The Monkey Store and Fast Food with Style!

In honor of our friend Kevan, today's blog post is more photos, less verbage.

MAKEMAN - aka "The Monkey Store", like Home Depot, only smaller and with more gagety type things

And they had REALLY nice flowers.... (note Olivia's new haircut - she wanted me to make sure you noticed).

I mentioned vending machines before I think, but they are literally EVERYWHERE. Someone in one blog I read said that you can totally survive in Okinawa, as long as you have yen in your pocket, because there are vending machines on every corner... no lie. We especially love the coffee drinks and lemon water.

Tonight for dinner we walked down to the beach and went to Okinawa Noodle. I don't know if you can read this sign or not:

But the gist is this: Put your money in the machine (below) and pick what you want. It spits out a little ticket, which you then drop by the food counter and they fix your food for you. (Noodle bowl), which you then top with a huge variety of items (i.e. dumplings, hamburger, cabbage, spices, green onion, veggies, sliced beef, chicken, tempura fried things, seaweed, spam and more!), then you eat.

Here is what the girls and I ate (Brad was much more adventurous let me tell you). Olivia loved the noodles and well, Alessandra, loved it all.

Olivia and Brad climing the stairs at the Araha Beach entryway. It's sort of like the "Rocky" stairs in it's own way, yet way easier, and not really like it at all.

And here is my little family tickling their toes in the surf in the dark before heading home for bed. It's nights like these that we feel like we are on vacation.

All this and a bag of fruit!

Happy Day everyone!

All is well on the home front here. Today (Wednesday) was a pretty low key day for the Aiello clan. Yesterday we registered our KINDERGARTENER for school and today we had to go to the bus office to make sure she had her bus id. The bus stop is a few blocks away, but I am sure once we get started on a routine, all will be well. Olivia is very excited about school - she will be attending EC Killin elementary here at Camp Foster and they are the THE GECKOS. SO, once she found that out, she decided that everyone at one time in their life, should be a gecko. AND, thanks for LL Bean, we ordered a new lunchbox with a gecko on it. What could be better?

We are getting more and more settled every day. There is still SO much to do. The main minor changes are that our kitchen is a lot smaller than our house in Oregon and we don't have any linen closets. Other than that, the space itself doesn't seem to different in size. We also have an apartment with a dishwasher (well, space for a dishwasher). We bought one from another kind soul last night (gently used, they moved and coupldn't use it anymore), I haven't hooked it up yet (due to cowardly home-improvement issues and no time without small children underfoot). Therefore, a nice person from the Furniture store on base will be coming out to hook it up next week. I never realized how lazy I had gotten, but I really do NOT like to do dishes by hand. Argh.

Today I also took a plunge and bought some carpet squares for the living room. The carpet options on base are limited (be forwarned people who may come here). We brought every carpet/rug that we owned, BUT, our whole home is tile... thus needing more rugs. It already has made a difference in the look of the space (and the feel on the toesies). Brad will be surpised when he comes home.

And, last (but certainly not least). FRESH FRUIT AND VEGGIES. One benefit to living in tropical island paradise has got to be that you have the ability to have great produce. Now, living in Oregon made me a bit of a produce snob (man, do I miss those blueberries) and coming here I was excited about what we would find. At this point we have been to a few Japanese grocery stores and bought some local stuff, but time and kidlits have impended me from shopping at any markets yet. I found this great service that another spouse of military person had started called Fresh In Oki (http://www.freshinoki.com/). You email in your order and viola:

Gorgeous and fresh produce. How happy am I?

Getting Settled

The view RIGHT NOW from our back door! Another beautiful day in paradise!

Greetings once again!

Unfortunately we are still NOT online, however, through the magic of WiFi, I thought I might drop a quick note on here to let you know that we are, indeed, alive and well!

The move in process has been busy, chaotic, exhausting and happy. There never seems to be enough time in the day to unpack things and we hve come across MANY things and said "why did we bring this?". It seems that in most ways, the "less is more" concept would have done us well. Fortunately our little home is only about 200 square feet less than our house in Oregon (although we also are down a garage and a couple of closets). The furniture that we recieved from the Govt. Lot is actually pretty nice, very durable and not as ugly as we thought it would be. SO, all in all, things are getting settled.

