Traditional Japanese Habu Guitar Player

At the lily fest they had numerous little shows you could watch, and one of them was a young lady singing traditional Japanese songs and playing the Habu Guitar. These guitars are covered on the front with Habu snake skin and are very valuable. They have since started making the guitars with other various snake skins and other materials, but the Habu's are the most expensive and authentic... This, amongst many other things, is why I love living here...

Yay for video!!

If you are going to watch this, I suggest you turn down the volume on your computer because it was extremely windy when I took this. It's the Coast of Ie Island at the Lily Fest. Hope you like, it was quite impressive in perosn and I hope it translates in the video...

Don't rock the boat, baby!

Starting from the top and going down... this is how I got to Iejima...

The top is Motobu port. It's about 65km north of Kadena and going 60km per hour on one-way roads = road rage and a 2 hour car ride... even longer on a bus... thank god for the expressway!!

Next is the Nago bay bridge. It connects the Motobu area with one of the outer but close little islands. It's only like a half mile across, but the bay is HUGE. Little factoid for ya: Hunting dolphin and porpoise in this country is not technically illigal. I was told to look at it as like an over population of deer... yuck. There are only, get this, TEN people who have a license to hunt dolphin in Japanese waters, but they tend not to do so because of the stigma and bad reaction they get from Americans on the island, some locals, and even now, some of the government officials. They are in the process of trying to talk the country's fishing community to leave them alone, I hope that passes...

Next is the Ie port... yay.

After that is the ferry boat I was on, followed by a good-bye view of Ie island and Gusuku... who in all of her steep kindness had officially killed my leg muscles by this point in the day.

Next was by far my favorite pic all day. Apparently in Japan if there isn't a sign saying you can't do it, you can pretty much pop a tent up wherever you want and hunker down in it totally free. This gentleman decided to set his up on the breakwater like a half mile out into the water and about 60+ feet up. He was just out there chillin, wind was a whippin, and he was anchored down to the cement somehow. I was in total awe... I can't wait to do that!!

Then there's me... sexy, huh?

Last is back to Motobu port... very exciting.

I hope you enjoyed my day trip. It was awesome and being added to the list of "What to drag visiting friends and family to." :-)

Ernie Pyle... this one's for you buddy...

So I didn't really ever know Mr. Pyle until today, but he seems like he is a cool dude. Apparently during WWII he was a type of pre-Geraldo on the scene reporter. He was like the first guy to say, we know what's kind of going on with our boys in the Pacific... but I want to go there and really be a part of it... so he did.

He was, from what I gathered, the first war-time journalist to actually travel to the "hot zone." He came to the island to report for the US and unfortunately no more than 2 weeks into his stay on Iejima, he was hit by a stray sniper bullet and fell to his death amongst the marines stationed there at the time.

In present day, he has a memorial located on the exact spot in which he fell that is kept up nicely by the locals. He had a large field in which is dedicated in his honor, and every year on the weekend closest to the anniversary, numerous military members from various branches, along with locals, boyscouts, and some of Ernie's comrads come out to celebrate his life cut short. His death was on April 14th and there were still flowers on his memorial from last weekend's ceremony.

Mount Gusuku, you are my Waterloo!!

So where did we go after we hit up the big cliff... but to the bottom of a HUGE ASS MOUNTAIN that our crazy tour guide expected ME to climb! HA! but I did...

We went to Mount Gusuku, pronounced goo-soo-koo... like a moo from a cow, but a little more Japanese-ish...

So Gusuku was tall, intimidating, steep, hot as Hell, and totally in the middle of a FLAT island, like what the heck was up with that? You've got this flat island and BOOM in the middle is like a freakin' part of the Himilayas.

So anyway, I put my big girl panties on and trecked up... and the only reason I did was because I was only gonna go a little way and realized it was too steep and crowded just to turn around somewhere along the path, and some little 4 year-old was ahead of me totally kickin' my butt... I had to persevere!

Up the hill I went and it was worth it. The view was awesome and I only got a couple pics because the camera was full by the time I got half way up, honest! No really, I did make it up and it was worth it because there was a panoramic 360 view of the entire island. Very pretty.

You can tell by a couple of the pics just how intrusive the mountain is on the island, it doesn't quite fit in. Geologists say it's kind of an interesting structure because there's actually new bedrock on top of old bedrock on the mountain's make-up... hmmm... wonder how that happened??? It baffles the mind...

