A Little Okinawan Culture

Sukura Season is over in Okinawa...

But the cherry blossoms were so beautiful, we had to make one more trip before the season ended. This is a hilltop in the city of Nago in Northern Okinawa. You climb 700 steps to a little shrine at the top. Cherry blossom trees line the entire path. Obviously Asher wasn't impressed.

These are our friends Ron and Carolyn.

Then we drove up Mount Yaedake. The entire drive is lined with blossoms and at night they light the lanterns. Traffic was slow so Asher and I got out to walk. Gorgeous Day.

This is what happens if you let a one-year-old eat blackberries unsupervised.

"What? Me... no, I'm not stuck. I meant to do this."

Asher likes climbing off the bed... but somehow he got stuck between the dresser and the bed. His little legs were just dangling.

Trevr and I went to a "Taste of Asia" event... foods from across Asia... but mostly Japanese. Delicious.

There were also traditional Okinawa performers...

Shisa Dog Dancers...

and other random performances...

Friends Lorelei and Sharon

Here are a few videos from that night. The Taiko / Daiko drummers were amazing.

SAKURA....

It's Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Season in Okinawa... the first Cherry Blossoms in all of Japan

This festival is at the ancient Ryukyu Castle known as Nakijin

I love his crazy faces...

He loved the Blossoms

It's a beautiful venue for Cherry Blossom viewing

Lately Asher has enjoyed climbing in and out of drawers, closets, cupboards... pretty much everything in the house.

And you thought he looked like Trevr before...

A friend of ours... Michael Spagna... took these pictures of my graffiti... which one of these is not like the others.

Asher in Motion...

Just a few random videos of Asher for the Grandparents... trying his first strawberry and playing catch.

What intelligent mom lets their child try strawberries on a white skirt? Yup. Obviously I wasn't thinking that day... I shot it in black, white and yellow. (you can stop watching after the funny face).

I Can't Believe It's Been A Year...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHER!!!

The blowup pool may seem over the top...

but it was definitely necessary.

First step... get naked.

Second Step... blow out the candle

Third Step... pretend we don't live in a society with cultural norms regarding food.

He wasn't sure about it at first and kept looking at us like, "What's the catch?"

Then he just started grabbing handfuls and shoving them in as fast as he could.

If I didn't know any better... definitely chocolate.

Then Jessica painted an anime version of Asher on the Seawall. Graffiti makes a good first birthday present right?

Asher's Room

And Finally... a random Okinawa picture.

These are the doctor fish that eat dead skin off your feet. It tickles like crazy.

Obon and Eisa...

Toward the end of each summer, the Okinawans celebrate Obon- a time when they believe the spirits of ancestors come back to earth. An Okinawan woman here said that her grandmother used to tell her if she didn't behave she would send her grandfather's spirit to haunt her. It's also a season of gift-giving. So imagine Christmas and Halloween combined. Anyway, during the season Eisa dancers will wander the neighborhoods beating drums, singing and dancing to welcome home the spirits. Those who lost a loved one that year might give the Eisa dancers an extra bit of money to welcome their spirits home. This is the troop that came through our neighborhood at 9:00 pm. We followed them through the streets with the rest of the crowd for about an hour. Very fun. Next week... the largest tug-o-war in the world... seriously.

I think I'm finally caught up

I started school a few weeks ago and have been doing a lot of reading. I tend to highlight when I read and I accidentally left a blue highlighter on the bed... I don't really need to say more.

He's been trying to walk everywhere lately. He's pulling himself up on the furniture and scooting around it. Ron Gibb is helping him take a few steps here.

Yup. That's big barrel in the background. It's a restaurant we went to with a few of our friends. Why a barrel? No idea.

This is OuraWan beach. It's a pretty quiet beach at the northern end of the island. Beautiful eh?

More OuraWan

Trevr believes in getting Asher used to the water early. He's been dunking him in pools, in the shower, in the ocean... any form of water since he was three months old. It must work... Asher just sort of blinks afterward... and eventually smiles.

Trevr gets random days off during the week, so we try to spend at least a couple of them at the beach.

We think the beach is the best place for a nap.

Bath time... I figure the pictures are okay as long as their cropped in all the right places.

Cute picture until you think Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton or the joker...

then, kind of scary. :)

This is Somo Blah Blah. It's Asher's favorite bedtime toy... a very cuddly sock monkey.

Every time we go out, Japanese people stop us and ask to have their picture taken with Asher. We don't mind, it's a good way to meet people. But, we decided to start taking a few pictures of our own. If the Okinawans can have a random baby in theirs, we can have a random Okinawan in ours... yes?

This is Jessica's 32nd birthday. We went to a place called the "American Village" and ate a traditional Okinawan meal... complete with pig's feet. We don't recommend them.

The rest of the meal was good.

Asher's been getting up on all fours and doing an army crawl for the past month or two, but just started a legit crawl this week. Very exciting.

First taste of something besides rice cereal. Yummy sweet peas. We haven't gotten any better at the whole eating thing. Instead, we've just started wrapping him in towels during meal time. Much more efficient.

Asher's friend McCall gathered up a bunch of sand crabs at our last trip to the beach and let Asher play with them... we just had to keep him from eating them.

Great little spot for snorkeling- there is a large pool left behind at low tide. We went with a few families from our branch.

What do you call a woman wearing a nursing cover, snorkeling equipment, carrying a large rope for some kids, and a sleeping baby... Trevr calls her the Okinawan Statue of Liberty. Jessica calls her a mess.

A little trip for Frozen yogurt. Asher didn't get any, but you would think he did based on this smile.

Trevr and Jessica on their final dive before getting scuba certified.

These are some of the random people coming up to meet Asher. We love this place.

Cute huh.

This is Asher seeing himself on the computer. It made us laugh almost as hard as he did. He stopped as soon as he saw the camera... he usually does. So we had to get him again when he wasn't paying attention.