Happy Mother's Day 2009

I had a great Mother's Day!

Actually got to sleep in a bit and then had breakfast in bed prepared and served by David (a fantastic Breakfast Burrito- David is turning into quite a good cook). Willie and Ty stayed close by....just in case some of the breakfast fell (or was slipped to them while Mike wasn't looking!)

After breakfast we loaded up the Delica, stopped for coffee at the shoppette and hit the road headed North. The boys are not thrilled with my love for road trips (heading to "Chipmonk Rapids" as they call it), but having a DVD player in the van certainly eases their pain.

The weather was glorious and the roads clear so we made good time. Our destination- Hiji Falls towards the north end of the Island.

We tried a shortcut through Nago, taking Highway 71 instead of staying on 58. Seemed to save a bit of time, and was a nice change of scenery.
On the way up Highway 58 we saw lots of locals out on the beach and in the water. Not sure what they were collection off the beach- crabs, shell fish??

I had seen this Veggie/Fruit Stand on the way to Okuma last time we were up in this area. I jumped up and down in my seat until Mike agreed to stop (of course we had passed it by then, but he was able to back up- there was actually parking along the road)These are Daikons, or Asian Radishes. The look lovely all piled up. We tried one a while back and I wasn't too thrilled, even though I like radishes. We will have to try one again. They are very popular here.
The pineapples looked too good to pass up so we bought one (only 250 Y) and carved it up right there on the side of the road. Simply delicious!

The Watermelons they had looked good too, but not willing to shell out 1200 Y ($12) for one...

This sign for "Crab Crossing" cracks me up every time I see it.
At the junction of 58 and the turnoffs for Okuma and Hiji Falls is this sunflower field.


It was in full bloom last weekend, but still enough blooms this week to beg to stop. I had fun wandering along taking a few photos (of course, the boys opted to stay in the van and watch the movie- flowers is not exactly their cup of tea!).










Part 2- Hiji Falls

Charlie's Tacos on Kokusai Street

Sunday, October 27, 2008

While we were on Kokusai Steet for the Shuri Castle Festival Parade we ended up at Charlie's Tacos for lunch.

We were all getting hungry - it was after 2 o'clock and we hadn't had lunch yet. I pointed out a few local places to try, but the boys wanted "American Food". (Fuddy-duddies that they are!)

Just as we turned to head back I saw the sign for "Charlie's Tacos". I had heard somewhere that they were good, so I made the command decision to give "Charlie's" a try. Sounded much better than waiting another hour or so to eat.

This little guy here sits next to the cash register- I thought he was cute!





Read the banner carefully- notice the spelling? We get a kick out of the spelling and grammar here. Even on our cell phones- when you enter a number and hit send, the screen reads "Dailling"...with two l's. Cracks me up every time!

The staff was very nice and explained (with mostly hand signs) that we should take a menu and have a seat, then place our order up at the cash register. We decided to try the three taco combo (chicken, beef and tuna) and the platter with two tacos and taco rice.
There was a small table along the side of the restaurant where you picked up your own basket of silverware and could serve yourself water (plain or with lemon). We barely had time to get ourselves water before the waitress arrived with the food- definitely FAST service!
We dug right in and everything was fantastic. Mike and I shared the Tuna Taco (extemely good) and the taco rice (which I really enjoyed)

We got a small taste of the chicken tacos before the boys inhaled them- I didn't even get a close look at the beef tacos- they were gone too fast.

Matt's only question regarding the tacos "Do they come in Adult sizes?" Didn't slow him down from digging right in thou!

We would definitely go back to Charlie's.

Does That come in REAL Size Too??

A Coke for You Dad....

(Okay, if you aren't family you probably don't get the joke- sorry!)

Seems everything here in Okinawa comes in miniature- vehicles, serving sizes of food and drinks at restaurants, clothes, people (we feel like giants), shoes...and SODA!

Yes, they have super-size sodas too- the sodas in the soda machines (more on the soda machines another time) are actually larger than the American ones.

This can of "Baby Coke" was just too cool to pass up. We thought of you, Dad (even though it isn't Diet Coke!). Far cry from the 2-liter bottles...

Stay tuned for more posts regarding beverages in Okinawa.

(a Thank You to David for once again being my photo prop!)

A Trip to Jusco

Today the boys didn't have TOO much homework so we made a jaunt to Jusco. The best way I can describe Jusco would be a jumbo sized (3 story) Fred Meyers and mini mall combined. It has a grocery store, bakery, donut shop. Starbucks, separate specialty clothing stores, sit down restaurants, food court (complete with McDonalds!)....the list goes on! The last time I was there they were even having cooking demonstrations. You can spend hours there...even just for "people watching" fun.

Jusco is right down the street from us here in Chatan Town. The food department/bakery are favorite areas- so many interesting things...many of which I have no idea what they are! Did you know they have several different kinds of SPAM here? Garlic SPAM, Spicy SPAM, Tabasco SPAM, Turkey SPAM....don't remember if there was any others. Only kind I didn't see was regular ol' SPAM...

The bakery has lots of interesting items. We have been having "Tasting Days" to find out what things are (since we can't read the signs!). Some things are scrumptious, some so-so....and others, well I guess maybe you have to develop a taste for it!



We had to try some of the baked goods (it probably was NOT a good idea to go in there hungry! The Japanese donuts are a bit different than what we are used to- some we like, others not so much! The chocolate old-fashioned was okay but a bit hard. The big road "ball donut" was very tasty- I wasn't sure I liked it on first bite, but then loved it! Slightly chewy. The twist donut is closest to an "American donut" we have found- it is lightly covered with cinnamon and sugar and is YUMMY!! The big pale green pastry was...interesting. David didn't like it at all, Matt and I thought it was okay, but probably not something we would get again. It had a melon filing- something close to Honeydew Melon (which I don't care for, so probably why I wasn't thrilled with this one)





On Wednesday's Jusco has "99 Yen" day. They have different produce on sale for special prices (not always 99 Yen, but close).



Today we bought some mushrooms (the mushrooms are very different than American mushrooms), cherry tomatoes, and local leaf lettuce (lettuce at the commissary is very costly- and not very good. A leaf lettuce can run over $4 a bunch).





We also found some bananas we just HAD to buy- they are just like the DOLE bananas, but half the size! (Perfect 1 pt. value for Weight Watchers!).

More on Jusco another day...