Ufuya・大家

We went up north to Nago and Motobu on Friday.


We had lunch at this cool Okinawan restaurant called Ufuya.


We came at the perfect time and got the best seat in the house; right next to the waterfall.

New Year's Party

Most people have a New Year's Eve party, but we decided to have a New Year's Day party.

There was our annual "Soup and Game Night" at church on the 31st.

However New Year's Day is usually pretty quiet, so a small party was in order.

We played a few "traditional" games (adapted slightly).

Fukuwarai is a game where you make a face:


This was not bad, but here's what it should have looked like:


Karuta is a game usually played with poems written out.
This version used celebrities.


Emi and Mika played their own version:

For the "other" entertainment, check out the video here.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009!

It is the "Year of the Bull" (or cow).

Hope yours is a blessed one!

Wonder Museum

Inside the Zoo is the Wonder Museum.

It is a lot of fun because everything is "hands on."


Last time we went, Mika slept through it all, so this time was fun!





The smile says it all!

子供の国・Zoo

Since we have some time off, we decided to do a few things that we normally cannot.

Of course, the place was packed with all the other people thinking the same thing.

They have a decent selection of animals here: Lions, tiger, bears, monkeys, giraffes, etc. Plus they recently added some elephants.


Probably the highlight was the Petting Zoo.


These "rabbits" were obviously the result of some experiment gone horribly wrong...

The problem was (and this is for almost all zoos) is that the animals look so bored. Most of them sleep or pace their "cells." Oh well, I guess that is the price of education.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Day 24: Candlelight Service

Christmas Eve.
We used to always go to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve and thought it would be fun for the girls to experience.

The only problem is a late service means a late bedtime which is a problem the next day.
December 25 is not a holiday here, so we all needed to get up the next day for work/school.


Solution: we decided to go to Koza Baptist Church.

They are about 12 minutes away; the service was both early (5:00), and geared towards kids.

It was kind of weird to go to a different church, but still it was nice. We did miss seeing our church family, though.