This is photo of the pathway by our house - our apartment is in the photo too, but I didn't have time to doctor it with an arrow to show you where - sort of straight back the path to the right of the tall reddish building (ours is only 5 stories)

The highlight of our week was actually sitting down for dinner, at the table in OUR OWN HOME! That first night we ate here, we had a rotisserie chicken, sushi (made fresh at the commmissary) and couscous... not a particularly normal meal, but hey, we were all here and in one place. The girls are getting accustomed to us harping on them for their manners again (so much of it went out the window the last few weeks). And sadly, Alessandra's habit of walking while snacking, it getting squashed as I write this!

Their have been some interesting things to learn about living in Japan. Wehooked ourselves up with Satellite cable. We opted for the regular satellite (and will add the AFN (Armed Forces Network) later this week. I think with so many options and ideas going around, well, I don't know why we made this decision in this order, but we got our tv hooked up and wow, we have cable - granted, most of it is in Japanese, but we have cable nonetheless. I think next time we willnot be quite so anxious.

Which brings me to the internet. SO, we opted for Fiberoptic (supposedly super speedy and wonderful). I signed us up and a day later got the call that the phone company actually has to drop another line into our neighborhood (not just our building). SO, we are on the wait. I am going to see if I can keep trying this WiFi thing in the time being and we may just wait it out until the phone company gets it together. It is tough, I feel disconnected and out here, but I know it will happen ALL IN DUE TIME! :)

On the positive note, we have gone on MANY walks. We live(literally) right on the walking path to Araha Beach. The path goes all along the ocean front, beach front. fishing front... etc. (you get the idea) and it is all brick and paved. Olivia enjoyed riding her scooter (and it shoud be a great place to ride a bike). Alessandra actually enjoyed going in the stroller - something I couldn't beg her to do in Oregon. The girls and I took a walk the first morning we were here and we put our feet in the water and saw a cute little crab running around. They also played at the big Pirate Ship Park. AND ALL THIS, within a few moments from our doorstep!

Today, we walked about a 1/2 block down and had breakfast at a little cafe. They serve pancakes there (which I guess is rare in Okinawa or Japan for that matter). It was so yummy and again, only minutes to pancakes - on foot. Life is good.

So, I am going to stop writing for now (still more boxes to upack), but I will share more soon!

Love to you all!

We have a home!

Hello everyone! A little shot at the view from our casa for you - a little cloudy today. That is the East China Sea - right outside of our house! (Oh yes, AND when we were leaving today there was a man with a truck of BAKED GOODS - you all know how I enjoy good bread products. Well, the Japanese don't have ovens, therefore they don't bake...but everyone needs good baked products, so this nice man brings his truck by your street and you buy yummy things. As Sara noted earlier on skype - we must have rented the right place!)

We finally have a home! Our new apartment is located in Kitamae, Chatan-Cho, Okinawa.

Not only that.. but we have our stuff! Brad spent some quality time in our place today (while Olivia was at a friend's and Alessandra and I came back to the Lodge for naptime and lunch). By the time we came back later today, a sea of boxes and most importantly TOYS met us! Olivia hasn't been back there yet (since it was empty this morning) so we can't wait to let her loose with her own goodies.

Here is a photo of our living room: Alessandra yelling "cheese" as she gives me a smile!

The other new thing of note: A photo of our new van. We really like it (but terribly miss the automatic doors on both sides from our Odyssey). We will just have to get used to it!

Interesting new license plate eh?

We are SO ready to be in our new home! We are NOT looking forward to unpacking or organizing (I mean, we sort of are, but things like BATHROOM DRAWERS are a lot smaller here.. argh! I am going to have to get creative!) The other thing we are not looking forward to is trying to find Japanese curtains to cover all those big windows at the back of the house! They have some at the Exchange here on base, but MAN are the ugly! So, I have to try and figure out the whole metric measuring thing - in CM and how to read the Japanese curtain containers, but I think we will make it.

