A Better Than We Expected Christmas

Christmas Eve dawned a little cold and dreary. We had to go to the BX to get each other a Christmas gift. It was a madhouse and I was glad to get out of there. We were torn over where to go for dinner that night. We thought about the curry buffet, but opted to head to the American Village instead. Christmas is different here. Back home after about 6:00 on Christmas Eve, everywhere you look is a ghost town. Not here. Despite the cold and rain, lots of people were out, and lots of places were open. We chose a Thai restaurant.

Big mistake.

 Here's what Brendan thought of it.

We should have stuck with the curry buffet. We went for the full experience and ordered one of their "set" dinners that included about five courses. Let me put it this way:  The best thing I had was the water. On the bright side, Brendan was very well behaved the entire time.

After dinner we walked around the mall and spotted the Doctor Fish booth. These fish love to eat dead skin so you can pay 500 yen to stick your feet in for ten minutes.

It really tickles.

This right here was the highlight of my night.

His feet are so ticklish he could only stand it if he planted them on the bottom.

It was a great Christmas Eve. And my very first Christmas gift was a full night of sleep, because Brendan slept all night long.

It took a lot of work, but we did get a tree up.

Impressed?

Yeah, right. Here's our tree.

In the days leading up to Christmas I was sad and disappointed about how I knew it would turn out. I couldn't find a Christmas outfit for Brendan. I didn't even have a stocking for him. But then I decided that I would rather it be like this now, when he is unaware, than when he's eight and really understands what is going on. And then we woke up on Christmas morning and he was more interested in the trash than he was in his presents. Nevertheless, he got plenty of them.

Those toys in the background are toys he already had.

This was the longest Christmas morning ever since Brendan was absolutely not interested in opening anything. Tom finally opened the last few himself. I went upstairs to shower so we could go to the USO and call home. When I got downstairs these two were ready for a Christmas nap.

Oh, and I sure can't leave out the Christmas kitty.

He loves to get the kitties. I'm working on teaching him to "be easy" because he loves to grab and them and pull their tails.

We were invited to Christmas dinner with several families. We had already met two of them. One of them has a baby about 3 weeks younger than Brendan. When we got there he had two more presents waiting for him.

He was actually more interested in the dog toys.

He played hard all day, and into the night. There was no shortage of kids or toys.

Or dogs. I wanted to take this one home with me.

He really liked Kaelyn's dinosaur.

So all in all, we had a pretty good day. I think we both expected it to be kind of sad and depressing but it wasn't. With Brendan around, sad and depressing really isn't possible.

Merry Christmas!

Naha

Yesteray (Sunday) we opted to hop in the car and head towards Naha. We didn't really have a particular destination in mind. We figured we could stop if we saw something interesting. We saw signs for Shurijo Castle Park and decided to stop. Well, we ended up trying to go in the back way and there were way too many stairs to climb, while lugging a big stroller. We did find the main entrance and decided that it was too big of a place to try to see in just a couple of hours. Plus, it didn't look stroller friendly no matter how you got in so we decided to come back after we get a backpack to carry Brendan in. 

We got back in the car and kept going. This time we found the main shopping district in Naha. We found a parking lot but we had no idea how much we would end up spending since there were no signs in English. We took our ticket and hoped for the best. It ended up only costing 400 yen, which was less than $5. Not too bad.

Brendan had a MIUCH better day yesterday than he did the two days before. I previously posted about those rough days. In case you missed it, click here.

I wish I had a nickel for everyone who stopped to talk to and play with him. Men, women, young, old...he certainly attracted some attention. And half of them didn't give Tom or me the time of day.

After walking around a bit we needed a snack. And guess what we just happened to find.

They do things a little differently at McDonald's here. For starters, the uniforms look sharp. And they value your time, not only at McDonald's, but everywhere here. They are in a hurry to help you because they know your time is important.

In case you're wondering, 200 yen equals about $2.43, depending on the current exhange rate. Currently, 82 yen equal one dollar but it's constantly changing.