One of the pics I felt bad for taking, and you can probablt guess which one... and no, it's not the one with me sitting with my 4 chins... it's the one with the Japanese man facing a memorial plaque. It was said that a long time ago a woman fell in love with the man who owned all of Ie island, and she left against her family's will to be with that man on Iejime, even though they warned her he was already married. She did not believe them and went to be with him anyway. When she arrived, she learned the new was true and she hung herself with her own long, black hair from one of the edges half way up Gusuku... he was either paying his respects to her, or was torn by his own memories... I do not know, but when he turned around he was red-eyed and crying. I felt bad... but really... hanging yourself with your own hair? C'mon...

There's another random pic in the mix that's actually like a little fresh water spring thingy. There's a little hole next to a plaque that says something, again I am illiterate in this country, and it has a little ladle and a strainer... it was quite interesting... I didn't take a sip, nor did I see anyone else... but I am assuming thats what it was for?

So the best part of Gusuku... going DOWN!! I knew waiting for me was a boat load of ladies who wanted to see me their yummy goodies... and did I ever partake. I got myself some Ie Island sugar cookies made for the sugar cane they harvest there on the island, along with this soda called "Iesoda." Clever, I know...

Now, I must say, the ingredients are crude, but it's AMAZING! The use water from the Waji natural water spring on the island, along with ingredients grown there. They use milk for one form the island's cow population and it's like a creamy-white colored with a cream soda flavor, one that is black like coke and called Blackcane soda, and it's the only onw I can remember the dame because it's sitting in front of me, and it's made from pretty much pure sugar cane, and they have a pink dragonfruit one, and one that's greenish and made from this crazy orange-lime hybrid fruit on the island and is supposedly real good. You can get them each for like a buck or two depending on where you are, or get this, you can get a 4-pack of all flavors for the low price of 10 bucks! Ha, aren't there so sweet to do that!!

Ok, so one more stop of the Ie Island Magic Mystery Tour... hehe

Wajee Look-out... or as I like to call it, Wajee look out below!!

So our next little stop off, or should I say, drop off, was to Wajee look-out. This place was WINDY! Woo Hoo! Some lady was wearing hoop earings and the wind was whipping so hard it actually caught both hoops and yanked them out of her ears, true story! We were like 100+ feet up this cliff... so yeah, it was a tad breezy.

The first pic I must say it not very interesting, but apparently it's kind of a big deal in Japan, as much as Ron Burgandy is in San Diego, if you get my drift. For all of you who have no idea what that meant, shame on you! Go rent Anchor Man with Will Ferell immediately! Sorry, sidetracked... anyway, apparently this spot signifies it was the inspiration of some super important traditional Japanese folklore songy thingy... I dunno... I can't read in this country so I have no idea what song, who sang it, blah blah.

Anywho, it was gorgeous here. I put a pic up of just the water, because there is no word in my vocabulary that seems a fit enough adjective to perfectly describe this blue... it was just stunning... and yes, I said stunning...

This was a quick little stop, but impressive none-the-less.

IT'S CONTAGIOUS!! Stay Away From Niya-Thiya Cave Ladies

Ok, so next stop on the short bus was Niya-Thiya Caves! It says in my nifty little pamphlet that this cave held 1,000 people during the two-week time period in which Iejima Island was a hot spot of WWII action. Hence it's nickname as "The 1,000 person cave." Yes, it's very clever I know.

Now I have to admit, when I used to think of the Japanese flocking to Pearl Harbor to see the underground ruins of the devistation they caused, it really made me upset. I thought to myself, how impersonal and just plain rude is it to come marvel at something so tragic in our country's history. it really got under my skin... well, the tide had turned.

When I was walking through this cave, I couldn't halp but look at the little memorials that had been set up for people who lost their lives in this cave. They had food offerings, money set out, candles once lit, sake and amowari... it really touched home. I felt like I was intruding on something that was so personal to the people it effected, and I felt like a vouyer. I felt like I was trespassing and trying to be a part of something terrible that I caused. It was something to really make you humble. I realized we had suffered, but we weren't the only ones. Japan's main land had offered Okinawa and her surrounding islands up as a sacrificial lamb during the war, and they suffered great losses too.