ALL in ALL, the good outweighs the bad. OH NO, there is one more bad thing. We are going to go to fiberoptic internet (apparently it is WAY fast), and since our vonage works off of internet and I am addicted to this whole blog thing, we have to wait a little while until they can install it (I think 3 weeks or something, we will find out details tomorrow). SO, in the time being, Skyping and blogging will be at a minimum (yuck!). I will be stopping by the many WiFi places on base and checking email and trying to get some blogs on, so be patient and in due time we will meet again! In the meantime, if you do NEED to call me (and please feel free to), my new cell phone here is: 080-3516-9070 (I am not sure how to dial Japan, so you may need to figure that out!)

Otherwise we are all well. We feel every day by 6:00pm that we have been run over by a truck, but hopefully those feelings too shall pass and some sense of normalcy will enter into our world.
Olivia went with me to check out the 2 Montessori schools nearby. We liked them both, but didn't love either of them, so we still aren't sure of how we are going to proceed with Kindergarten. We will sort that out very soon. Also, Alessandra is starting to talk more.. in Japanese. She loves to say moshi, moshi (greeting for the phone), Konnichiwa (Good Afternoon) and Arigato (thank you). She especially loves it when she can say it to the gate guards on base. Brad checks in on Friday (officially). Not sure when the true work will begin, but our little vacation world will end soon enough (except for me, I am on permanent vacation - except for that parenting and house-managing thing).

Love to you all!

Pizza in the Sky and Butterflies... oh my!

This is Okinawa!

Today was one of the best days yet. First off a big thanks goes to our new friends Juan and Angela and their kiddos Sage and Sophia. We met these nice people here at the Westpac within the last week or so and were excited to get to know them a little bit. They asked if we wanted to join them this weekend on a trip to Naha and the 10000 Dancers festival and we readily accepted the invitation. In the end, the trip to Naha got cancelled (due to rumors that we needed tickets to get onto the street where the parade was) and we decided to go in the other direction (north) and check out the Butterfly Garden.


Juan started out the drive with their new fancy van. We saddled inside with our 2 kids and the 2 adults and we were ready to party. We took the road north and just enjoyed the amazing sites that this island has to offer. It is truly one of the most beautiful places we have ever been.

We got ourselves all the way to the Butterfly Garden (well Juan and Angela and their awesome navigational skills did the work) and enjoyed our first tourist experience and our first purchasing of entry to something (when we really had no idea what we were paying for). The place was so interesting - there was a section with crawly type things and then a section for the butterflies (and other random stuff). We hit the crawly type stuff first where the kids got to play with hermit crabs and we saw a coconut crab (think big, brown and looks a bit like a coconut) and some other large beetle creatures. Then we moved onto the butterfly garden. It was fun to watch the kids play around and the butterflies landing on things.

It got really hot and sticky while we were there, so we took a few photos and headed to the gift shop and then on out. Here we are at the Butterfly Garden.

The next stop - Pizza in the Sky. Or Pizza Kajinho.

Now this place is another that we had heard of from Patrick and Amy. We knew the view would be gorgeous and that the food would be good (and you know how important food is!)

We left from the Butterfly Garden (and thankfully I had directions - or is it?). We get down the road a little bit and turn off (where the directions said to) and then start up this windey, narrow road. I have no idea which places were the forks, which were the T's and if we make any correct turns at all, but somehow we got high up onto this mountian/hill, found 2 nice Japanese ladies in a car that pointed us in the right direction and then we made it.



We had to wait a little while to get a table that would seat us all, but finally one came available and we sat down, ordered 2 medium pizzas (they only had small and medium), a variety of drinks (juices - guava, mango, orange, mulberry), orion (beer), tea and water (our table looked thirsty). We had salad (incredible yumminess with some sort of soy sauce, rice vinager dressing that made me so happy) and pizza. I didn't think it was possible, but we ate every, single bite.

(The following are really attractive photos of us eating. Nice huh?)

One of the good ones of me huh? Note: Eating pizza with chopsticks... and it really works surprisingly well! Juan and Sage

Angela at the end of the table of yumminess

While we were there, little Sage was a movie star. His blond hair caused quite a bit of attention and people were taking photos with him. We had heard this happens in mainland Japan and also China, but hadn't heard of it much here. After awhile, one group of ladies talked to us and we found out they were from Osaka (mainland Japan), so it made more sense. It was pretty funny.

