West Coast Adventures Part 1

Remember that free airline ticket Joel won at the World Famous Hansen Mud Run? Well, we used it on a crazy cool adventure to San Jose, Las Vegas, then back to San Jose for a whirlwind week-long trip back in September.

Peace out Okinawa! See you again soon!

Yup. This was on my brother's car. :-p

It was SO refreshing to hang out with our nephews in San Jose! Parker REALLY enjoyed the whale shark we brought him... turns out it squeaked though. Would have second guessed that decision had I known!

Our very first night in San Jose, Joel and I had the boys all to ourselves as my brother and Nikki went to San Fran for a Billy Joel concert. Parker had this book memorized and was able to read us the entire thing!

Ah, Koda. The hyper active, adorably playful German Shepherd.

Parker at the park!

The boys love their Daddy (though, they also get quite a few snuggles from Nikki!)

Joel and I took a walk up a neighborhood hill near my brother's place and MAN, what beautiful country! It was SO dry though. We are not used to seeing anything remotely drought-ish in Okinawa.

After a couple of days in San Jose, we met up with our amazing friends Alex and Kelly in Las Vegas!!! Thanks for coming from Ohio, guys!

I'm a huge CSI fan. That show and the Ocean's 11 movies has been my only reference to Vegas (makes you wonder why I wanted to go, LOL!). 

We stayed in the MGM and did a lot of walking to other hotels nearby. It was REALLY, REALLY hot! I think it averaged 110F each day! Granted, it was dry heat, but STILL! We were chugging water constantly!

I'm going to try to remember all of the Celebrity Chef restaurants we ate at while in Vegas... I know we had lunch first thing when we arrived at  the MGM at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant.

It was so fun to take in the sites together. Vegas has something for everyone and was a people watcher's dream!

View from our hotel room - it was so crazy seeing scenes from CSI with my own eyes!

KA was the Cirque du Solei show at the MGM and we were able to see it our third night. MAN. It was beyond words. That show was one of the most incredible things Joel or I have ever witnessed. All of the actors and actresses have to be professional athletes as well to do the stunts required. Bravo Cirque, Bravo.

Night One in Vegas: Ohio State versus Virginia Tech showdown! I was the lone wolf sporting my Tech jersey in our group of friends, but thankfully, there were two Hokies sitting next to me at Emeril Lagasse's Stadium restaurant! It was the perfect venue for a not so perfect game... for me, anyway. The rest of the folks seemed pleased with the outcome, LOL.

Walking back to our hotel after the game, we stopped by a couple of other hotels. I HAD to see the famous glass art at the Bellagio! And, I don't have a picture, but we had appetizers at Gordan Ramsey's Pub restaurant at Caesar's Palace that night too!

We had lunch the next day at Bobby Flay's MESA restaurant at Caesar's Palace. I have to post some food pics - his food was STELLAR. This was the goat cheese "Queso Fundido" appetizer to kick things off.

And we'd heard about this Tiger Shrimp and Roasted Garlic Corn Tamale from watching Anthony Bourdain. Delightful!

Fun knock off's at Caesar's 

Interesting art displays... I think these were in Aria...

We HAD to do it. HAD to. You pay money to get cold in a solid ice bar. Everything is ice. The chairs, the table, your glasses... thankfully they give you coats, but dang, it was frigid! I think we made it 20 minutes before we had to leave, LOL.

That's it for the first post. Our trip was SO slam packed with fun, I'm going to break it into bite size pieces. :)

Okinawan Foods

Okinawa is a tropical island and as such, it has some local food specialties that are fantastic! The thing we miss most from the location of our first house on island was the fact we were within walking distance of an AMAZING local restaurant called Sakae Ryouriten, AKA Seasonal Foods of Okinawa. Here is an overview of the amazing-ness (taken from two separate occasions - we eat a lot, but not this much a lot!):

This was a delicious, perfectly sauteed white fish with Japanese bitter melon (called "Goya"), fried garlic, tomatoes and Shikuwasa (an Okinawan citrus). Goya is supposedly super packed with nutrients and said to contribute to the overall long life spans of the Okinawan locals... that and sushi and green tea ;)

Joel and our meat loving friends appreciated this pork belly with sauteed onions and lemon. They told me it was "melt in your mouth good!"

Yet another dish upon which I gazed but did not partake - a pork and onion stuffed, salt rubbed, fried Japanese sweet potato, AKA purple sweet potato, AKA Beni Imo. This dish was ordered TWICE in one night and Joel and our friends labeled it "scrumptious". As an educational side note, the beni imo is used in a lot of desserts here on island - they LOVE their beni imo ice cream, short breads, and fried sweet potato chips. They're naturally a little sweet, but add a little salt to it in chip form and voila! A new favorite snack!

Tuna sashimi... I know. We've featured this before, but it's just so darn good! Coupled with the shikuwasa (which I use in lieu of limes and lemons now due to its flavor profile), okra, seaweed and wasabi (still not sure what the orange-ish yellow things are), dipped in soy sauce, this was a finger lickin' good side dish. 

I'm pretty sure this was chicken of some sort with basil and potatoes. Wouldn't know. Didn't try it. But, Joel and our friends were satisfied with every dish, so... yum?

One of our main fav's - the sauteed fish head. It comes out piping hot in a cast iron skillet with hot oil we were told to baste over the fish for a last bit of flavor. The vegetables with the spices in the fish "broth" were indescribably delicious and incredibly fresh!