For all of you out there who felt like I did... really, come step into this cave that felt crowded with 100 in it, look at the memorials and offereings, take in the surroundings, and then tell me how you feel.

Now a little less heavy of a topic... the "what is it" of the day... Ladies, that pic up top... it's actually a fertility rock. Legend has it that if you are having trouble getting pregnant, all you must do is lift this rock, and within a year you will be expecting. Needless to say, I stayed very clear of said rock and watched as others lifted it and I sent a little prayer their way, hoping to deflect whatever oogey boogey-ness away from myself and back on to those poor woman... Now the question is... how in the world did that fertility rock end up way down in a cave... I do not know. Maybe they thought a woman must show she was worthy by getting down there or some crap like that... who knows...

Hoo-ray for Ee-yay!! Or Iejima... whateva

Ok, so I was gonna wait a little while to post about this due to total exhaustion, but I was so thrilled about today I just couldn't wait to share it with all of you! Ie island was probably the best thing I have ever decided to just up and do... and did I mention I did this entirely alone! I was so proud of myself!!

There were quite a few things we did on our little trip to the isle, so I am gonna break them each into their little posts. I don't know why I started with the lillies since they were the last thing we saw, but... here they are. We were told that there are over 1 million lillies brought into the festival every year. They are not grown here, but are cultivated on main land Oki I think in Nago, and are brought over to Ie. The purpose of this... you guessed it: TOURISM! Yay for money coming to the island!!

So back to the lillies... they went with a white theme this year, so there were just tons of flowers everywhere. There were so many, all you could smell was their sweet scent. It was amazing. It was a windy day, so it was smellin' pretty darn nice.

At the festival were numerous booths set up with local foods and BIRU!! Yay for beer!! There was Orion as far as the eye could see and smothered with ice... yummy. Top that off with a little tempura green onion and some crazy little friend dough balls stuffed with squid, (which I didn't know at the time of purchase...) and I was a happy little camper.

They had a few performances while we were there and once of them were two girls playing music. They had one young girl on the drum and another playing the little traditional Japanese Habu snake-skin guitar. It was exactly the kind of music you'd expect from Japan, just beautiful. I couldn't understand a single word, but they were short little songs and I kind of like to think of them as little Haiku's put to music... but really, I have no idea what they were singing about. It coulda been "kill the Americans" and I still would have clapped at the end!

To top off my super sensory overload, this lily festival was set on the edge of some cliffs overlooking the ocean. This wasn't just any ocean, but the most beautiful sapphire blue, seafoam green, and emerald water I have ever seen. You could take a little path down towards where the water met the cliffs if you wanted a bath. I opted to stay back quite a ways where I still got splashed by the mist of the larger waves. It was breath-taking. We were about 20 feet about the water, and you can see by one of the pics that the waves crash at least 20 feet over a 6-foot guy... pure awesomeness!

So what have we learned from this little post... Lily Fest + Orion Beer + Ocean = Happy Happy Me!

Coming soon... Ie Island and Lily Fest...

This is just a little teaser, if you will, of Ie Island (pronounced EE-yay). I went here today, April 26, for their 14th annual Lily Festival! Yay for lillies! If anyone knows even an iota about me, I love all that is lily or gerber daisy. So yes, I was in a white sea of heaven for the afternoon! I have so much to write, and good video, and amazing pics... but no energy to write about them all and wait for my computer to upload the amazing video I took... so perhaps tomorrow you will all get a lookie at Iejima, which is it's real name, by the way...

Getting to Oki: The Final Leg!

So it's been long-coming... but here's the last installment of how we got to Okinawa! This was probably my favorite part of the trip purely due to the fact that I thought things could only go up from our last 24 hours of travel! I'm glad they sort of did...

So at our last installment, we were just learning how I almost killed my dog in a horrible freak cart tipping-over accident, lost my hubby in the airport, lost our tickets to Okinawa at the cart return, cussed out a taxi driver, and almost left my husband in seattle and came home... so...

After about 3 hours of restless sleep we both dragged ourselves up and get ready to head to the airport... again. Our flight was at like noon but we had to be at the airport by 7:30, why, I do not know. The hotel was nice enough to keep our smelly dog kennels down in the lobby next to their front desk so we didn't have to cram them into our little room. We took the dogs potty and managed to somehow get all of our crap downstairs, all the while someone keeping a close eye on Chloe so she didn't have a tantrum and wake up the entire place, or eat the carpeting... again, stupid dog!

