Road-biking in Okinawa

Loren's been trying to get me into cycling for years.  He's patiently (and sometimes not-so-patiently) encouraged/nagged me to ride.

Loren, of course, is an absolute natural on the bike.  When he rides, the bicycle almost seems like an extension of his body.  His long, sinewy legs pump effortlessly as he deftly maneuvers through traffic.  He keeps perfectly in cadence, even as he's climbing massive hills.  He bikes as easily as he runs.  (Which, if you've ever met my husband, is saying a lot.)  Loren loves bicycles more than he loves the dog and me.

I know that sounds drastic, but it's true. Even
our living room is dedicated to bikes.

I, on the other hand, look like a wobbly sack of potatoes slumped over a metal frame whenever I ride my ridiculously expensive bike.  I don't know what it is, but I've never been very good at riding.  For the longest time, whenever I would start to gain speed when going downhill, I would brake frantically and start to feel my life flash before my eyes.   I also tend to turn into a nasty, expletive-spewing beast while peddling uphill.  Despite all of this, Loren has retained the slightest hope that I'll someday turn into a cycling superstar like him.

Restroom posters, part two

Loren discovered this gem of a poster at a roadside restroom:

Japan has some seriously strict drunk-driving rules, including a 0.03% blood alcohol limit. (Roughly the equivalent to a beer. Or, in my case, sniffing a glass of wine...) 

True to form, the Japanese have chosen to highlight this serious social issue with a comical cartoon. Maybe Justin Bieber could learn a thing or two from the gentleman here .... 

Awa-dake Hike

It's gray and drizzly today, so I finally have time to sit down and post about last weekend's hike.  Hooray!

Two weeks ago, Loren and I visited Furushi-dake, but noticed a trail leading to its sister mountain, Awa.  This very helpful website said that the Awa-dake hike was about 5-6 hours, so we decided to check it out on a later endeavor.  

 

The cherry blossoms (sakura) on the Motobu peninsula were in full bloom last weekend, so we decided that it would be prime time for a hike.

Okinawa's famous cherry blossoms, with Mt. Awa in the background

Lost in Translation?

You're very welcome.

I encountered this sign in a park-side restroom on Hamahiga island.  As far as I could tell, there was no Japanese-language version of this sign posted.  It makes you wonder:  have they had issues with Americans improperly using the toilets? 

Yoshihatchi Sushi

Japan is a sushi-lover's paradise.

Everywhere I go, there's an abundance of good, relatively inexpensive sushi.  (Even the convenience store sushi rolls are delicious.  You can't go wrong with a 300 yen bento box from Family Mart.)

Loren and I usually frequent the sushi restaurants near the Sunabe Seawall, such as Kouwa Sushi and Sushi Zen.  They're delicious, but they're usually packed with other Americans.  (It's nearly impossible to get away from other Americans on this island.)  So on Friday night, I was in a daring mood and wanted to try something truly authentic.

I did my research and memorized every possible Japanese restaurant-related phrase.  Kore o onegaishimasu.  ("I'll have that one, please.")  Osusume no ryouri wa nan desu ka?  ("What dish do you recommend?")  One of my coworkers suggested trying Yoshihatchi restaurant in Okinawa City.

Sure enough, the restaurant was a random hole-in-the-wall down a side street off of Highway 23.  Big red, white and blue Orion Beer lanterns swayed in the breeze outside the restaurant.  I felt hopeful -- this was going to be a genuine "Japanese experience."

Sorry for the low-qual photos -- I used my iPhone that evening.

 

It's a Jungle Out Here

Okay, let's start by addressing the giant elephant in the room; it's been an inexcusably long time since I've updated this blog.  (I'm not talking about a matter of a few weeks.  I didn't post at all in 2013.)

I think the main issue is that I didn't think that I had anything particularly interesting to post.  Life overseas in Japan, on a beautiful semi-tropical island, had become a bit mundane.  You live anywhere for an extended period of time, and I think you start to take everything for granted. 

It took a trip back to the United States in December to make me realize just how special Okinawa is.  (Sorry, no offense to my family back home.  The vacation was lovely, and the company was amazing, but it was COLD.) 

Cold enough for Dad and me to be wearing coats on a train.  Thanks, Illinois.

I came back to Okinawa with a renewed sense of wonderment.  Everything seemed new and exciting and different again. It's my goal to maintain that feeling of curiosity and awe for the remaining year and a half on the island.  Sometimes I need to stop and remind myself to look at everything through fresh eyes. 

