Okinawa Comprehensive Park

We try to make the most of our weekends as a family here in Okinawa. We've found another favorite spot, the Comprehensive Park. It's the largest park in Okinawa that offers a lot of family activities. The park has three or four playground, all different and fun. You can rent bikes or bring your own for the biking trails.

You can also rent paddle boats to float around the pond in. Kids can feed the carp in the ponds or the birds on the shore. The park is also on the water, (imagine that for island living) so people can comb the beach while visiting the park.

I've noticed tent spots and people with tents set up over a weekend, I'm guessing you can rent a spot for overnight stays. The park is so large that you could get lost! I believe it even has a little history/children's museum? It's hard to tell what certain buildings are due to everything being in Japanese! You can also buy snacks and drinks from a little shop. There are several ballfields as well as a circular bike track that looks more like a centrifuge or funnel?! I guess they have races here.

It has a large water park that we hope to visit in the summer once it opens. The park is pretty packed on Sunday afternoons, but a fun place to visit. We'll be frequenting this place.

One of our many trips to the Okinawan Aquarium

Welcome to the Aquarium!

Girls in their traditional kimono greeted everyone to the aquarium. I snuck pictures of them because I wasn't sure if they would charge you to take a picture of them with your own camera! That's how a few places have been!

The handling pools were great fun for the kids. The workers would push the drifters (runaway starfish) to the kids to be able to handle. The starfish look slimy or squishy, but they are as hard as rocks!

The boys operate the underwater camera, zooming in on different fish. I think they had more fun turning the camera on themselves through the glass and zooming in on themselves and other onlookers! Don't you just love kids?!

Now that's a big ole puffer!

Waiting for the dolphin show! It's Sea World style!

They were fun to watch! This is my favorite part of the aquarium visit!

Uh....SQUID anyone? It was almost as long as Cameron is tall!


I love sea turtles!

A view of the aquarium grounds, it's the third largest aquarium in the world! You can take the four or five flights of stairs for exercise, or ride the escalator to the top!

Okay, why have water fountains if you can't even drink from them?! Who gargles for kicks?!

This was a welcome sight for all the hot tourists in the summer, though the mist hardly even gets one wet! I didn't even get condensation on my camera~! The kids enjoyed it though!

On our way out of the Aquarium

The McGuires at yet another tourist attraction! We get around!

Family picture with the Pineapple! The McGuires were here, again!!!

We rode these little carts around the pineapple park with a little voice recorded tour guide. I guess the carts go by magnets on the road or something, there were not tracks or rails and we weren't driving it!
Taylor, Daniel, and Jonah take the back seat!

Pineapple Park

Yes, another trip to the Pineapple Park!

The best part of the whole park is the sampling! You can go through the sampling line as many times as you want! You know me and my sampling escapades! These are real samples!!! Not everything in life is free, so I say, take advantage of what is!!! It was filling time for Cameron!

There's samples of everything! You can sample pineapple wine, pineapple juice, pineapple vinegar, pineapple cookies, pineapple cake, pineapple chocolate, pineapple pie, pineapple, pineapple sushi, pineapple-pickeled peppers, cow tongue, and pig face and ears, pineapple caviar, pineapple perfume, pineapple lotion, pineapple/charcoal soap..... anything pineapple!

"Dr. Fish"

My friend and I went out for a girls day out as a reward for "allowing" our husbands to go snorkeling all day. She's new to the island, so I showed her around some of the places that we've been shopping. We ate soba and yaki soba at one of my favorite little restaurants in American Village and then perused the mini mall. We came upon this little makeshift pool where some women were relaxing with their feet in the water, allowing these little fish to nibble at their feet! It's just a weird thought to have a fish nibble at your feet and it be therapeutic?! My friend and I were up for anything, so.... we gave it a whirl!

