A Year of Progress

Chris was looking back on last year's calendar and he noticed we rented a moving truck one year ago on February 20. When I look around at all the progress we've made on the house it feels like we've been here much longer. Listing off the projects in my head makes me feel good about the hard work we've both invested, and I am especially proud of my husband's skills and impressive motivation.

The biggest changes have been in landscaping and remodeling the garage. We've planted 45 areca palms, 12 fruit trees, a killer pineapple patch plus we added planters along the front and side of the house and brought in a few truck loads of soil. Chris has done lots of repairs like fixing water leaks and toilets, making a drain so the car port would stop flooding, fixing rotten wood on the deck where a tree had grown through, plenty of painting and power washing, replacing appliances, building a "housing" for the electric meter, installing a vent in the bathroom and closing off an existing doorway, installing countless lights, fixing the broken gate, insulating hot water pipes, repairing and replacing screens and sliding doors, caulking, scrubbing algae off of the roof, fixing a boarded up window, carpet cleaning, and the list goes on....


A Google Street View picture taken before we owned the house:

Less than a year after we moved in:

Giving is fun

We planted a tomato bush from seed and the plant just keeps on giving. The funny part of this is I do not like tomatoes and Chris has determined he is allergic to them. So we've been giving them away right and left. It's really rewarding to watch folks enjoy these tomatoes. I gave some away at orchestra and people were waving them around, eating them onsite and yelling across the parking lot about how delicious they were. Many have told me they are the best tomatoes they have ever eaten. In case you want to try some for yourself, they are called Better Boy Hybrid. Find the seeds today at a store near you.

I'm So Proud of My Soil Scientist

Chris got a job doing a soil survey on a military base on Okinawa and he spent three weeks hiking the jungle warfare training center digging pits and studying the soil in November/December. I was fortunate enough to go along for a week to see a little bit of Japan.

One thing that really struck me was the people. I always assumed Japanese are polite and respectful because their culture requires it, but they also struck me as genuine. Two workers stopped what they were doing and gave us 15 minutes of their time to teach us about the mongoose traps they use on the island to keep the mongoose population in check because they eat the eggs of the endangered Yanbaru Kuina. The chef went out of his way to learn my food preferences and he would bring me special meals without eggs and vinegar. Chris' co-worker, Sung, worked so hard to make Chris' job easier and to help me have fun on my vacation, including driving two hours each way to pick me up at the airport.

The beaches and food were also highlights. More stories to follow.


On a particularly muddy day I wore these rubber boots while following Chris and Sung around the jungle.

Gochiso Sama Deshita (it was quite a feast)

I should put this post in the adventures category because when it comes to eating I am a scaredy cat, so eating in Japan felt like adventure to me. The hotel we stayed at did not have a menu so when we sat down for dinner each night we had no idea what was coming. But, man it was good! The meals were very gourmet and made with fresh ingredients and they were all fantastic. After the trip I have resolved to be a braver eater. Some things they fed us: Fish stuffed with shrimp, spinach and mushrooms, incredible sashimi (including one with ahi and another type of fish cubed up and served with avocado and cucumber sauce) several types of seaweed (the sea grapes were our favorite) foie gras and roast duck, a de-boned chicken stuffed with mushrooms and goodies, escargot, the best crescent rolls I have ever had, miso soup, etc.


This sashimi was fantastic and it was served with crunchy purple noodles and a type of seaweed called sea grapes that had tiny balls that burst in your mouth when you bite them.


This may have been my favorite meal - fresh snapper adorned with shrimp and mushrooms on a bed of spinach.

I forgot what this was called. The huge platter came with all sorts of vegetables and thinly sliced pork. You cook it in the pot on the table, dip in sour sauce and eat it.

Chris' co-worker, Sung, loves Orion beer and his father-in-law is on the board of directors at the brewery in Nago. We thought it was great beer, too. When I left for Japan my dad gave me 1,000 yen that was given to him as a tip when he was a tour bus driver. The 1,000 yen, worth $12 USD, purchased these Orion Draft beers in frosty mugs. Thanks, dad!

Japanese take a lot of pride in their work. We purchased bentos from a boarding house each day and nicknamed the owner Mama-san. She took so much care in preparing our daily lunches, and this seemed typical of all the Japanese people we encountered.

A typical breakfast: bratwurst like sausage, toast, crescent rolls, soup, salad, spagehetti (but it didn't taste like the spaghetti we know) delicious melon or an apple cut up all fancy for dessert.

Churaumi (Beautiful Ocean)

Chris knows how much I love aquariums so he took a day off and we headed 1.5 hours away to the Churaumi Aquarium. It was incredible! Dozens of smaller tanks housed all sorts of tropical fish, colorful garden eels, huge spiny lobsters and more. They had a shark tank, manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, etc. Besides discovering new fish that we have never seen, it was also pretty fun to see fish we are well acquainted with.

