I do not like green eggs and SPAM. I do not like them, Sam I Am!

C'mon! You know you don't like it either! SPAM seems to be pretty popular around here. I mean, take a look at the first picture. Where else could you go and see so many square centimeters of space devoted to such a delicacy as SPAM? It was created in 1937. I've had it more times than I'm going to admit and I have to tell you I think I had SPAM from the original containers from back in '37! It lasts forever! You know how they say the only things to survive a nuclear bomb are cockroaches and Twinkies? I strongly believe that SPAM should be added to that list. With SPAM and cockroaches you have one source of sodium nitrite and one source of protein. And it goes without saying that most people could live by Twinkie alone...

I think I'm turning Japanese. I think I'm turning Japanese. I really think so!

Konnichiwa! O genki desu ka. Watashi wa Deanna desu. Anata-no namae wa. Watashi wa kangoshi to shufu. :) Yep. It's coming along.

I'm not quite halfway into my 3 month intensive Japanese course and it's going well! We learned colors this week. Yes, everything seems so elementary at the beginning. I can pop out some pretty long sentences though!

The great thing about this class is that we are learning hiragana and katakana characters. We are learning to read and write them. If you looked up "confusion" in the dictionary you would find my picture there. There are over 100 characters that we have to learn. At some point we will even learn Kanji. In the next week or so the sensei will not be writing in Romaji anymore. Romaji is how I started this post. It will all turn into hiragana and katakana.

Hopefully, I'll have LOTS of time to do nothing but study Japanese in the future. Sayonara!

Dewa kore de.
Bye for now!

Nothing could be funner than to be a red light runner in the...morning

.

Yes, I am aware that funner is not a word but, it rhymed! You know...nothing could be finer (feener) that to be in Carolina (caroleena) in the morning...yeah, um...it's a Daffy Duck cartoon.

Anyway, I've learned since we've been here that I will be coming back with at least two bad habits. The one that has the least amount of consequences is slurping your soba right out of the bowl and then picking the bowl up and drinking up what's left. Mmm mmm! The worst thing that could happen there is if you're doing this at the table with your mother. You know you're going to get the fast-as-lightning smack to the back of the head.

The second thing I'll leave here with is an impeccable ability to run red lights with the best of 'em. On Okinawa red lights are more of a...how should I say it? They're more of a suggestion. It's always good to count to 3 when your light turns green. You have to give those stragglers some time to finish racing through the intersection in their little cracker boxes they call cars.

I was thinking of trying red light running while slurping soba from a bowl just to liven things up a bit. What do you think?

What's in a (dog's) name...

On Friday we added a new member to our family. I was perusing www.okinawayardsales.com/ and found the cutest little dog! He's an Oki mix. That's short for Okinawan mix. That's the Japanese version of a Heinz 57, a mutt...whatever you want to call them. His birthday was actually on Christmas so he's one year old. He's been to obedience school and he's great with kids. He knows a lot of basic commands and won't snatch things out of your hands. He's the polar opposite of Millie, God rest her soul. :( He is so good with Jenna. She can play tug-of-war with him and hand him his bone...whack him on the head and do pretty much what any other 4 year old does to a dog. He doesn't do anything. He loves it!

Probably all of you know that we have a cat. Sidney's pushing 15 come April 1st. We brought The Dog in and he was less than pleased. The loud, low-pitched sound that came out of him was pretty impressive! They scrapped really good once. Poor Sidney was 4 paws off of the floor when he grabbed the dog's neck. He spun around him like the Tasmanian devil. It was hilarious!

The Dog (previously known as Roger) has now been given a Japanese name. Now he's Yoshi which means good luck and joy. It was the favorite one of three that I liked the most. The scary thing about it is I told my best friend, Jenn we were going to give him a Japanese name and she said he looks like a Yoshi. Hmm. That was too weird! Like she said, "great minds think alike!"

I'd like to buy the world a Calpis...

Well, we've found what seems to be our favorite drink on the island. It's called calpis and is an uncarbonated soft drink manufactured by Calpis Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo.

It was first marketed on July 7, 1919. It quickly became popular in pre-war Japan as its concentrated form meant it kept well without refrigeration. The polka dot packaging used to be white dots against a blue background until the colours were inverted in 1953. It was originally themed on the Milky Way, which is in reference to the Japanese festival of tanabata on July 7, a traditional observation seen as the start of the summer. Calpis was first sold on this day.