Christmas, Oki-style!

To put it bluntly, this holiday season had the real potential to suck.

Let's be honest -- I'm in a foreign country, thousands of miles from family, and my husband is deployed.  It would be really easy to hunker down into hibernation mode, watch sappy movies and feel sorry for myself until Christmastime is over.  Luckily, I have a great set of friends, coworkers, neighbors, etc. who have been keeping me busy these last few weeks. 

One of those friends, Karin, invited me to the Okinawa Children's Zoo's "Christmas Fantasy" show last night.

Sorry for the blurry iPhone photos -- I forgot my camera at home

Getting Lost

One of the best parts about Okinawa is loading the dog in the car and just driving in any random direction.  There's something really liberating about getting lost and not caring about it.  (As opposed to getting lost when you actually need to BE somewhere, which is an entirely different situation ...)

After yoga this morning, Lucky and I headed up the coast.  We stopped along the side of the road at Cape Zampa and wandered around for a bit.

We've officially entered the drizzly, rainy season in Okinawa

Biker Rally, Japanese Style

For some reason, when I think of Okinawa, the image of a big biker rally isn't the first thing that comes to mind ...

Is that a marijuana leaf on the back of that blue bike?

Yet that's exactly where I found myself this afternoon.  Hundreds of motorcycles lined up along the street outside Kadena Gate 2 for day two of the Okinawa International Festival.

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone found fulfillment this Thanksgiving -- both in the stomach and the soul.

Moving around so much during the last 12 months has made me realize just how thankful I am to have a solid group of family and friends to keep me grounded.  Loren's still deployed, so this was the first Thanksgiving without him in five years.  I have some great neighbors who invited me over to their get-together, though, and we had a blast.

Here's a belated recipe to celebrate the holiday.  (Because, let's face it, those leftovers aren't going to last forever ... eventually, you're going to have to cook again.)  It's a paleo-friendly dish from over at the blog The Clothes Make the Girl.  (She has some other great recipes -- I highly recommend her site.)

Spicy Roasted Squash (serves 4)

-1 butternut squash, halved & seeds scraped out
-1 head of garlic
-1 T coconut oil
-2 T coconut milk
-1/4 t salt
-1 T ras el hanout (see directions below recipe)
-1 egg
-1/4 cup pecan halves

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

-Line a baking sheet with tin foil.  Place each half of the butternut squash cut-side down on the baking sheet.  Sprinkle a few drops of water around the squash.

-Peel away the papery skin on the outside of the head of garlic.  Wrap the head of garlic in tin foil and place on the baking sheet.

-Bake the squash and garlic for 45 minutes.

-Allow the squash and garlic to cool for about 20 minutes.

-Increase the oven's temperature to 400 degrees.

-Scrape the squash into a food processor.  Separate the garlic cloves and squeeze the roasted garlic into the food processor.  (Note: this is surprisingly fun.)

-Process the mixture into a smooth puree.  Add the coconut oil, coconut milk, salt and ras el hanout.

-Beat the egg in a small bowl.

-Scrape the squash mixture into a large bowl and add the egg, mixing until well-combined.

-Grease the inside of a baking dish with coconut oil.  Pour in the squash mixture and top with pecans.

-Bake 25-30 minutes.

Ras el Hanout

Mix the following together:

-2 t salt
-2 t cumin
-2 t ginger
-2 t black pepper
-1 1/2 t cinnamon
-1 t coriander
-1 t cayenne
-1 t allspice
-1/2 t cloves
-1/4 t nutmeg

Store in an air-tight container.  The recipe originally called for 2 T of ras el hanout, but it was pretty spicy.  I recommend cutting it back to 1 T.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Note:  Trying to do the 30 day primal challenge wasn't the best idea around the holidays.  I fell off that wagon pretty quickly.  But more info about that to come later ...

Sick Puppy

Sorry, I've been too busy exploring this beautiful island to post in a while.  I've been too immersed in the rich Okinawan culture to sit down and write about it.

Okay, that's a lie.  I think I venture off-base about once every two weeks.  (Not including treks to the dog-park, which is technically off-base, but still owned and operated by the U.S. Air Force.)  I promise to bring you more culturally-stimulating posts in the future.

