Saturday
Feb072009

Day 5....make that 6

Brandon doing his impersonation of

Brandon doing his impersonation of "Rubber Ducky" in our new apartment. He actually fits in the tub!

Rubber Duckie, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Rubber Duckie, I'm awfully fond of you;
(woh woh, bee doh!)
Rubber Duckie, joy of joys,
When I squeeze you, you make noise!
Rubber Duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true!

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Thursday
Feb052009

Day 4...Two Crazy Kids on an Adventure of a Lifetime!

Supporting our Steelers on our trip!  And may I say,

Supporting our Steelers on our trip! And may I say, "Way to go, Steelers!!!"

I had the day off of work so we spent sometime getting caught up on sleep and emails.  However, back to the grind tomorrow!  We even get our loaner car tomorrow.  ...should be interesting wish us luck...we plan to print off some maps at the office.

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Wednesday
Feb042009

Day 3...

Ok less stuff taken care of today, but that's mainly only because it took so long at every place we went.

1. The problem for the day came mainly from setting up a bank account.  Long story short they put the money in someone else's account instead of ours.  Once that was sorted out we got the money to pay most of the appartment costs.

2. We ate at a nice curry resturant that you could sit and watch the ocean.  Hard to believe any day of the week we want we can easily go see the ocean and enjoy the view.

3.  We got our furniture setup to be delivered to our appartment.  So it was nice to know that part was taken care of fairly painlessly.

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Wednesday
Feb042009

Noisy Cats

Forgot to mention while we were waiting outside of the apartment building office we noticed a number of cats, 3, wondering around the street...all of which were howling... for no apparent reason...  We decided that's something you don't see everyday.  I asked Arielle, "so do you think they speak Japanese?"

--brandon

Tuesday
Feb032009

Thoughts of Okinawa...

The island of Okinawa has a very different feel than Tokyo.  More tropical.  More green. Slower paced.

There are a wide variety of trees and shrubs.  Some needle-y, some leafy, none too tall.  The cherry blossoms are as beautiful as everyone says.

As we drive around the area, I recognize some words, a few stores and restuarants, the familiar chirping of the crosswalks, some of the same architecture of what I've come to think of as Japan; but it doesn't have the same "feel" that Tokyo and Yokohama have to me.  My head understands that I'm in Japan, that we're on a small island, that we're not in a huge city like Tokyo, but it refuses to "feel right" to me.  I'm beginning to think that Tokyo has become "Japan" to me.  Silly, I know, but seemingly true nonetheless.

That said, the ocean and geography surrounding us is breathtaking.  I love the abundance of trees and plants, and the rich colors of the water.  Okinawa will create its own "feel" to me during our stay here, I'm sure, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.

---Arielle