Calpis has a light, somewhat milky and slightly acidic flavor, similar to plain or vanilla-flavored yogurt. Its ingredients include water, nonfat dry milk and lactic acid. It is produced by lactic acid fermentation. It is sold as a concentrate which is mixed with water or sometimes milk just before consumption. A pre-diluted version known as Calpis Water (カルピスウォーター), or its carbonated variety, known as Calpis Soda（カルピスソーダ, are also available. It is also used to flavor kakigori (shaved ice dessert) and as a mixer for cocktails and chuchai In English-speaking countries the beverage is sometimes called "Calpico," because "Calpis" may sound like something else that doesn't sound so nice. I edited it for you. Quite frankly, the first time someone told me what it was and asked me if I wanted to try it I was shocked at what I thought they had said. :)

A drink, a driver...3 years in the Clink

I just learned on TV this afternoon that the Japanese are offering an all-inclusive incentive package to prevent DUIs. If you are IN THE CAR and the driver is drunk you...YOU...can face 3 years in prison and a 500,000 yen fine. That's 5,000 USD. If the driver is drunk and there are three passengers in the car...ALL THREE passengers face 3 years in prison and a 500,000 yen fine. It doesn't matter if you've been drinking or not. It only matters if the driver has. Three sober passengers...one drunk driver? Four people going to prison and $20,000 for the government.

Now, I'm thinking if this little plan was implemented in the US that might take care of a lot of things. I don't know...

Tree hugger & canvas bag lugger

Nope. I'm not. But, it made for a good title! If I've learned anything in the past several months it's that recycling is the responsible thing to do. I always knew that it was, but it's so much easier when given the equipment to do it. Housing was nice enough to provide 4 separate recycling bins which we use for paper, plastic, glass & metal. All we do on recycling day is bag it up separately (in recyclable plastic bags, of course) and put it on the curb.

Now, being the educator that I am, it's quickly become my mission to educate the Not-So-Respectful Neighbor who (with spouse and child in tow) was walking their dog and stopped in front of our house (or, rather, the dog made them stop). It's 0915 on Christmas Eve and our front door is open. They stood there while the aforementioned dog left us an early Christmas present. Here's where the recycling comes in. Those nice little plastic bags you leave with that have your groceries in them? Here's a good chance to recycle them. Pick up after your dog! The Japanese are serious about this...or at least the town of Chatan. You've seen this before...

You're right. Not the best grammar but, a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm thinking of making this poster-sized and planting it in the front yard by the tidy little pile next to the tree. All day long I checked the yard because I knew, I mean I just KNEW that they would at least send their daughter back to pick it up. After all...it was Christmas Eve!

Since we've been strong-armed into doing the right thing by recycling then if you know me you know that I have to do it 100%. What I've found is there is almost NOTHING that can't be recycled. Really! If you have a chart to go by it makes it virtually painless. Within a few weeks you won't even have to look at it anymore. I can tell you that we have about 10% of the trash that we used to.

The commissary has big canvas bags that we bought to reuse every time we go. We've cut down on those little plastic bags quite a bit. Of course, it helps when you remember to take them in with you! And, every now and then I'll use a few because I'm thinking of putting some out by the sign next to the tree.

Naturally, there are more people here that don't recycle to the fullest potential but at least they're putting forth a little effort. Believe it or not, even Jenna is in on the action. So, if a 4 year old can do it...

Merii Kurisumasu!

Well, we sure hope Santa can find us! This Christmas the Hosea family is on Okinawa, Japan. I say “on” because we are living on an island. Okinawa is the largest of the 161 islands that constitute the Ryukyu Islands with a population of approximately 1.4 million. There are 44 inhabited and 117 uninhabited islands. Okinawa is the name for the island of Okinawa (Okinawa Shima), the name of the 47th prefecture of Japan (Okinawa Ken). The capital city is Naha. The kanji characters for Okinawa mean "offshore rope". Okinawa can be found between mainland Japan and Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean and is considered an International resort destination. It is found in the same latitude zone as Hawaii, Florida and the Bahamas and is the only prefecture that is located in a subtropical climate zone near what I call the Tropic of Skin Cancer. The average annual temperature is 72.3 F. Winter averages 60.8 F and never gets below 50 F. Don’t let that AVERAGE temp fool you. It is so hot and humid here it makes sticking your head in the oven feel comfortable. High temps can be in the upper-90s and lower-100s. Okinawa is 60 miles long, 2 to 28 miles wide and is accessible by air or sea. The island is a 2 ½ hour flight from Tokyo and 2 from Osaka. The Okinawans grow sugarcane, sweet potatoes and rice and live to be 135. LOL Their longevity really is amazing. We live a mere ½ mile from the beach close enough to walk to but too close in the case of a tsunami. I could just go on and on about Okinawa but…I save the best for my blog. The link to that is www.okinawamama.blogspot.com.