The highlight by far was the gigantic tank of pelagic species that included ahi (yellow fin tuna) mahi mahi, an entire school of opelu, huge ulua, sting rays, manta rays and three whale sharks. I have never seen filter feeders such as these in a tank. If I had a bucket list, I would put swimming with a whale shark in the wild toward the top of the list. Just seeing them in a tank was neat enough. Chris found his thrill watching ulua swim in our direction, which would be even more thrilling in the ocean with a loaded spear gun in your hand. We were both itching to jump into the tank with our spear guns, but that might have been a bad idea.


I just love cheesy stuff like this ray made of flowers that was outside the aquarium.


We were captivated by the huge pelagic tank.

No, I never get tired of the beach

Even though I live in Hawaii, I am drawn to check out new beaches when I travel. Okinawa had gorgeous stretches of sand decorated by hundreds of ornate shells and no crowds. There were miles, sorry, kilometers of beaches without a single person on them.

One day, I took a kayak trip up a river through mangroves and out into the ocean. Then I jumped into the ocean for a quick snorkel and before I got out the cloudy sky released its torrential rains. I sat in a small cave for about three hours waiting for the rain to clear. The river turned brown as all sticks, logs and debris drifted down the river. It was a reminder that Chris was in Okinawa to help solve erosion problems. The rain gradually slowed, revealing waterfalls pouring over cliffs just across the bay. It was the best three hours I have ever spent stranded. Finally, Chris was able to come pick me up.

Another day, I walked about two miles from our hotel to Ada where beautiful beaches stretched from either side of a marina. One side was natural and surrounded by cliffs. The other side had calm water and many breakwaters for protection. The Japanese do not hesitate to alter their natural surroundings, and they seem to prefer the man made over an untouched setting. I only saw two men fishing on this entire beach. In Hawaii, there would have been hundreds of SUPs and Hawaiian canoes out on such a calm ocean.

One beach reminded me of Pololu Valley. I walked the steep, overgrown trail that was graced by hundreds of beautiful butterflies to have the beach to myself. The snorkeling was amazing, I am pretty sure I identified a turtle nest on the beach, and I watched a wasp chase and kill a cane spider that was frantically running away. Sometimes nature isn't pretty and peaceful, but it captivates, nonetheless.


I had this beach, which reminded me of Pololu Valley, all to myself.



This was just one section of the beach that was two miles from our hotel.


One of the hundreds of butterflies on the hike down to the beach.

Holo holo to Minna Island

What a great day we had when we took a boat to the tiny Minna Island to go diving. The diving in Okinawa is amazing, even better than in Hawaii, with more varieties of colorful coral, sea anemones and beautiful reef fish. At least half of the fish were different species than we see in Hawaii, and some were the same types of fish with different colors- like the turquoise uhu with a yellow stripe down the side. We saw some familiar creatures: a nenue (chub) spiney lobster, many menpachi that were just like ours but twice the size. Yum! They have a deadly sea snake that we don't have (I saw one brifely while snorkeling) but they are timid and have small mouths so you are not supposed to worry about them.


Sung was really excited to go to Minna Island. What a great day we had!

As you can see, Minna island is quite small. There was a tiny town and a school with 17 students. This is a sign outside the school.

I don't know what we would have done without Sung's help in translating, driving and sharing all sorts of knowledge about Japan. For instance, there is no way I could have filled out this form (see below) to go scuba diving without his help.

A Tourist Photo

We stayed in the northern portion of the island in the middle of a secluded jungle so we missed most of the historic sites and tourist stops. Sung did drive me into Nago once where we visited temples and the ruins of an old castle. This photo captures the Japan I envisioned before traveling there.

Garden Hotel Okinawa

We stayed in this really nice hotel that is set in the middle of the jungle about two miles from Ada and the ocean in the northern part of Okinawa. I can't say enough about the friendly people who worked there. Many days we had the entire hotel to ourselves, which was a strange experience for the first few days. I felt bad about all the work the employees were doing just for us. On the weekends, the hotel filled up with guests from mainland Japan.

I could have taken pictures of the ornate Japanese table in the lobby, the stone stairway or the floor in our room that was made of real slats of wood. Instead, you are getting a shot of the control panel on the toilet that was in our room. I never learned what all the buttons do. It had a bidet that would spray in two different areas, you could change the water temperature and the temperature of the seat. The toilet in the airport also had a button that makes a flushing sound in case you don't want the person in the stall next to you to hear any "other" sounds that might be created while using the toilet.



We'll I don't want to end this sting of posts discussing toilets so I'll conclude with this memorabilia the chef gave us on our last night in the hotel. He wrote, in Japanese, "Once in a lifetime chance." After a trip like this, I couldn't have said it better!