For Veterans day Bill had a 96. Meaning he had a 4 day weekend. Which was awesome because we could really focus on some of the projects around the house.
We managed to hang pictures, hang curtains in 3 rooms and get rid of all boxes. Our house was becoming settled!
So on Sunday we decided to tour a shopping street. We have to send home Christmas gifts by Dec. 10th in order for them to make it by Christmas. And we thought this would kind of be double duty.
The shopping street is a big tourist area for Japanese as well, Okinawa is like their Hawaii. It is a summer resort.
Many of the shops have a lot of the same things in them, a lot of food items, local or Japanese alcohol and cartoon figure merchandise.
It was fun shopping. We did knock out some Christmas shopping. The adventure was really in getting there. Bill had read where there was free parking along the neighborhood streets. So we were driving up and down these windy narrow streets. The streets were NOT big enough for two cars. At some points they were barely big enough for my convertible.
We got to a dead end and had to choose to turn left or right. Bill went right, it looked like a sidewalk. I though oh no. But he kept telling me some streets just look like this.
Finally we got to a point under an awning where we could go no farther. We had to back up. I am talking inches away from stuff and the car doors. So bill carefully backs it up and there was enough room to put the tail end of the car into a small hole to try to turn around. Only problem was there was not enough room on the front end to swing it around. I am not exaggerating when I say this was a 100 point turn. It was watch the door, watch the mirror, watch the bumper, door, mirror, front bumper, back bumper and oh know speeding past scooter. Then an old lady walked by, she said something and just shook her head no.
I was sure we were going to take put my drivers side mirror, a vending machine and the bumper. ( now remember Bill was driving on the other side of the road, so nothing about this felt natural, or easy!).
We finally turned it around, we did hit a concrete pilon with the front bumper and there are a few scratches. But it is ok.
I was worried for a while we would have to abandon the car. It was awful, so stressful.
At that point I did not care how much parking cost, I was willing to pay an arm and a leg!
We found parking for ¥300 for 150 mins. I think in the end it cost us about $20.
The other adventure was I saw my fist protest. I am not sure what they were protesting. They had very few signs in English. Some said stop and some said we are angry. I think it was about youth sports. I got a flyer and there was something about the 100th anniversary, so it had nothing to so with WWII, and there were a bunch of youth teams dressed in their uniforms.
The japanese kids are so cute, I had several come up to me to give me a flyer and say hello in English. Bill kept telling me to stop taking them, but I think the kids wanted to speak to an American.
The last adventure for the day was dinner. I really wanted soba, it noodles in a broth. We kept walking and walking and only seeing steak places.
Finally we found one with a picture of soba on the menu. So we went in, only they did nit have a menu in English. And there was no picture of soba.
Lots for weird fish looking meals. Not what I wanted. But Bill asked for soba and they did serve it. So we did get it for dinner. There was a mystery fish on top, no scales and not head so I ate it. It was good. Tasted familiar. And lots of noodles. Only problem being my chopsticks did not want to work for me. Mainly I spent the evening splashing my self in the face and using the large ladle of a spoon to drink the broth. Somedays I am on with chopsticks. Other days it is completely foreign to me. Bill tells me to adapt or starve.
On our way home is when we picked up the tv stand and found out that the passenger side window works.
So all in all it was a great day! I'll post pics, I have found a way to blog from my phone, keeps me more up to date. But loading pics have to be done through the computer still since they are on the camera!
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