Here are Olivia, Sage and Alessandra after dinner playing in the grass...

Oh yes, and also - I almost forgot. It rained too - a quick downpour - very monsoon season-ish and very islandy.

All in all, aside from 1 other couple, I think we were the only American's there, and it helps us realize that we are the minority here (which sometimes while on base it is easy to forget). We enjoyed the experience and are getting better at the little bit of Japanese that we know.

On the way back the kid's all fell asleep and we enjoyed the ride back and Angela's first time at the wheel (I have to say, she was braver than I was on the tight roads coming down from that place!) And one memorable thing was that there are these ice cream carts on the side of the road and she stops to get one, and here she is, new driver, with ice cream cone in hand, getting on the highway. :) Oh yes, and here is the ice cream cart sales girl from out the window.

Off for more adventures!

(this is a great family photo - don't you think?)

Curry in a Hurry

Brad with curry and local beer Orion - label says "For your Happy Time"

If you know anything about Brad and I, you know that one of our favorite hobbies is eating. We will try (especially him) just about anything and like all sorts of things. One of the great things about this fantastic international move is the plethora of incredible eats we are on the horizon of!

Tonight we visited a local favorite (and something all people who have been to Okinawa are familier with) COCO Curry. We had heard about this WELL before coming here from the McNamara's (at OSU) as well as Brad's successor Nathanial (he and his family were here for 2 tours, so they know a little about Okinawa).

How we ended up here:

Today was a quiet day. We went to the grand PX (shopping plaza on base) here at Camp Foster. Checked out the good things on sale and bought some new sippy cups (nothing but the best for Alessandra). Pretty fun happenings I tell you.

SO, since this morning was so exciting, we decided to add some thrilling stuff to the day and go for a drive. YES, WE DROVE OFF BASE. Now this may seem silly and miniscule, but for us, the fact that we have a legal right to drive in this country was a little funny to believe, but getting behind the wheel of a loaner car and actually driving on the road... well, that was quite surreal.

First we decided to try and find our new house. We did so with only 1 small wrong turn (and since it is literally a few blocks from base, the room for error and displacement was small). We found it and also noted that the building is actually 5 floors high. It looks like we have some American neighbors - as noted by the same van that we bought with the "Y" plates (license plates that denote SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) Professional Driver) (boy, that makes us sound important doesn't it?)

After finding our house and then realizing that the Japanese streets are, for certain, quite narrow, we headed up to Kadena Air Base. This is the largest Air Force Base in the world (at least that is what we were told). We went to the "Lemon Lot" to look for car #2 and then found ourselves driving out another gate and checking out "the back way". So, in the process, both Brad and I drove on city streets, alley ways and bases and we made it safe and sound! This driving thing won't be so bad after all.

SO, onto CoCo. As we found our house, we also found that we live about 4 blocks from CoCo Curry. You go in, they shoult a welcome to you, sit down, warm towel (wrapped in plastic - it is a "faster" food restarant) and then you order. Brad got Summer Vegatables and Chicken, I got Soy Bean Croquette and the kids shared a kids meal (complete with hamburger and mini hot dog cut up), all of these yummies drowned in a perfect curry sauce and steamed rice. It was by far one of my most favorite things ever. AND, they even had a simple mango lassi.

And, to top it all off, as we watched the cabs pour into the parking lot. We came to the realization this place is really a favorite - it is close to base, so the sheer number of Marines that entered and exited the restarant while we were there, blew us away. Brad has determined this is going to be his dinner spot when I am out of town or busy.

On that note - it is bedtime, but I wanted to say hello. Tomorrow we are off to Naha and the festival of 10000 dancers (I think that is the name of it). Eisa drummers/dancers number 10,000 in the streets. It will likely be a memorable experience!

Arigato Gozaimasu!

Thank you to all of you for the responses on our new blog. It was a decent first try and I hope to get better as time goes on!

