I Post

This is a post for my uncle Mike. Because he asked for the address of my blog which I haven't posted in for over a year. Here's to you Uncle Mike!



!חנוכה שמח

More postings hopefully to come.

Autumn Inspired Gumpaste Deco

I bought these cutters about a year ago and this is the first time I've used them. I've used every shape so far except for the yellow one below. I can't seem to figure out what in the world that shape is. It's obviously supposed to be some sort of leaf but it looks like a slice of pizza you'd see in a Salvador Dali.

Since petal dust is SOOOO expensive I decided to make some of my own. All you do is buy a set of non-toxic chalk pastels (AKA soft pastels), rub them on a fine mesh and you get a powder you can use to custom color your confection decorations. I bought a set of plastic storage tubes meant for beading at Michaels.

I just love the colors!!! I've only dusted 5 colors as it's very time consuming. I can't wait to see how purples and browns will look. Acheiving this look was much simpler than I thought it would be. I rolled out some uncolored Gum Paste very thin and cut them with the leaf cookie cutters. I pressed each one into my veiner from Michaels and left them to dry on my rolling pin to acheive the wavy look (leafs are never flat). Then I took a dry soft paint brush and went to town with my 5 colors.

Last days in Okinawa

Tonight is our last night in Okinawa. It has been such a wonderful vacation and I'm sad to leave but Ill be so happy to see my husband!!! Jose Ive missed you so much! And to everyone else, please excuse my lack of correct characters as I am using a Japanese keyboard. 

Even though I wanted to take part in the worlds biggest game of tug of war we were unable to due to the traffic and our schedule. We did however drive by the site the day before and I got to see the ginormous ropes to be used in the game.

We arrived in Onna Village Sunday afternoon. Above you can see the rooftop and view of our 3rd floor room. It was so nice to stay in such a beautiful room as this one. Dispite the visual violations by the quas-nudists we were sharing our room with it was a wonderful stay, and it was right across the street from the wedding.

Tatami Room

Living Room

ASKA MATSUDO & TOMAS PLUSKAL WEDDING!

The invitations clearing stated that photography was prohibited but we were given permission to click away when the cake came out. Aska was beautiful in her Kimono and Tomas was...shall we say, traditional in his...umm...whatever you call traditional Czech clothing.

1200 yen worth of coffee the next morning. Sheesh!!

We headed back from Onna Village to Naha on Monday morning, on the wrong side of the road. Glad I wasn't driving, I made my mom do all of it. We killed some time at the DHS mall where Nana and Papasan were picking us up and we found the Tokyo Lash Bar!!!!! Myself, my mom, Santina and Lori (former co-worker) were supposed to go to this place in the pearl district to get our eyelashes done and they went out of business...and now we found one...in Okinawa!! They have really cool false lashes made out of spotted feathers or feathers from peacocks.

This is our last supper in Okinawa. Mamasan made quite the spread and we convinced the family to visit Oregon next year. My mom and I tried to make Ceviche (as Papasan stated over and over again that he wanted) and we did our best with the ingredients we could find. Shrimp, lemon, red onion, Thai peppers, cucumber, avocado, cilantro and persimmon with a dash of Tabasco sauce...it was actually really good.

The spread of Ceviche, sashimi, tempura vegetables, miso with clams, green tea, mochi and wonderful company!

Rennaisance Okinawa Resort

I know what your thinking. Wow a resort! Desiree must be loaded! But alas it is not so. We are staying in a little hotel across the street and I snuck in to use their internet...Shhhh...Dont tell! I left my USB cord at home so I have no way to upload my pictures. Aska & Tomas` wedding was so beautiful! Aska was in her traditional Japanese dress and Tomas in his traditional Czech uniform. There was music and dancing and drumming and food as far as the eye could see. I would have taken more pics but it was prohibited...but I snuck a few.

We are sharing our hotel with Askas host family from Australia. The host father likes to walk around in his speedo so Ive been locking myself in the tatami room on the side, sending my mom out to see if the visual coast is clear. Well there are people like up to use the computer and I figure since Im not an actual paying customer I should go. Will post pictures later!

Only a few days left in Okinawa :*(

Mom and Papasan at Bibi Beach

Its been so busy here! Papasan has had us on a strict schedule of go-go-go! But it　はsベンふん。。。案dのwい館：tふぃぐれ王tほwとチャン下ティs！！！

Papasan at Smiley Gas (Papasan`s Company)

Our house next to Nana

Ok...i dont know what i just did but i cant wait to get back to my American computer. As I was saying, weve been busy but Nanas parents are so sweet and very kind to us. They set us up in our own house next to theirs and have been feeding us massive amounts of food and taking us out and pretty much playing taxi for us. They are so kind!

Wind blowing wind at Bibi Beach

Having kohi with Nana

We went to the photo booth and took pictures. They were so fun we are taking more on Monday!!