These are Shisa dogs. You can read about them here. You see them outside of a lot of buildings here. They have all different kinds - big ones, small ones, mean ones, funny ones. I plan on getting us a pair at some point.

Tomorrow's moving day! Wish us luck!

As Promised....

We picked up our car last night from the used car lot just outside one of the gates. Around here, space is very valuable and it is hardly ever wasted. These lots pack the cars in like sardines. Literally. You can't drive the care before you buy it. Because you can't get it out of the lot.

If you pick one that's in the middle, they have to move them all. One by one. Crime on the island is pretty much non-existent. Almost all of these cars have the keys in them.

It is recommended that you practice driving ON base before you drive OFF base. Well, Tom decided that we would head straight from the car lot to the cell phone place. Off base. Everything is opposite here. The steering wheel is on the right. And your turn signals? They're on the right, too. That means the windshield wipers are where we expect to find the turn signal. Our car has the cleanest windshield on this island. Once we got our cell phones, we tried to get back on base. That didn't go so well. We ended up on the island's only expressway. Tom kept a cool head, and we eventually made it back to base. Thank goodness.

As promised, we hit the town today. Our first stop was Chatan, the town where our new house is. We have signed the papers, gotten the money, and we pick up the key Monday.

Someone is currently using our driveway. But not for long.

And this is a view of our street.

Just on the other side of that several story high building is the sea wall. The East China Sea is a stone's throw away from our front door. Unbelievable.

Incredible.

Where was Brendan while Tom and I were checking out the sea wall?

Asleep. In our  new car. With one shoe on and one shoe off. He hates his new shoes.

And this, by the way, is our new car.

Ain't she a beaut?

Also within walking distance is Baba Park. Brendan was still asleep so we didn't get out to play. But right across the street there was a baseball game going on.

From our new neighborhood we headed a short way down the road to the American Village, which is basically a huge shopping complex, complete with a bowling alley and a theater. How's this for backwards - the movie theater shows movies in English with Japanese subtitles. Oh, and you can drink beer in there. But you better have a DD because the limit here is .03. No kidding.

You can't find these back in the States.

The blue label means you are purchasing a cold drink, and the red label means it's a hot drink. How cool is that? You can buy food out of vending machines, too. Real food. The bowling alley had a machine that sold French fries, and the BX has a hot dog vending machine. I will be trying that one out before long.

We found the biggest arcade we'd ever seen.

And guess what game they had.

Look familiar?

And did I mention that we now live on an island? That means there was more water to check out.

Brendan has his feet in the East China Sea. I wonder how many of his school friends will be able to say that.

It would be nice if the water were a little bluer.

And maybe just a wee bit clearer.

I still can't believe that we live here. We. LIVE. Here.

Sorry if this post is a bit waterlogged (pun intended), but we are enthralled with it.

American Village is huge. There are tons of shops and restaurants. We had lunch there. At an Indian restaurant. It was my first experience with Indian food. I was pleasantly surprised. But I kept thinking about Dad telling me that Adam took him and Mom to eat Indian food and the best thing he had was the water.

After lunch we walked around some more and stopped for some frozen yogurt.

And just in case one day we need some American food, we can come right back down here.

Tom found everybody's souvenir in one of the shops.

I hope you'll all be looking forward to receiving it.

After showing his rear end while we tried to eat, Brendan passed out.

We headed back to the car lot this afternoon so Tom could drop off the money for our second car. Brendan was not happy about it. He and I waited in the car, pretending to drive.

I took the wheel on the way back from the car lot. I drove all around town to practice. With the baby screaming in the backseat. The. Entire. Time. I am now comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road. If I can drive with that going on, I should be good to go.

And because he was such a good boy (not), he got a new toy today.

Actually, we bought this to try and entertain him while we're still stuck in this room. It was mostly purchased to try and save our sanity.

It was a big day, and fun for the most part. I hope Brendan wakes up in a good mood tomorrow. The last few days have been rough.

I have no idea what we'll get into tomorrow. But for now, sayonara!