Today I was forced to go outside of Kadena Air Base.  I woke up this morning to the sound of Lucky's stomach gurgling.  I thought a freight train was rumbling through the poor guy's intestines.  He refused to eat breakfast and skulked around the house lethargically all morning.  

"Mom, I don't feel very good today.  Can I stay home from school?"

We went for our usual noon walk around the neighborhood, and he stopped to do his business in someone else's yard.  However, it became apparent really quickly that something was terribly, terribly wrong with his digestive system.

The vet on Kadena Air Base is closed on the weekends, so I scheduled an emergency appointment at NOAH Animal Hospital off-base.  Luckily, the entire office staff spoke English and they were super-helpful.  Lucky's on antibiotics now, and he's already acting like his normal, energetic self.  Plus, they gave me his medicine in this cute little envelope.  How very Japanese.

The kittens have little cat-shaped space helmets!

The visit, fecal exam, steroid shot and medicine cost about 5800 yen, or $73.  Not dirt-cheap by any means, but it wasn't as much as I expected.  (I've been warned that everything -- car service, hospitals, vets, groceries, etc. -- is more expensive off-base.)  Hopefully Lucky's digestion will be back to normal in a bit, and he won't require further care.

Tokyo and Typhoons

It's been a while, I know.  Sorry I haven't been updating the blog like usual.

But now THIS is happening:

And I have ample time to sit down and post.  (Well, until the electricity goes out, at least.)  Typhoon Jelawat has put the kibosh on any weekend plans.  Right now, we have wind gusts up to 120 miles per hour.  Kite-flying, anyone?

In a way, I'm actually glad that I'm stuck inside today.  I finally have time to write about this week's trip to Tokyo!

The Red Cross sent several of the Okinawa staff up to Camp Zama for training.  (Have I mentioned that I love my job?)  I'd never been to Tokyo, and I was absolutely awed at the sheer SIZE of the city.  Picture the density of downtown Chicago, except it spreads out in every direction for miles and miles.

During our final night on the main island, several other staff members and I took the train to downtown Tokyo.  It was about an hour-long ride, and it was packed to the brim with people the entire way.  Schoolchildren in their cute little uniforms, businessmen in suits, old women in kimonos.

I love her Madeline outfit

Once we arrived at the station, the doors swooshed open and everyone poured out of the train.  It took us about 20 minutes to find our way aboveground, but the view was pretty spectacular once we finally got out of the subway.

We walked around for a bit and had dinner at a random restaurant.  The menu was entirely in Japanese, so I'm still not sure what we ate.  But it was delicious and relatively cheap.

I'll take one of everything, please.

We ordered a big pot of boiling broth and then added meat, tofu and veggies.  It was almost like fondue.  Delicious.

Tuna.  And yes, I think that's a pot leaf ... 

Then we wandered a bit more.  We wanted to find ice cream, so I chatted with a pair of young men.  Their English was a little spotty, and my Japanese is even worse, so we never did find an ice creamery that evening.  I did, however, receive a marriage proposal from one of them.

It was still this busy at 11 pm.

Apparently these exist?  Sexy robot ladies that you can drive?

We were on our way back to the train station when we ran across two Japanese businessmen.  They invited us to a shady-looking alley for beers.  (Being three relatively defenseless young women in a foreign country, of course we accepted!)

My new best friend and me

We crowded into a tiny bar about 5ft x 10 ft.  Both of the gentlemen were executives at Casio, and they were eager to try their English on us.  We chatted about American and Japanese cultures for a while.

The proprietor of the establishment, a short older woman, was an absolute hoot.  I'm pretty sure that she was making fun of us the entire time, but I don't care.

I love Japan -- everyone we met in Tokyo went out of their ways to ensure that we were having a great time.  How many Americans would do that for random foreign visitors?  Tokyo was big and loud and (at times) slightly scary, but the city just pulsed with life.

Well, the eye of Typhoon Jelawat has passed over us here in Okinawa.  (I just saw a bit of sunshine peaking through the clouds.)  The wind is starting to pick back up again, and someone isn't a happy camper right now.

"Mommm, make the scary storm go away"

I promise I'll update this blog on a more regular basis now.  (Unless I get blown away by Typhoon Jelawat, of course ...)

I hate goodbyes

I dropped Loren off at the Naha airport this morning for his trip to the Middle East.  We're officially into day one of our first deployment.

Lucky puts on a brave face as he waits by Loren's luggage

It really won't be that bad -- my husband will only be gone for three months.  But it's never fun to part with your other half.  The house seems so quiet right now.

