David gets promoted and Max buys a car! August 2, 2010

This was a busy day for our family. David got promoted to CWO-3! Yea!! Our friends, the Wolfgangs joined us for the ceremony. Mike is a Captain in the Navy and he performed the ceremony in his conference room. We've known them for about 8 years now and they're stationed on Okinawa also. Later that day, Max bought a car for only $1.24......yep, that's right. Our housekeeper, Michiko San had bought a new car and was planning to junk her old car. When Max heard about this, he asked if he could buy it using his summer job money. She said NO, you can not buy it, but you can have it for FREE! Max and I both told her we didn't feel comfortable taking the car without paying, so she said..."OK, Y100 yen." We all burst out laughing because Y100 yen is only $1.24. Max reached into his pocket, gave her 100 yen and then she said "Do you need receipt??"
Max spent the evening cleaning it and making appointments to have the oil changed and the A/C charged. David and I are so proud of him because he's using his own money from his summer job to pay for everything. Our baby is growing up!

A short trip to Okuma with friends- July 31st

Parasailing and miniature golf at Okuma......

Max, Mika and I went to Okuma last month with our friends Yori and Midori. We only stayed for one night, but we had ALOT of fun! We went parasailing for the first time and it was really funny. Once we stopped giggling, it was a very serene experience.
David was busy at work, but he joined us later that night.

TV commercial for the Okinawa Electric Power Company

OK, I've been trying to load the tv commercial, but I can't seem to figure it out. Here's a link to the tv commercial I did for the Okinawa Electric Power Company! It was so much fun, but boy, for something that took 7 hours to film.....the commercial is very short and if you blink, you'll miss me. The commercial is also on the website and you just need to click on the tab that says TVCM in the top right corner tab. Then click on the clip that is labeled "Experience all-electric Hen Poll15 seconds." (it's the 2nd video toward the bottom of the screen.) http://kaeru.tv/topics/tvcf/index.html


ウチナー主婦の生活をカエル。オール電化　｜　沖縄電力
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ウチナー主婦

Eisa Festival! August 1, 2010

We went to the annual Eisa festival on Kokusai street. It wasn't as good as last year, but we still had fun.

If you look in the background, you can see a Monk. They don't speak and they don't like to have their photo taken, so I had to be very discreet.

Mika and Daddy drinking a "Quickly" drink....tapioca and yogurt. It's delicious!

This guy was playing music using a broom!

We stopped for a cold treat. Mika is eating frozen pineapple.

Okinawa Awamori! A very strong liquor with a poisonous snake inside.

Me and Midori with some funny street performers.

He really liked Max's "Jenbe." (Okinawa casual summer clothes)

Midori and Mika--time to go home after a long day.

A day at Araha beach--July 24, 2010

We spent a day at Araha beach last Sunday. It was a little cloudy, but not too hot, so it was perfect. Mika and Max played in the sand building a sand castle and enjoyed the ocean too. Mika made a little friend while we were there and they played together. Her name was "Moka Chan!" David thought it was a very funny coincidence because hot cocoa is one of my FAVORITE things!! of course, Moka is a name here, not the name of chocolate.

Summertime is here

We bought a small pool for Mika and she loves it. She didn't know what it was when she saw it after it was inflated and she told us it was a new bed. After we filled it up with water, she got very excited! We discovered that she hates the sprinkler though and she was upset because it was "raining" on her.

It was fun to sit on the patio and watch her play.

My baby is learning to drive......whoa Max!

Max got his learners permit last month and I'm now in the process of teaching him how to drive. He's great at parking....now we just have to work on the driving. Today was the first day he's driven on one of the busier streets, and he did a great job. On the way home he said "well, I guess I must be improving because I didn't feel like peeing my pants today for the first time!" It was a very, very funny moment!!
He'll begin taking a driving course next month, and I'm sure that will help him feel more confident also. In Okinawa, teenagers have to be 16 years old to get a restricted learners permit, 17 years old to drive on base, and 18 years old to drive off base.

a few videos....Mika sings a song and reads a story.

Mika read her favorite story to me this morning. She likes to sit on the bedroom floor and read books every morning while I get dressed and make the bed. She's always very happy in the morning.

Mika was stuck in the house for a few days because of the Okinawa rainy season right now. After she had her bath and got ready for bed, she came downstairs with her ukelele and sang a song about the rain. Luckily, I had the video camera sitting on the counter and grabbed it! She's singing a song about the park being "broken." It was flooded.

We stayed at the Disney Sea hotel in Tokyo to celebrate our one year anniversary of being a new family. We had lots of fun at Tokyo Disney!

Mika 

met Cinderella!