’s one month photo shoot.  Which one do you think is the best choice for her baby book?

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Week 2:  Jake had a 96 for Columbus Day and then took Friday off so that we could head north for more adventures, which adds up to a very busy week and several new sights.

We began with the Peace Prayer Park (which we’d been to before) including the Okinawa Peace Hall (which he hadn’t been inside).  This is the view looking through the Cornerstone of Peace towards the Peace Hall.  The Peace Hall is kind of indistinct against the sky but it’s a tall white structure that reminds me of Saruman’s tower in Lord of the Rings.

Inside the tower is the Okinawa Peace Prayer Statue (12 m high, 8 m wide).  Technically NOT a giant Buddha (it sure looks like one to me), it represents the prayers for peace of the Okinawan people who suffered immensely from being caught in the middle of the fight between the Japanese and the US during WWII.

      
Behind the Peace Hall, there is a butterfly garden which, according to the brochure, is meant to remind visitors how precious life and—guess what?—peace are.  Noticing a theme yet?

Henry, Janet and I (with Naomi in tow in the front carrier) proceeded to the museum which was extremely well done but not always child-appropriate.   Then again, war is not exactly “child-appropriate” either.  Anyways, this room is filled with first-hand accounts (some of them translated into English) of the horrors experienced by the Okinawan people during the battle.  Very moving.

While we went through the museum, Jake took Logan to the playground.  Do you see Logan there at the top of the steps?  Just wanted you to get some perspective on the overall size.

I LOVE (and am jealous of) the lack of language barrier between children.

Lesson learned from all this talk of peace: Can we all just get along?  Yes, it’s possible we can, as long as there are roller slides and funky mirrors involved.

Next day’s event: Ryukyu Mura.  We’ve been here before, but we were less organized last time and showed up in-between parades.  The parade combines festivals from throughout the year and across some of the outlying islands into one colorful, jubilant event.

The “king” marches in, escorted by musicians and flag-bearers.  The “queen”, following behind him, also has a personal parasol holder.

  Miruku, the bodhisattva (something like a Buddhist saint) of happiness, rich harvests, and prosperity, comes in to bless all our crops.

  A karate demonstration.  In case you don’t know, karate originated here on Okinawa.

The Lion dance! 

  It’s supposed to be good luck for the lion to snap its jaws at you.  Logan was not entirely convinced.

And, of course, eisa!

And at the end, everyone gets to join in!  Also, check out the old woman balancing the bottle of awamori on her head!  Now SHE is pure Okinawan: long life expectancy and loves to party.

On that note, I’m going to call it a night and head to bed.  Next round will cover the last few days of Henry and Janet’s time with us when we headed north for Oura Wan beach, the aquarium, etc.

Just a Little East of Eden

Picking up where I left off last time, Shikina-en was closed by the time we got there on Saturday, so we went back on Sunday immediately after church. Shikina-en was the royal “summer” home, a place to get away from palace life and/or entertain visiting dignitaries.  Like everything else on the island, it was decimated during the war but was rebuilt in the 80’s and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.

The “udun” (house/palace) has 15 rooms and is built in a style similar to ordinary private residences.

It has a few royal perks though, such as indoor “plumbing”.  (It’s actually not that much different from modern “squatty potties”.)

  View from the tea room.  Not too bad.

The house, as is typical, is very open to the outdoors.  You can actually catch glimpses of this view from most of the rooms.

The intricate details of the garden are equally as grand as the overall picture.

Went a little more in-depth on this one because we hadn’t been here before.  Our plan was to hit this and then go to the Naha Tug-of-War, the (Guinness Book of World Records verified) largest tug-of-war in the world and the other half of the festival that we missed on Saturday.  Well, guess what?  Plans didn’t quite work out yet again.  We picked up lunch, went to a park to eat it, and Logan had a complete and total melt down.  So, no tug-of-war for us.  Maybe next year we’ll get there . . . 

Remainder of the inter-generational Wilde adventures still to come.  Hang in there!