Domo arigatoo Mr. Roboto

We had a vegetarian lasagna, hummus, and pina colada party the other day. Stove-top lasagna is every bit as delicious as the oven baked variety. We have gotten pretty creative cooking without an oven here on Okinawa.



We used our $2 blender to make the hummus and ended up watching music videos for the Styx song "Mr. Roboto" because the lyrics are in Japanese and the song was not popular in Japan. (Domo arigatoo means thank you very much). Below is a photo of everyone acting like a robot. Some of us did better than others.

Teeth on the roof

Recently we learned that there is no tooth fairy on Okinawa. When a child looses a baby tooth here (don't worry, they grow back, as one person replied when asked about what people do with lost baby teeth), they throw it onto the roof to help the teeth grow straight.

Not too much has happened lately, cold weather, big waves, and lots of working. We went diving last week. Samui des! (It was cold!) We heard whales communicating throughout the entire dive. It was really neat. This time of year many humpback whales are in the area to breed and raise calves.




Kris is going to Shimoda, south of Tokyo, next week for some super cold diving and Nate is racking up hours at the MG (Macaroni Grill).

Setsubun

Feb. 3 is Setsubun in Japan. It is a 'seasonal division' festival where rituals are performed to chase away evil spirits at the start of spring. Traditionally, beans are thrown (beans are good luck) around your house while shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Devils out, happiness in") and then everyone has to eat as many beans as they are years old.

A newer way of celebrating is with Ehoumaki (lucky long sushi rolls). There are four rules for this ritual.
1. You make a long sushi roll with 7 kinds of food inside.
2. You do not cut the sushi roll.
3. You eat the roll facing this year's luck direction with your eyes closed (NNW for 2012).
4. You can not talk while eating.

We went to a Ehoumaki party, but for those of us who are less talented at rolling sushi, it got very messy toward the end.


Kris' amphipods have had babies! You can see a tiny amphipod that resembles an adult in the photo below (bottom right). There is an adult on the left side of the photo.