At first, I had to block out the fact that I was actually going to allow these fish to bite me! Yes it was a little weird. As soon as we put our feet in, the fish "whooshed" over to us and began their nibbling! We 'stole' the fish from the people who had been sitting there! Guess we had more goodies on our feet! It tickled at first, but then it felt like a buzzing or vibrating on my feet. It felt like those feet vibrators that we'd use at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, only I didn't get the lightheaded feeling that I got from the ones at the zoo. It actually felt good! We came home and told the guys about it, so they had to try it too. Jason, who is much more ticklish than me, was having a hard time keeping his feet in the water and not squashing the little fishies! Cameron also gave it a whirl.....it was cute watching him giggle!

According to Wikepedia:

"Doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish: Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, little dermatologists and doctorfishen; in non-medical contexts, Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker. They live and breed in the outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects."

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Ya'll!

We had our annual watchnight service at the church for New Years. We ate tons of junk food, yes, we had to stay within the norm. You know, the average person gains 15lbs over the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving-New Years? That's according to the polls the mysterious "they" took! Don't you ever wonder who the "they" is? I catch myself saying that a lot! Whoever the "they" is, they sure get a lot of credit!

Anyway, so we ate lots of good food, aka junkfood, then had a message from our Pastor, a talent show, a movie "Sheffey" and then brought in the new year commemorating the Last Supper with communion. It was a good night! The kids were given silly string to celebrate after it was all over. We adults were just glad to get us home safely and in our beds!

We were excited to have Mrs. Johnson with us! She's such a trooper and an inspiration! I couldn't believe she stayed the whole time. I told her that she 'set the bar' too high, now no one can complain about anything!! For those of you who don't already know, Mrs. Johnson is our pastor's wife, a wonderful lady, a person you feel you've known all your life in just a short time of knowing her. I feel privileged to know her and to be her friend, ....um, I think?! She has recently been diagnosed with cancer and the coming of this new year brings on a new challenge in the battle of treating this cancer. Please keep her and her family in your prayers!

Our friends, the Routons, a very talented couple! We may just get our bluegrass band started!

The kids got to show off some talent too. Jonathan signed while Emily sang. He signs while Jonah plays the harmonica and Nicholas sings.

"Sheffey"

Yes we had fun, but I was also thinking about what this new year will bring and the fact that we're in 'the last times' as the Bible says. This new year comes as a sobering one for me. Just a few questions for you, these have been drumming through my head. How are you redeeming the time? What are your goals? Will you strive to live this year as if it were your last? What legacy will you leave behind, should it be your last? We all know that so far, the mortality rate has been 100%, life is not eternal unless you have trusted Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour. Death is just a pause, a bridge to the next life, which IS eternal.

What have you done for Christ?

Remember:

"What's done for self will pass, but what's done for Christ will last."

Hammy, the Hot Wax Diver!

The other day, Daniel came out of his room calling me. "Mom, I think we have a problem." This is what I saw upon entering their room! The "crime scene" as one of our friends put it!

Evidently, Cameron had been trying to get the guinea pig, Hammy, out of his cage which was on top of the chest of drawers. Hammy got a little too wiggly and .....OOPS! He made a nose dive right into the scentsy warmer on the boys' smaller dresser!

Poor Hammy! He's been working the hardened wax out of his face now for a week!

Friends

On Christmas Eve, we had a candlelight service. The Patch Club performed with a couple of songs and a verse they had learned.

This is our Pastor's wife, Mrs. K. Johnson. We were so excited to see her this night as it was her first church service since having her surgery for cancer. Please continue to pray for her as she has only begun this battle. She is quite chipper, a very strong person and a blessing to all. With the Lord on her side and the showering of our prayers toward Heaven, she will make it through!

In Okinawa, we get our snowman, one way or the other! Here is a snowman in a jar!!

Look at all the boys! Yep, our church has mostly boys, much to our boys' excitement! After our candlelight service, we enjoyed lots of holiday treats.....JUNKFOOD!

Our friends, the Banks Family will be PCSing soon! ;( We will miss them!

This is another friend, Mrs. Boice, she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of another little Boice! She also helps to watch Daniel and Cameron for us!