We get all of our crap down and manage to catch the 7am shuttle... only it wasn't a shuttle, it was a large van! The guy tried to get our stuff in the back but the kennels and all of our stuff didn't fit with the other 5 passengers' thing who were already on the van... so get this, he actually makes everyone get off the van and get onto the big shuttle. I think I was killed by every single person's eyes as they had to take their baggage and load onto a huge shuttle, haha! I was mortified, but I think they warmed up a little as they watched the dogs pile onto the shuttle and sit in the isle on their very best behavior, thank GOD! They even got a couple pets as they swayed back and forth in the isle due to the drivers inability to take a corner at a humane speed.

So we get BACK to the airport a short like 5 hours later and I find a small becon of hope throughout this horrible day... a skycap from heaven. He was so nice and helped us with our luggage, got us to where we needed to be, stayed with us to help as Mike filled out his paperwork and I wrestled with the dogs. He even helped hold the kennel from slipping and I tried cramming Charlie into his. Yes, I said cramming. He got a little bug up his fanny and didn't want to get in, so he looked like a cat with all four of his paws latched to any side of the kennel he could reach and was craning his neck around the edge, flashing wild and desperate eyes at anyone passing by in hopes someone would save him from what was obviously going to be another round of hell. Poor dog. Of course there was a HUGE crowd of people staring at me from our AMC flight, so I was like perfect... all these people are witnessing this and I am looking like the worst dog mom in the world, and I have to fly with these people for the next DAY! Super...

So we cram the dogs in and there was this total biatch getting people signed in who was furious that the dogs walked into the airport and weren't in their kennels, she was yelling at us about not having their water bottles attached, which if you remember... one was broken, she informed us that the price for flying them was like twice as much as we thought it was going to be, and you could tell she was just relishing in our shock of the amount and the stress she threw up on my already tipping scale of sanity... I was about to go over the edge, and with me I was going to be taking a dripping, duct-tape covered water bottle that had been leaking on me this entire time, and HER!! Thank GOD the guy checking us in gave Mike a break and gave us the small dog price to have the dogs fly with us. I think he saw pure angst and stress leaking out of every pore of my body and had pity on us. So instead of it costing like 500 for them to fly, it was barely over 200, woo hoo, a break!!

We get everything checked in, the dogs stuffed into the kennels, water is dripping everywhere from the one bottle, and at this point I am about to kill someone. We drag the dogs over to the AMC security point where, get this... I have to take them BACK OUT! The guys swab their kennels as we try to rangle back Chloe's pure joy at all the new people and smells and Charlie's outta control fear. His poor little nails were scraping the tile and he was running somewhere but making no ground at all as I half strangled, half held on for dear life to his collar... while the water bottle is still dripping... I asked the security guy swabing our dogs if we really had to have the bottles because the last airport had broken one of them and he said he didn't know.

At this point I was soaking wet and in the midst of the worst hot flash of my life, when some HUGE hawaiian-looking gentleman tried to convey to me in some language that my bottle was dripping on the floor. I'm pretty sure the "no shit, dick tracey" look I gave him translated into his language and he walked off. I was furious at the world and totally stressin, so I dumped the water from the bottle into some fake plants (at my defense, I didn't know they were fake at the time) and chucked the bottle into the trash and stomped back over to the security check-in. I went to grab some money for the amazing skycap guy who was still with us, and realized that I had used the last of it to give to the taxi last night. I told Mike I would be right back and to distract the skycap, and I ran down the hall towards an exchange bank.

I ran up to an ATM, grabbed a 20, and ran to an exchange bank to see if the woman could give me a couple tens, and get this, she said NO! I looked at her, and I kid you not, I said, "You are an exchange and you will not exhange my 20 for 2 tens..." and she said nope. At this point I could have killed another human being and probaply gotten off with the insanity plea. I was seeing white with fury!!

I ran to the store, bought a pack of gum, and ran back to give the money to the awesome skycap who was actually thankful, unlike the dude in NOLA. We handed the dogs over to the crew to bring them to the holding area, and we headed off to the security check in.