On the bright side, Loren and I had a beautiful final morning together.  We drove to a beach near the airport and enjoyed the view.  Living on-base, sometimes you forget that the island is a tropical paradise.

 

He only looks surly, I swear

After we walked along the beach, Loren and I headed to the Naha airport.

That's a lot of luggage for three measly months ...

The parking garage from hell.  I swear that Loren and I found the last parking spot within a 10 mile radius of the airport.

Inside the airport.  We got to hang out for a while, because the Japanese do security screenings right before you board your plane.

One last photo together!

One of my coworkers, Mac, likened deployments to a cross-country car ride.  He said that you start off the trip feeling really excited.  You get about three hours into the drive, and you're like, "Okay, I'm sick of this already, and I still have 600 miles to go."  Then you start breaking it off into chunks and thinking, "Alright, if I just make it to this next town, then I can pull over at a rest stop."  He said that deployments are like that -- you just have to mentally break it into smaller pieces.

We'll see if thats how I feel by the end of Loren's deployment.  Let's hope these next three months pass quickly!  (And that Lo's encounter in the desert is pretty damn uneventful.)

Bo Ssam Deliciousness

I made this tasty Korean slow-roasted pork last weekend, but I haven't had the time to post the recipe until now.  Boy, is this one heck of a dinner.  David Chang sells Bo Ssam at his Momofuku restaurant in NYC for $200.  But you can easily make it at home for less than $20.  (Plus you'll have enough leftovers for almost a week's worth of meals.)  Warm, tender pork wrapped in lettuce leaves with brown rice and a spicy-sweet red chili sauce.  Mmmm ...

This isn't the type of recipe that you can whip up after work.  (I'm infamous for getting home, pulling out the recipe that I had planned for that night and screeching, "Marinate for TWO HOURS?! What?!")  Not only do you dry brine the pork overnight, but you also cook it for about six hours.  That being said, it's insanely easy.  I mean, Loren could probably cook it.  And look at him.

This is after he pulled the top of the pineapple out of the kitchen garbage.

Momofuku Bo Ssam (Serves 8)

For the pork:
-1 pork shoulder
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup salt
-1/4 cup brown sugar

For the red chili sauce:
-2 T fermented bean and chili paste (It's called ssamjang, and it's available at most Asian grocery stores)
-1 T red chili paste (Called kochujang.  Also readily available at most Asian grocery stores)
-1/2 cup sherry vinegar
-1/2 cup grapeseed oil

Accompaniments:
-lettuce leaves
-cooked brown rice
-kimchi
-shredded carrot

Raw meat ... not the most appetizing thing in the world

Place the pork butt in a large bowl or pan.  Rub the salt and sugar all over the meat, and then cover it with aluminum foil or saran wrap.  Refrigerate the meat for at least six hours, preferably overnight.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.  Remove the meat from the fridge and rub off any excess salt or sugar.  Place the pork in a roasting pan and in the oven.  Cook for six hours.

After the first hour of cooking

By the time the pork is finished, it should easily fall apart.  We're talking seriously tender meat here.  Blast your oven up to 500 degrees.  Rub brown sugar all over the roast and place it back in the oven for  10 to 15 minutes.  A nice caramel crust should form all over the roast.

After you take the roast out of the oven, allow it to rest for up to one hour.  In the meantime, prepare the  rest of the meal.

This stuff is AMAZING.  I want to put it on everything now.

Mix together the ssamjang, kochujang, sherry vinegar and oil in a small bowl.  Rinse your lettuce leaves, set out some kimchi and shred your carrots.

For some reason, Okinawan carrots are HUGE

When you're ready to eat, place your meat, lettuce, red pepper sauce, carrots, kimchi, brown rice, etc. on the table.  Each person shreds a little bit of pork off the roast and creates his/her own lettuce wrap.  Not only is it delicious, but it's also a lot of fun.  :)

The best part?  You'll have leftover pork for days.  I made a pork and sweet potato hash the next day, and we ate pulled pork potato latkes later that week.  And I STILL have some frozen pork stashed in the freezer.  Awesome.

Well, Typhoon Bolaven continues to rage outside my window.  The wind has picked up a bit, and the storm is getting a lot noisier.  We still have power, though, and there aren't any rogue trampolines or cars in our backyard yet.  Two more hours until we reach the brunt of the storm ...

Oh hai, Typhoon Bolaven