We’ve been pretty busy since we got here on July 24th. We were in temporary housing for 15 days until we moved into housing. Lonnie has been working non-stop as a staff nurse in the ICU. Needless to say they are short-staffed and he has been working more than anything else…other than sleeping. Once a week for two years he is taking a class for the Marine Corps Command & Staff College. They’re teaching him about wars…past and present. Taking the class while we’re here is “supposed” to prevent him from having to take it later while having us at a duty station for only one year instead of three. I am still playing stay-at-home mom. Jenna is in the middle of her 2nd year of preschool. We had a hard time deciding where she should go to school but she started the East-West Montessori School in September and loves it! It’s an international school so Americans & Japanese both attend. The teacher and her assistant are fluent in Japanese and English. Three times a month Jenna has Japanese class after school. She has learned a lot of the language just from being in her regular class. We were at the exchange once and she was singing a song. It was the first time I had heard her sing in Japanese. I asked her what she was singing because I couldn’t understand her. She said she didn’t know. The funny thing is that two Japanese ladies just looked at her and smiled when they passed us. Mmm hmm. THEY knew what she was saying! I have been encouraging Jenna to use the words she knows. The gate guards at Camp Lester are all Japanese. I tell her to say “arigato gozaimasu” (that’s ‘thank you’) to them when we go through the gate. Sometimes she doesn’t say it and when I ask her why she says, “I’m too shy!” Right. Other times, on her terms, she wants me to roll down her window and she yells it out. The guards LOVE it! They just smile and laugh and wave at her. It’s so cute. She is the most outgoing child. She runs out the backdoor to the playground and before she’s even off of the porch she’s yelling, “Hi! My name is Jenna!”

Since I am the passionate one for languages I am the one that will really be leaning Japanese. In January I will be starting a 3 month intensive class. It’s 3 two hour classes a week. I can’t wait! At the beginning of December our church started an early service. I am the pianist for that service. We go to Koza Baptist Church which is the only Southern Baptist church on the island. It is a 99% military congregation so people are always coming and going. The new church was built and they started having services there in June. The service is full and parking has fast become a big problem. So many people just keep on coming so we really needed an early service. The big new thing with me this past year is that I’ve become a runner! The picture on the card is from my first race. That was an 8K (4.97 miles). The last race I ran was a 10K (6.2 miles) and I ran the whole thing without stopping to walk…barely. Thank goodness I had my best friend, Jenn, the world’s best motivator to cheer me along. I’ve come a long way from walking with a cane a year ago! In between those races I ran two 5Ks (3.1 miles). I actually won 2nd place in my category in one of those races. Lonnie asked if I was the only one running. Droll…very droll. The only person running…and I still win 2nd. How many of you knew I married a comedian?

I have to mention that the Japanese people are so nice. Their politeness and warmth far outweigh anything you see back in the States. Our first trip to McDonald’s totally took us by surprise. Those people were so happy to see us! I don’t know how many people called out to us when we walked in. When we were leaving there were 7 or 8 employees just bowing and thanking us. It was crazy! Most of the time when we went out to eat in the States you can’t even get anyone to look you in the eye and forget about smiling. And, what’s “thank you”? The uniforms they wear are like what you used to see in our McDonald’s back in the early 80’s. They have cute little skirts with pumps, button-down shirts, pressed pants. There are no stains or bleach marks. And they wear those cute little paper hats! The Japanese let their children run around by themselves. You can see a child Jenna’s age out by themselves and you know what? Nobody’s going to come along and take them. I can leave my car doors unlocked with my iPod, purse, camera, attaché case with all of our millions in it and no one’s going to take it…unless… Yeah. Whenever we’re on base I lock everything up or take things out because, unfortunately, if anyone’s going to take anything…it’s going to be an American. Sad but true.


