Cape ZampaFirst off, a big "shout out" to Granny (aka Ruth) to wish her a Happy Birthday. We love you!
Our weekend has been great so far! After a sleepy morning (these girls get up way to early on the weekends), we decided to do a little venturing out. We hit a local Cafe for some lunch and headed north. We made it to Cape Zampa, Maeda Point and to most of Onna Village. It was a gorgeous drive (and it lasted as long as Alessandra's nap in the car, which was long, so we just kept going!). We stopped for some ice cream along the way and then went back to Cape Zampa and walked around. Our first stop was at this giant Shisha dog statue. Shisa's are EVERYWHERE here (if you aren't sure what a shisa is click here )
Eventually Alessandra persuaded Olivia to join her and here they are under the big shisa. 
We walked around for awhile and enjoyed the gorgeous breeze (okay... WIND is more like it) and the sun covered by cloudiness (which kept it nice a cool). Here are the girls with their dad near the lighthouse.
Here are the girls - at some point I am actually going to get a good photo of them both smiling...
We came home and decided to head across the street for dinner. We weren't sure what type of restaurant it was over there and we got there and it was one of the hibachi grill places. We were hungry and decided to stay.
One of the things I haven't mentioned much is how often we get stopped to have the girls take photos with people (especially Alessandra). Okinawa is a pretty big tourist spot for people from Mainland Japan. Since the Japanese (in general) don't interact with Americans (and other white European types) too often, they are pretty enamored with light haired, blue eyed kids.
Dinner tonight was no exception. Alessandra was being her usual well behaved self and visiting many of the other tables and this group was pretty excited she was hanging out with them. They hugged on her, took her photo and we decided to get a couple of shots too (someone out there mentioned my lack of photos with Japanese people in them... so here you are!)
Oh yes, and to note, I am not sure what it is, but Japanese people ALWAYS hold up the peace sign for photos. I need to learn more Japanese to ask about that. AND, you can tell these are mainlander's due to their light skin color. They look a little different than Okinawan people do.
Oh yes, and dinner was good too. Can't wait for you to join us!
4 comments:
This is a beautiful birthday present, thank you. Smiles and laughter, knowing you are enjoying life in Okinawa makes this a happy birthday-Of course, I miss you.
PS: Can't wait to see that big dog, it's a Japanese Clifford.
Thanks for sharing. Looks like you guys are still adjusting well to being over there. Love the peace signs. I've noticed that too. You'll have to let me know what that is all about. :)
What I want to know is if you're ever tempted to declare something "a big pile of shisha!" I would. Oh wait, I do. Here, though, it's spelled sheesha and it refers to the stuff they smoke with the hooka pipe. A little different, I guess :)
Oh my gosh. I didn't realize Alex was standing under the shisa until i read what you wrote. How funny! It is so big! We have to go see it! And isn't the peace sign thing so funny, i laugh everytime they do it.
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