A royal Ryukyu dinner at Ryoutei Naha Tea House: September 23, 2010

Today was a very special day. My Ikebana Sensei invited us to a traditional Okinawa dinner at the only remaining tea house on Okinawa. We joined Yori, Kojo San and Keimi San once we got there. They serve traditional royal food from the Ryukyu kingdom and perform dances and songs while you eat. This tea house has been open since 1963 and is very famous. It was so beautiful and very peaceful and relaxing. It's amazing that just outside the beautiful building is a noisy city! It was like being transported to another time once we stepped inside.













Pig bowel soup and steak with bitter greens and corn. Thank goodness for the steak!

Seaweed in vinegar sauce, tofu in peanut sauce, shaved pigs ear in peanut sauce, and a variety of sashimi. The pigs ear was actually tasty!
Raw abalone in vinegar sauce with ginger.

Kojo San had told the restaurant that it was Max's birthday the day before and they gave him a gift. It had giant Okinawa donuts inside!

They gave Max a birthday cake....yummy.

Mika and our waitress. They liked each other and she gave Mika a small keychain at the end of the evening that she carried attached to her kimono. It was very nice.

This was the most interesting thing we've ever experienced since living on Okinawa. We'll never forget it. It was really wonderful and very special.

Max celebrates his birthday! September 22, 2010

Wow, we can't believe our little boy has turned 17! The years have flown by. It was a school day, so we surprised him with Taco Bell for lunch and then went home and decorated his bedroom with balloons. Much to his total SURPRISE, we bought him two hamsters for his birthday. He has named them Bleu and Squeeky.
We went out for dinner to his favorite Okinawan burger restaurant, and then we enjoyed cake!

We had a picture of his car put on the cake. He loved it!

Mika gave him a Chinese Terra Cotta warrior.

Max enjoyed the "doctor fish" experience that's very popular on Okinawa right now. He giggled the entire time!!!

The Toyota dealership has a Pokemon car!

Mika loves to sit in her bedroom and read books....

Orion festival 2010

We went to the Orion Festival with Yori and Midori and had so much fun. Much to my shock and total delight, my FAVORITE Okinawa band was there and Yori, Midori and I wiggled our way into the "invitation only" area for the concert! David and Max weren't interested in that, so they walked around the festival and played games with Mika.
It was such a great evening.

This little girl came over and gave Mika a balloon!
Enjoying dinner on the lawn.....

Mika has a birthday party....September 5, 2010

Mika had a birthday party to celebrate her 4th birthday. We had the party at the Camp Kinser bowling alley. She LOVES to go bowling and had lots of fun. We were so happy and thankful to have so many friends join us to celebrate Mika's special day! Her birthday is on September 6th, but we had her party a day early.

Blowing out the birthday candles!!!

Mika and Ayana having fun.

A fun game of bowling....me, Yori, Midori, Erika and Kazuno. Kazuno won!

Aunt Yori gave Mika a Chan Chan Ko. She loves it!

September 6th....Mika turns 4 years old today!

Mika turned 4 today!! We celebrated by going out for a quick lunch and a nice dinner. We went to Awase Grace to look for a new dresser for Max and we ate lunch at the yummy soup restaurant there. While we were eating lunch, Mika noticed the Baby Room video screen in the restaurant and could see all the toys. After we finished eating lunch, she begged us to go to the "baby room" and let her play while we shopped. The baby room is a play area for kids to stay in while their parents shop at the furniture store. They have child care employees that play with the kids and it's lots of fun. There are video screens around the store so you can see your child playing while you shop. We kept looking at the video screens VERY often, but everytime we checked, she was happy and playing. She stayed about 30 minutes and then we picked her up. Today was the first time for her to stay with a "babysitter" and it was on her 4th birthday!! We're very proud of her because she's normally very clingy and doesn't like to be away from me. Of course it helped that they were also playing the "My Neighbor Totoro" movie in there. She loves that movie.

Max gave her Disney Princess dresses for her birthday! She loves them.

David and I gave her a baby bed for her dolls.

Max is such a good big brother Gu-Gu!!

We ate dinner at Bikkuri Donkey and it was delicious.