Today is Friday (ALREADY - where did the week go?) Yesterday was the roughest day that I have had yet. It was a combination of many emotions and just so many things to be done, that I think I hit the limit of my patience. I am happy to report though, that with every tough day, comes a better day, the day after. So today, things seem to bemore even-kealed. (and thank you Jen for the long skype session - that helped!)

We did a lot of necessary business yesterday.
First of which: Brad went and signed the lease for our new home! I will send photos once we pick up the keys and get over there again, but a synopsis (some of you asked more about it): 3 bedroom, 2 full bathrooms, American Style Apartment (meaning that the kitchen has an oven and stove - the Japanese don't use ovens), American Washer and Dryer (again, they don't use dryers), huge wrap around balcony (the length of the apartment) and if I didn't note it enough in my last post - on the beach and walking trails. We will be on the third floor, we have stairs and an elevator - and I think we are the only people on the 3rd floor. The elevator is right outside our door. We also have 2 parking spaces (parking is prime here on Okinawa) and 1 of them is covered. I think we get to pick up the keys on Monday (after we pay everything in YEN - which has been an intersting process in itself... Brad stayed up late and called our bank in the states to have money wired to our new account at one of the banks here that deals in Yen and in Dollars... fun, fun, fun.

The other news of note: We called TMO yesterday (did I mention this already?) and both of our shipments are here, so we are planning to have those delivered first and our government furniture second (really, selfishly, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed!) SO, by this time next week, we should be in our new home, surrounded by boxes, happy mismatched government furniture, and a great view. WE CAN'T WAIT!

What else - oh yes. More big news. We bought our first car yesterday too! (I told you it was a big day!). The used car lots here are so funny. You basically go there, find one (or more) that you like, you talk to the lot manager, he gives you the keys and you can turn on the car (but you don't drive anywhere). SO basically, you are running it to see if it sounds okay and if the a/c runs cold. We found a few vans (a big car of choice here for families) and decided on a 1999 Toyota Enima (yes, like Enema). It is white (which was not my first choice) but clean and had double moon roof's (the girls liked that). The middle row of seats you can turn completely around facing backwards. It should be fun, fun, fun. (I'll send photos of this too next week). And for those who were wondering - definitely no where near as nice as our Honda Odyssey - we were so spoiled!

SO, after you pick the one you like, you try and get him to go lower (we got it down from $4500 to $3800 which included a 90 day warantee and a year of free labor). We has basically heard from others that most of the lots offer similar things for similar prices. YOu can definitely find good deals, but most things happen at a median price anyway. SO, we will shop and bargain more for Brad's car in the upcoming weeks, but for now we are happy to say we have a family car. We have a loaner car until Monday when our title and insurance stuff should come though. Then we will be all set. Yippee. The other thing of note: Our sales guy Hiroshi had yen coins stuck in his ears. I am going to try and get his photo next week too.

To do all of this stuff, our sponsor Sken let us borrow his car, which meant we had to drive it! We did successfully pick up our driver's license's and now we are legally able to drive! So far so good I suppose - Brad and I both had to help the other (while driving) when turning at times or missing a stop sign (it looks like a yeild sign here - red and triangle shaped). I think we will get the hang of it soon enough.

OH YES, I almost forgot. We also got our new cell phones. Unlike the states where almost every cell phone company offers you free phones. We had to buy our phones (the lowest price being $160) along with our plan. SO, it has been a BIG money week. (Note to those who may come here: Plan on spending some good dough out of pocket for set up costs: car, cell phone, rent and deposits). I am sure there are ways to get around some of it, but we didn't realize how useful a cell phone woudl have been say - last week.. until this week. We opted on the cheapest most basic version of cell phone (they have some crazy ones available here). Brad got mat silver and I got an obnoxious purple/pink, so I can find it wherever it may be. The girls love the color of course).

We still can't figure out how to change our voicemail message, so as of now, it is answered in Japanese and we have no idea what she is saying probably "okay this silly American can't figure this phone out, so leave a message!" We will likely be using these as our main phones (since once we are in our house, we will use our vonage phone and internet connection for phoning and skyping home!

We hope that all is well with you. If you have a few minutes please drop us a line and say hello. We LOVE to hear from you and makes us feel just a little bit closer to home!

Sayonara!