first typhoon & miyazato soba

SATURDAY:  typhoon No. 23 struck the okinawa island on saturday. stayed home all day long cos we didn't want to be blown away. we were cleaning, eating, reading and eating.

after all, the typhoon was not too bad. rained on and off and the wind kept blowing. literally peeped out the window every hour or so to find out which phase we were in.

this is the view from our place. there was no blue. everything seemed so gray. the water at the beach was low at some point and we could see the sand which we usually cannot see.
 

SUNDAY:  the typhoon was gone by the morning but another one is on its way, which will arrive here on monday. until then, it's time for a little break!

the typhoon yesterday was definitely something okinawa. so is a bowl of okinawa soba! here, we went to the best voted restaurant in nago: miyazato soba.

miyazato soba attracts both the locals and the tourists. it was about 3:00pm on sunday when we went and still very busy.

woooo. a bowl of soki soba for 500yen.

mine was a small bowl. their soba bowls were served with kombu seaweed. i guess it's their signature.

here at michi-no-eki in kyoda district in nago (道の駅　許田). it says "make a guess how much 'kimi-chan' weighs. if you get it right, we'll give you a prize." and kimi-chan says "I weigh XX kg !" 

ohhh, kimi-chan, you are such a happy person. i wouldn't want anyone to guess my weight. i couldn't guess her weight. instead, i kept thinking she looks like someone i know. but i didn't know who that was until i got home. 

now please take a close look at kimi-chan. make a guess. scroll down to see the answer.

あっ！！！

toshiro kato sensei

when i was still living in tokyo, i took toshiro kato sensei's breathing class for 2 months held at @ aoyama book center. i learned how to breath (although need some improvements!). here is kato sensei's blog. 

加藤俊朗　息に生きる LIVE FOR BREATH
http://katotoshiro.com/

yagaji & kouri islands and nago

one month has passed since kazuto and i moved to okinawa. still feel like we may be dreaming. 'visiting here' sounds more real than 'living here'. well at least for now. 

there is a sense of surreal within our minds. we may be in one of those travel postcards, kazuto sometimes mentions. tokyo feels so long ago. anyway, happy one month. we are surviving!

one of the cool things we recently found about living in okinawa is that you can go for a little getaway anytime. if you drive, say for an hour, you are fully enveloped by the wild. there, you can experience a new world. isn't that fantastic!

it's sunday and kazuto and i went for an afternoon drive. kouri-island, located in the northern part of mainland okinawa and further north of yagaji-island was where we wanted to go. checked on google maps that it's only an hour drive. good!

look at yagaji bridge, which connects the mainland and yagaji island. the emerald ocean was beathtaking.

hello, mr. hermit crab. so tiny.

another one rushing towards the water. running away from my camera was what he was doing probably. heeeyyy, come baaaacckkk!

after crossing the yagaji bridge, we arrived to yagaji island - a vast land of sugar cane fields. everything felt so earthy with deep greens and a smell of dirt. driving on yagaji island was a fantastic experience.

soon later, we crossed the second bridge of the day: kouri bridge. then we arrived to kouri island, which is a small island of 8km in circumfrence. we drove around the island in circle and circle and circle.

  

 

looking over yagaji island from kouri island. we definately wanna come back.

our next destination was nago city. we came here once by bus to go to churaumi aquarium. but today was our first to walk around.

this is nago civic center. the building was humungus and interestingly designed.

 

in downtown nago. this is the famous hinpun gajumaru, which is a big old banyan tree as old as 300 years old. standing in front of it, we felt holy!

until our next getaway!

hulu & blue seal ice cream

before moving to okinawa, we sold our tv and still haven't gotten a new one. life without a tv is not bad, not bad at all. there are moments of silence at home. good and peaceful. and healthy to the mind.

at the same time, we've been media-deprived. so much so, we finally signed up for hulu. 980yen for all you can watch. it's a great deal if you like movies, american tv shows, etc. you can watch it on your tv, pc, ipad, iphone so virtually anywhere anytime. wow.

last nite, we had a tv nite (after so long!!!) with blue seal ice cream, chocolate and vanilla. ah! can't wait for the weekend to relax. have a nice friday!!