Omedetou gozaimasu

Yesterday, we went to our first Japanese style wedding reception!  Our friends Yuka and Eric got married and although we didn't spend much time with the bride and groom, we saw most of our friends from the MISE lab.

Nate, Obuchi-san, Masaru, Haruka

Japanese-style wedding receptions are set up like American ones minus the dance floor and band. There is constant entertainment and the food is served izakaya-style, with large dishes brought to the table all night.

Takuma, Megumi, Kris

Course 1: Sashimi on the lazy Susan

When you arrive at the reception, you sign in with your name and address and present the fancy wedding envelope containing your "Wedding Participation Fee," as one friend explained it to us.  The envelope should be wrapped in a scarf so that you are not touching it.

Once everyone is seated, the bride and groom enter in traditional Japanese attire.  After this, there is a series of dances, music, and presentations given by friends and family. There are clips of most these events in the video below.

Eric and Yuka in traditional Japanese attire

Eric and Yuka in modern wedding attire

The bride and groom both performed, Yuka joined her belly dancing troop and Eric played the violin. And after their third change of clothes, they ended up in a modern wedding gown and suit.

There were several cameramen with pretty serious cameras and spotlights to make sure they caught it all on tape.

Toward the end of the reception, there were gifts given to the bride and groom and the parents. Yuka made a speech to her parents, Eric's father made a speech, and finally Eric made a speech.

We all had a lot of fun! Check out the video:

In other news, Nate has recently had his ingrown toenail ripped out.  See photo below.  He is recovering nicely, and is actually in less pain now than he was before. 

And our last bit of news for now:  it looks like we are expecting a baby girl in April! 

Long time no turkey

It's been awhile since our last post. We've both been working a lot and haven't had much of anything exciting going on.

It's been about three years since we've had turkey, so this Thanksgiving we had a Turkey party.  Having access to base made this possible.  We were able to buy a cooked 14 pound turkey to share with our friends, some of whom had never had turkey before!  (Turkey is not common here in Japan.)  We also had the regular sides, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and some sweet potato casserole.











We ended up having a big turnout, with some friends from Ryudai (Kris' old job) and some friends from Macaroni Grill. There were three rounds of guests, but unfortunately we didn't get photos of everyone.

 

The turkey was delicious and I guess everyone else liked it because there were no leftovers!  Only Masaru had to season his turkey with soy sauce because "it doesn't have any flavor"!!! .

Some of our guests brought some desserts, which also disappeared fairly quickly.

It's almost time for Christmas and in Okinawa it seems that Christmas is synonymous with fried chicken.  Even this Santa has a piece of chicken in his hand!

Long time...

It's been awhile since our last post, but we have lots of good reasons. Since last time, we've moved to a new apartment, Kris' started her new teaching job, and Nate found himself a new job as well!  We've also finally completed all of the paperwork for getting access to the bases here on Okinawa.  The U.S. military rivals Japan when it comes to paperwork!

Teaching has been keeping Kris busy with writing lectures, grading quizzes, and midterms (only 8 week terms, so this one is almost over!) 

Nate was recently hired to work at the SCUBA diving shop on base, so he will be saying goodbye to the Macaroni Grill and starting there in the next week or two.

We are enjoying our new apartment and have finally taken some pictures for everyone.  It is a bit smaller than our other one, but has a lot more character! Hopefully, we'll have a bit more free time now to let y'all know of our goings on. 

The entire apartment as seen from the front door.

The kitchen/dining room - note the pink tile on the walls!

The blue tiled toilet room and sink area and purple tiled shower/bath room.

The office (with the kitchen in the background).

The bedroom.

The view from our balcony...note the ocean in the distance.

Otskaresama

We've been pretty busy doing paperwork for Kris' new job and moving to a new apartment. Everything seems to be falling into place.  Here are a few random photos that we've taken over the past couple of weeks.

A sign at Mos Fine Coffee and Burgers: " Hamburger is Life", need I say more?

Finally, a photo of the high heeled Converse shoes!

The t-shirt that employees wear in the shoe department at Jusco: "We'd like to be honest and sincere at any time."

A parking attendant at a restaurant, notice his orange directing wand and the umbrella to keep cool in the sun.

In other news, four of our friends defended their Masters theses today.  They all did a great job and we went to Paikaji to celebrate!

The new Masters wore their hats proudly.

Birthdays

 Another year in Okinawa brings us a lot of thoughtful birthday wishes and some very interesting gifts.

A kangaroo ball bottle opener from Australia

 

Some "Nice" goodies from the U.S.

Slick...enough said

Some interesting hygiene products

A group of us ate lunch at Mou on Nate's 40th birthday! Nate wore a crown.

 Takuma (in the red sweatshirt) gave Nate a "King Beer's" mug with a lid for snacks.

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes and gifts! 

S White on Okinawa!

 Nate's sister Susan has been visiting us on Okinawa.  We've been keeping her pretty busy with sightseeing and eating lots of delicious food. Nate and Susan went to a traditional Okinawan house and had tea with several elderly Okinawan ladies who thought the Whites were funny.

 Susan enjoyed eating Soki Soba and even started eating sushi!

 Nate was protecting himself from Habu (snakes) as he walked down this "trail" made of concrete into the jungle.

 We also went to the Reimer House where Susan made instant friends with Maika and Seira and Jamie sensei made instant friends with a praying mantis.

Susan warmed up to Karaoke in a private room pretty quickly.

 Nate made friends with the fisherman at Motobu port before our trip to Ie jima. We took the 30 minute ferry to this small island for the day.

 We did some snorkeling and lots of driving around. We even tackled the arduous climb to the top of Mt. Gusuku (172 meters high). Concrete stairs to the top make it a steep climb. We often had to stop and make room for the elderly ladies with umbrellas who were descending from the top and laughing at our tiredness.

 A view from the top.

 We did a lot of snorkeling while Susan was here. She really enjoyed being in the water.

 On Ie jima, we saw a school of squid!

 Susan even fed some goats at Zanpa and went swimming under the waterfall at Tadake falls.

 

And most impressive, Susan kept a blog of her trip.  To see more go to: 

http://okinawabloggerhead.blogspot.jp/