Farmer's Market

There is a local Farmer's Market in Awase. Joe and I tend to go there multiple times a week for fresh vegetables and fruit. Here's a couple of photos. (We aren't sure how to ask in Japanese if we can take a picture -- I guess locals don't like having their picture taken).
We mostly buy vegetables (lettuce, spinach, cucumber, peppers, garlic, onion, potato, tomato, green onion etc.). Lately there have been some great fruit deals - a bagful of clementines for about 240 yen!

Rainbows at White Beach

After we had Spicy Tantan last week, Joe and I decided to go to White Beach to check out the many ships in Nakagusuku Bay.
I think we counted 16 total!

We were then distracted by a beautiful sunset. The water is no longer like a warm bath -- it's cold! Well, it's probably what an outdoor pool feels like in the Midwest's Summertime. But my internal temperature is all mixed up now!

Joe is so very observant! He's the one that noticed this rainbow. It was hard to capture in the picture, but you can almost see the second rainbow to the right.

Spicy Tantan

During the Veteran's Day holiday Joe and I decided to try some new food (well, new to me). He took me to "Spicy Tantan" on 58. I don't know if the restaurant's name is actually "Spicy Tantan", but that's what Joe and his dental pals call it.

Spicy Tantan is actually a ramen noodle dish. This is Joe's lunch - Super Spicy Tantan.

I had the Spicy Tantan. It has ramen noodles, bean sprouts, ground beef, green onion and a spicy, creamy, meaty broth. It's very good!

This was the first restaurant where we got a "soup" spoon to eat with.

Of course, you can still drink you soup right out of the bowl!

Shuri (Syuri) Castle

On Veterans' Day, Joe and I decided to make our first foray down into Naha. Our morning was spent at Shuri Castle. You may have seen our earlier post about Nakagusuku and the ruins there. Well, Shuri has been restored and was the chief gusuku (castle) of the Ryukyu Kingdom. This was one of our most interesting exposures to local culture since we've arrived.

The grounds outside the castle are lovely.



As with most of these Castles, there are several tiers and gates for each one. This is the outermost gate.



On the second inner-most tier (where they have the ticket booth to gain access to the castle itself), they had a series of different Ryukyu dancers performing to recorded music.

In this video clip you're hearing the sanshin (stringed instrument similar to a guitar and precursor to the shamisen of mainland Japan), and the sanba (the castinet-like instrument the dancer is holding in her hands).

The grounds around the castle are free, it's 800 yen to get into the castle itself. This is the inner courtyard. They're doing a little work on the main complex here.

This is the throne.

After our time at Shuri, we went from the ancient to the modern and visited Kokusai Street in downtown Naha. This is a street known for all its shops and street vendors. We found a great little spot for lunch:

I know this is way off the mark, but with its dark, cozy interior it kindof reminded us of a pub in Scotland!

I had stewed pork rib meat, and Joe had a cut of pork boiled in a marinade of soy sauce, sugar, sweet sake, and salt that was to die for. Afterwards, we noticed that everyone left their business cards all over the walls of the restaurant, so we asked the proprietor if it was okay and we left my card! You should be able to click and enlarge to find it among all the other Japanese ones.

On our way back to the car, we indulged in a little American-ness and stopped at... Starbucks! Yes, they're over here too, and we fed the monster. Nothing like sipping an iced vanilla latte while Jingle Bell Rock is playing in early November... in a tropical island in Japan! I'm so confused.

Soba

Many of you have asked "what do you eat" over there? One of our favorite dishes is soba. Soba, in Okinawa, is an egg noodle. (I guess in the mainland it's made of buckwheat).


When we first arrived on the island, we were introduced to soba in the soup form. Noodles, pork broth, pork (the kind of cut can vary) and green onion. You can add pickled ginger (the red) or other hot sauces. I just add a little ginger. You eat the noodles with your chopsticks (it's acceptable to slurp!) and lift the bowl to drink the broth. It's delicious! My mother-in-law introduced me to a different kind of soba - yakisoba. This is a little bit more like a stir fry. It has the soba noodle, a tiny bit of sauce (I think that's the "yaki" part), and vegetables - carrot, cabbage, sprouts, green onion, onion and pork and/or tofu pieces. We finally were able to try the yakisoba this weekend -- it was great too!

All clean!

Today I had my first appointment at the dentist! I spent 1300-1400 at Evans Dental Clinic with the incredible Dr. Platt, who made time in his busy schedule for a routine cleaning.

I've never had flouride this way. Dr. Stano always used the swish and Dr. Platt (the dad) always used the brush. Joe prefers the brush too, but this is all they have at Evans so that's what I got. I'm not sure about the grape-flavored goo!
A special thanks to HN Ngo who was Joe's assistant and photographer!

Curtains!

After careful consideration, Joe and I have decided to purchase curtains for our apartment! This weekend we custom ordered them from a Japanese store (www.square-awase.jp/). The curtains will fit into this window. Our patio window/doors are larger than most Japanese (333 cm) windows.We get a lot of the heat of the sunrise through that window!

Here are the sheers we picked out....

And here is the main curtain....

Homemade sushi!

This weekend Joe and I tried to make homemade sushi! (really, rolls, sashimi and nigiri). We went to the local fish market (Awase Fish market) to select the fish. We brought back (for about 1,000 yen) octopus, salmon and tuna sashimi (sashimi = slices of fish).

The Awase Fish Market has whole fish, cut fish, sushi fish, tempura fish..... all kinds! On our way out we stopped at the tempura stand to get a little bag of fried fish to go. It was great! Of course, being American, we couldn't resist whipping up some tartar sauce to go with it!

Anyways, that was our lunchtime snack. For dinner we got ready to prepare some sushi. I tried to make a roll first - salmon, cream cheese and cucumber. It looked good when I started.....

....but quickly turned into a disaster when I rolled it up and the seaweed paper broke.

And when I tried to cut it, it fell apart. I don't quite have the skills yet.

However, this one little roll came out perfectly! (We ate it all anyways, it was delicious!)

Joe tried his hand at a spicy tuna roll. Needless to say, he learned from my mistakes and made a beautiful (and tasty) roll!

So we ate the rolls. Then we tried some sashimi and nigiri. (Nigiri = a piece of fish on a little ball of rice). Joe was an expert on getting the little balls of rice just perfect.

And then we had a bit more of the spicy tuna rolls. (Joe was a great chef!)