Lastly, we are living on base in what I affectionately call, The Bunker. These houses are built to withstand tropical cyclone winds that can easily exceed 100 mph. We live on Camp Lester where the military hospital is along with a lot of housing and one of the middle schools. That’s about it. It’s a very small base. It’s really considered to be part of Camp Foster. When we come out of the main gate if we go 1 mile to the left we’re at Camp Foster. If we go right for 2 miles we’re at Kadena Air Base. But, more importantly, if we go straight out the gate Starbuck’s is right on that corner! There are 15 bases on the island. The main Army one is Torii Air Station. The Air Force has Kadena Air Base. The Marines monopolize everything else with Camps Buckner, Bush, Butler, Courtney, Foster, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and Camps Hansen, Kinser, Lester, McTureous, Schwab, Shields & then Naval Facility White Beach. Almost every day we have something flying over the house. Whether it’s Marine Harrier jets or Air Force F-15s, KC-10s or KC-135s (the latter two being refuelers) things are never boring. Every now and then we do get the Navy F-18s overhead. Those are the legacy Hornets and not the Super Hornets. I’m 100% sure of that and am quite adept at identifying them now. Thank you, Daniel for helping me make that distinction. Sometimes, if we’re lucky enough, they fly so low that the windows almost rattle. Jenna & I love it! We’re always running out the front door to take pictures of them flying overhead.

We hope everyone has a wonderfully Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If anyone wants to call us we have a Vonage phone but PLEASE…check the time before you call. We are on JKT which is Japan Korea Time. Daylight Savings is not observed here. If you are on the East coast at this time of the year we are 14 hours AHEAD of you…Central time = 15 hours ahead…Pacific = 17 ahead. It’s hard work living in the land of the rising sun and getting up before the rest of the world but…someone has to do it!

Always remembering the reason for the season…
Lonnie, Jenna’s Mommy (aka Deanna) & Jenna

Revenge is best served cold...or with a headbutt!

Wikipedia describes it this way:

A headbutt is a strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the cranium as areas of impact. Effective headbutting revolves around striking a sensitive area with a less sensitive area, such as striking the nose of an opponent with the forehead. It is known as a risky maneuver: a misplaced headbutt can cause more damage to the person delivering the headbutt than to the person receiving it. My little 4 year old is a pro! I'm signing her up for cagefighting at the Y next week!

Ah, yes. For all of those times that Daddy's picked on her Baby Girl got her payback! A couple of weeks ago Lonnie and Jenna were sitting on the loveseat playing when Jenna threw her head back and gave Daddy a good 'ol-fashioned shiner!
It makes a Momma proud! That's my baby!

When what to my wondering eyes did appear...

...but a member of the

Kingdom:
Animalia

Phylum:
Chordata

Class:
Mammalia

Order:
Chiroptera

Suborder:
Megachiroptera

Family:
Pteropodidae

Genus:
Pteropus

...conjuring up all kinds of fear...

Yep. We got home from church about 2015 and I was the first one to walk to the front door. I felt this sudden gust of wind and was thinking it was going to be a windy night or else I knew what it was like to experience the brush of angel's wings. WOW! I didn't jump 10 feet in the air like I did at the Riverwalk right after we moved to San Antonio and that 20 foot viper slithered in front of me. Hmm...seemed like 20 feet at the time. And it was poisonous. He just had that look about about him. I know these things...

Anyway...the bat. This is no small mammal and apparently he's essential to the new version of the cardiac stress test they're trying out on this very island! The average wingspan is 5 feet and he was pushing right up against that. It was very, VERY impressive. I would love to get a picture of one of these little guys. Apparently, they hang out in droves in some of the trees here on the base. You know, what do they call a group of bats anyway? Is it a herd...like cows? A murder...like crows? Or how about a pride...like lions? Nah. They're just a colony. That's not nearly as impressive as a murder. I think they should change the name. I'll work on that.

You know the jury's still out where sushi is concerned, but what about bat? I hear they taste just like chicken! Mmm, mmm! Nothin' like a little deep-fried bat-on-a-stick at the county fair. It's just a little chewy. Hey, would you pass the salt?