9-18-15
Today was the earthquake in Chile and even though it is many
thousands of miles from us here in Okinawa, it still had an affect here. We actually
found this out the scary way-with a 3a.m typhoon siren as a wakeup call! Come
to find out this alarm has not gone off in a few years. Lucky us? From 3a.m until
6a.m. we were under an advisory and then another alarm went off at 6a.m that
changed it to a warning. It wasn’t until 10a.m that we got the all clear, but
were still advised to stay out of the water due to the currents being ‘off’. Even
with the warnings, announcements (which are only in Japanese), and alarms,
business still carried on as usual. It was a very unusual day and everyone kept
looking over their shoulders, you know… just in case. So add that to my list of
firsts!
9-19-15
So the blog title may be a bit dramatic, but that was how I felt
at the time. Keep reading, it’s a good one!
What a busy and painful weekend. Today there was a Pirate Day’s
event going on at one of the marinas to celebrate national talk like a pirate day.
The Air Force Base, Kadena, has been advertising this event for weeks so we
thought it was a smart thing to check it out. Boy were we disappointed.
Something or someone must have fallen through because when we got there, an
hour and half after the start time, it was a ghost town. Makayla and Kayden
chose not to dress up at the last minute and I am so thankful for that. It broke
my heart to see the kids walking in, as we were leaving, all dressed up in
their pirate best. We didn’t let this ruin our weekend though. We wiped our
tears and it was on to the next stop. I have been anxious to check out another
park.
We pulled into the parking lot of the Tobaru Koen Park, also
known as the birdcage park, and you almost think you are in the wrong place.
The parking lot is in front of a little grass field and a small sandbox with a
few baby slides. Then you notice a park map located next to a trail. Phew, I couldn’t
take anymore disappointment for the day. It was a decent hike along the trail,
very jungle like and I kept my eye out for any banana spiders that may have
tried to attack. Just as we all worked up a good sweat we came across the “birdcage”
and then you have that ah ha moment, the name makes sense. The “birdcage” is
actually a giant observatory structure. There are 5 floors and lots of stairs
in between, but the view from the top is well worth the climb, actually it is beautiful
from every floor. Off to the right is why we came here. The GIANT roller slide.
Each of the kiddos carried their roller slide butt protectors and ran to get in
line to ride the slide down. Preston quickly made his way to the bottom to
catch the kiddos while I stayed at the top to push them down. Hahaha evil mommy.
Makayla and Kayden got off with no trouble. McKinley was a little hesitant so I
decided to go down with her. She chose to ride down on my back instead of my
lap, which at the time I thought would be a good idea. I really didn’t know
what to expect, but you do get moving on this slide. So much that you need to
slow yourself down by dragging your feet along the metal edges. I did not wear
the appropriate park shoes and quickly found out you can not slow yourself down
when wearing sandals. Unless you want some extreme friction burn. It only took
a second for it to be painful! At this point I was a bit scared for myself and
my little one now choking me, so I tried to slow down by grabbing along the
edges of the slide. *note the top of the slide is covered by a cage type
covering so you can’t fall off. I was extremely lucky because when I tried this,
I stuck my arm out just enough and at the right spot where the top cage part was
getting smaller-I got my arm stuck! Now, at this moment it wasn’t painful, I
just couldn’t pull my arm out. I almost thought Preston was going to have to come
sliding down to my rescue. Then what if he couldn’t get it out? They were going
to have to cut off my arm?! I finally got my arm loose and we continue flying
down the slide. Preston grabs McKinley at the bottom as I go flying off the end
of the slide. My goodness, I was ready to go home and the kids were just
getting started. To get back to the top of the slide you have to climb many many
stairs. So, I sat out a few minutes and took lots of pictures of the kids going
down. And this is when the pain kicked in. Ouch! The kids loved the slide and
soon McKinley was going down by herself too. We just made sure Makayla and
Kayden were in front of her and behind to help control her speed. Once the kids’
bums were numb we climbed up the observatory to enjoy the 360 degree view of
the city. *Another note: None of the kids or Preston were injured during this
time lol
Everyone worked up an appetite so we headed to lunch. I read
about this interesting pizza buffet place called Shakey’s (which almost makes
you feel like you are back in Oceanside) and they serve some unique types of
pizza.
This one was my favorite. Just what you think it is.
In honor of silver week (includes Days of the aged and Autumn Equinox Holidays) here in Okinawa/ Japan, most cities are having a festival. We attended the Ishikawa Festival. There were a few rides, jump houses, inflatable slide, food vendors and carnival games. We were a bit shocked at the cost of everything and definitely helped the city of Ishikawa out financially, we just might not be attending many more festivals. Lol There was also live music that we sat down and listened to for a bit. Luckily the wind picked up and made this event very enjoyable to be outside. The best part was we walked the beach at night! A very eventful day.
9-20-15
The plan for today was to head up to the most northern point
of the island, but after yesterday we decided to just hang out at home. I could
barely lift my arm this morning! We enjoyed a relaxing day at home and caught
up on some chores. You need to have these days too.