Mom and I at a panoramic site.

Shopping at Kokusai Street in Naha

Salted Icecream shop. You get some vanilla ice cream and you top it with different salt flavors.

My favorite was green tea and hibiscus salt.

View after dropping off Nana at school.

Gyokusendo Cave at Okinawa World. I didn`t have any tread left on my shoes so I kept slipping. I was like an old lady holding on to the railings the whole time.

Taiko performance!

Making traditional Okinawan Donuts with Noriko Mamasan.

Kareoke. I started falling asleep around 11pm and woke up to everyone singing We Are The World and i just couldn`t stop cracking up. I hope they weren`t offended.Waiting for the ferry to take us to a nearby small island.

Asking for directions how to get to the snorkel shop. We wandered around for a while...because there was no snorkel shop.

The cool findings I found in the ocean and am planning to make jewelry from.

Long Day, lots of Drama

Today started at 3:15am when I started hearing people outside of Aska's house. I ignored and went back to sleep until 4:45am. I walked downstairs trying not to wake anyone but apparently I woke my mom. Since we couldn't go back to sleep we decided to make some coffee (or Kohi as they say it here) and chilled in the humid living room with the doors open. We saw someone walking outside. Then we saw another person...with a flash light. We heard them speaking and walking back and forth in front of the house. We saw a police car drive by. Then another. Then ANOTHER. Before I continue with this story I must tell another story.

The guy who used to live next door was an American Military guy who was dating this girl who was Japanese Brazilian and she was married to this other military guy. She convinced the neighbor boyfriend to kill her husband because she claimed he was beating her. He was swayed and killed the husband and now both of them are in jail. Once all this happened the Japanese and American detectives came out and interviewed all neighbors and to their surprise she was not actually Japanese Brazilian, and she had 7 lovers plus her husband and told them all she was from different countries.

This happened in January.

When the sun started to rise and the frogs began singing, my mom and I decided to go for a walk. We were greeted by 5 Ja-Po-Po's (Japanese Police). They questioned us...err..they tried to as much as they could in broken Engrish. They asked if anyone lived in the house (of the murderer) and we were obliged to tell them the story of the killer boyfriend. They were very friendly to us and followed us around the neighborhood (Pictured above) as we took our morning walk.

Not wanted to wake our hosts we hung out on the patio. You can see a small silouhette of a snail on my mom's seat cushion behind her, i was graced with the presence of a lizard on my seat.

We had a wonderful breakfast of Okinawan sausages with whole grain mustard, avocados, tomatoes and toast with hazelnut butter.  We went to go snorkeling with all our gear however the tides were dangerous today and we didn't feel like risking our lives (your welcome Jose). We headed to Shuri Castle in Naha. Unfortunatly I thought I left my camera in the car...it was in my mom's purse the whole time. The highlight of the castle was the traditional tea house. We had Jasmine Tea and traditional sweets...mmm.

Japanese McDonald's (we did not eat here)

Sitting outside Japanese Starbucks (we did drink here). My mom sat here for 2 hours while Aska and I had a musical jam session in a Naha suburb. We arrived 10 minutes early and walked inside to a lounge with light purple sofa's and Christmas foil garland twirled around every rafter in the place. As I approached the stage there was a set of drums, an acoustic bass, an upright piano and a flutist assembling her flute. The pianist was named "Yu" which he proudly told me was Japanese for "Dragon...haha!" and he was 62 years old with a salt and pepper pony tail. He was pretty much an old male japanese version of Emma. He piano skills were amazing (sugoy!).  We jammed for too long as my mom was falling asleep outside Japanese Starbucks and the homeless mental were attracting to her like flies on doo. She said she was starting to feel like one of them.

Once we arrived to save her from the ravenous Naha homeless women we went to the Japanese fish market where there was so much to taste, and sample and see.

Pig is a staple of Okinawan diet. Below I sampled pig face, pig tongue and pig ears. I steered clear of the pig feet.

But this guy was adimate that I would take a picture of him and his pig foot. He was saying "foto! foot! PEEEEEACE!" Get it? The pig foot is making the peace sign.

We took a turn for the worse when I was physically assaulted by some indigenous Okinawan woman who were amazed with the size of my lala's. One of them poked my lala and make the big boob gesture on herself and raised her eyebrows. Another one made the "i'm squeezing your boobies" gesture and couldn't keep her eyes off of them. I didn't think this would happen while in Japan however Aska kindly explained that Okinawan and Japanese women are not the same. I then remembered how my step family from Micronesia acts sometimes...not so different.

You can't really read it that well but I was pretty impressed to see "Mi mi ga: Hog's ears with peanut butter". I ordered Okinawan Soba noodles.

Umm...hello, how could I NOT take a picture with this guy who has a surf-wave of a hair-do?!