We waited in line just for a little bit, it went rather quickly... until I heard an unmistakable howl/screaming. It was Chloe and I could see that same Hawaiian dude looking into her kennel as she was being pushed by. If you know my girl, you know she's a little quirky about people looking at her funny or walking up to her kennel just to look when she's inside. She'll bark even if it's me. So anyway, he was looking at her walking up to her kennel, and she was going insane! You could hear her through the entire airport security area... I was so glad no to be the one to have to deal with her. I felt like I was leaving my young screaming child at school as I walked away, and honestly, it kinda felt good to get rid of them for a little while...

We get to the gate and hang out for a while and we make all of our last phone calls from our cell phones, which will not work in a matter of hours once we board the plane. I sat and looked at my tickets and noticed we were in row 4 and I asked Mike is AMC flights had first class. He said no because they were either space available seats, or government purchased. No one could just be on the flight if they weren't military. I shrugged and didn't think much of it again until we started to board.

As we walked onto the plane, I see a beacon of light shining from above and I could have sworn it was heaven shining down upon me. It was the glowing sign saying the number of my seat should take a left into FIRST CLASS!! I was so thrilled, I couldn't even stand it. I sat in my huge seat, played with all the cool gadgets, and found I had my own personal tv screen, and my seat could recline all the way down so I could actually sleep. I had so much leg room my feet couldn't even reach the seat in front of me. It was like God was testing me the previous day and was now rewarding me for all I had gone thru. It was like 12 hours of heaven. I slept, was fed well, watched all the latest movies for free, and they even had Aveda products in the bathroom. If you are ever going to come visit me, I suggest flying 1st class, it was worth the cool 20K for the ticket... and yes, it's that much.

So we landed on Kyoto Air Base for a quick drop off of some of the passengers and picked up a few more along the way. We were allowed to go see our dogs and let them out for a quick pee and a snack. They were thrilled to see us, and were given one more sedative for the next leg of the flight. Yeah I know, poor poochies, but it was just as much for their sanity as mine. I wanted to make sure they weren't stressed out. But anyway, we tucked them back into their kennels and got back on the plane for another three hours to Kadena Air Base.

At Kadena, we got off the plane quickly being in first class, and were able to quickly make it through the customs check. We got dowstairs, grabbed the luggage and the poochies, got them checked in with the base vet and handed over our paperwork, and headed out the door to meet our sponsors...

Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet Sarah and Derek at the airport. They were busy that evening so they sent a major and another lieutenant from the squadron to come get us. They helped us load up the puppies and the luggage and took us to our TLF. At this point it was 9pm local time, which meant it was 8am Eastern time and we were in a fog. We got into our TLF and found that the Gregory's had stocked it up with some snacks, fruit, water, and puppy food for us. It was awesome! They turned out to be our best allies here on the island, and great new friends! But anywho, we settled the puppies in with some dinner and they were still sleepy from the last dose of meds, so we headed out for a bit to grab some real non-airline food, and we got some subway. We came back to TLF, loved up the poor puppies, and crashed.

The next day we got up, called the parents in the states to let them know we were alive and well, and headed out into what I like to call "wonderland." It was like we had fallen into the rabbit hole... but that's for another day...

Am I black with purple stripes, or purple with black stripes???

Ah yes, it was that time again kiddies... back to Cocok's I had to go-go!! Jennifer, Sarah and myself hit up the spa this morning for the last installment of "unemployed and fabulous" as I like to call it, seeing as how Sarah, the over-achiever, had to go and get a job. Actually, Jennifer is the mom to two very cute little boys, so that in itself is a full-time job too I suppose... so ok, I am the only one who's unemployed, but we're all pretty damn fabulous.

Today we had a bit of an animal theme... Sarah got purple toes with black zebra stripes... on the last pic she is the one on the top right. Jennifer went with the coral and yellow with dragonflies on the top left, and I went with the fishies amonght the seaweed on the bottom in honor of my upcoming SCUBA classes. I serioulsy couldn't believe how intricate my toes came out for all that she painted on each one of them. You can kinda see in the pic how cool the look, but watching the girl paint them in person makes this place the mecca of all that is toe-orientated!!

If this isn't reason enough to come visit me, I don't know what else is!!!

One last comment... the reason behind my name for this post. If anyone has ever seen Madigascar, you'll know... but for those of you who haven't, I shall fill you in. The zebra in the movie, Marty, asks Alex the lion if he's black with white stripes, or white with black stripes. Well, today at the spa Sarah asked if she should get purple with black stripes or black with purple stripes... in the end, she got purple with black stripes...