Yummy fish head soup (can't see the head, sorry!) with tofu, seaweed, peppers and mushrooms. Did I tell y'all I can eat mushrooms now? Yeah, turns out I have mastered my distaste for their texture and am now experimenting with different types and cooking techniques. They're a ways away from becoming a favorite food of mine, but the fact I don't want to throw up due to their texture is a huge step for me, LOL!. My gateway mushroom you may ask? Hen of the Woods. Thank you, Tom Colicchio. (More on THAT meal in our next post regarding our Vegas trip!)

Now, THIS is one of my new favorite foods here in Okinawa. It's called Umibudou, or sea grape, because that's exactly what it is! It's an underwater plant that's kinda salty, but really unique in flavor and texture. It's just a cool food, especially when paired with fresh tomatoes in an Italian style dressing.

Last but not least, the Japanese love their version of Caesar salad. The dressing is lighter than what we're accustomed to in the States and they add a lot of extra 'fluff' to the salad. It's darn good though and I'm close to saying I prefer it to our American version...??

How'd you like this ALL FOOD blog?! Joel and I basically live our days just making it to the next meal, LOL! We have gotten back on the healthy food wagon lately though so we are now cooking most of our meals at home and packing our lunch. Thus, the times we do go out, we make it worth our while and this restaurant  NEVER disappoints!

The New Way of the Blog: BURSTS

Here we go again - catching up on lost time by adding a couple adventures at once via BURST!

Let's start with Joel's birthday: it's always a tradition to be at a baseball game on the day; however, sadly, this year didn't accommodate. But, at least in March we were able to see our Hiroshima Carp play a spring training game in Oki against the Tokyo Giants! So, Joel got a baseball game in close to his birthday.

Picture Proof:

Anyways, we decided that simply being ON a baseball field on his birthday would fall within the boundaries of Joel's tradition, so we had a super fun game of kickball with our amazing friends!

Can you tell who was on the winning team? ;-)

What better way to follow up on the drilling game of kickball than by root beer floats at A&W!?! He is so easy to please ;-)

Toward the end of April, we participated in the "World Famous Camp Hansen Mud Run" where Joel won a United Airlines drawing for a free ticket to the States, WOOT! And we already used it! That blog post will be forthcoming... eventually, LOL!

Before and...

After! Not too terribly muddy - running through a fire hose at the end helped, LOL

Next burst in line: we had a grand time with our pals, the Grygowski's, during a quick visit they made to Okinawa - we were able to go diving off the Sunabe Sea Wall!

Next, we took a wonderful vacation to the States in June so we could see Joel's sister, Annie, get hitched!

But first, we spent a couple days in DC with these fine folks, starting it off right at a Nationals game!

This is what girls do instead of watching the game...

In between innings, the boys cooperated by letting me snag a quick photo.

THEN, we got to spend a night with our dear friends from Iwakuni who are now Stateside!!

The timing worked out perfectly for me to hit up a Headquarters Marine Corps training while we were in the vicinity, so I spent a few days in Quantico. I was finally able to go to the Marine Corps Museum and it was AWESOME. I definitely need to go back and spend more time there! If anyone is in the area, it's FREE and truly inspirational/educational!

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So.... my phone and I had a falling out and long story short, I lost ALL of my photos from Annie's wedding! I could not be more bummed!! All I have are the two pictures Joel took on his phone and one I stole from Annie's facebook page, LOL. Obviously, Joel captured this pic - Settlers is a MUST during family gatherings!

Let me just tell you - this guy. THIS guy is the CUTEST, happiest, most adorable red-headed nephew we have! :) We absolutely LOVED getting to know little Andrew and look forward to hanging with him for an entire week next Summer!

Joel's family is so lovely! We had a marvelous time hanging out in the cabin in the mountains of Harrisonburg.  (The crazy spider scare and epic stack the chairs game with Pete will go down in the history books for sure!) Annie, you were GORGEOUS and your wedding was so beautiful and fun! You and Josh are off to a grand start and we are so happy to add him to the Diller fold!!!

Last in this mash up of bursts, we MOVED! We loved our house in Ishikawa for so many reasons, but there were a couple things we were unable to get past, so move we did to Onna. East coast to West coast - sun rise to sun set. Oki's a smallish island, so we only moved a few miles away, but it's a world of difference! We LOVE our new house and are so happy with the change! Most of the moving was done by our four hands in more car loads than I care to count, but thousands of calories later under the rays of the beating, hot summer sun, we made it in to the new place and it feels like we are starting a new chapter in our lives. It was definitely time to face the sun set in Oki. :)

The new digs:

The garage is Joel's favorite new perk... not gonna lie. It's pretty handy. More pics to come of the new place later...

Another Round of Bursts!

Here I go again - summarizing our time here in bursts!

DINNER IN A BARREL

Yes. This is a real restaurant on Okinawa. It's so big there are two stories inside!

A snapshot of some of the interior decor...

Big smiles for a big meal!

A group of us went out for Drucie's and Jose's birthdays - the food was fantastic (it's an Izakaya, meaning they serve a lot of small plates which equals more variety!) Check out this gorgeous cake one of their friends brought!

Birthday boy!

Fun times... in a barrel, LOL.

LOCAL CUISINE

So, a lot of the homes around our house have been converted into cafes. They are the cutest, coolest things ever! As you can see in the background of these pictures, we are basically eating in what used to be a living/dining room area and the little tiny kitchen is used to make all different sorts of food! 

This particular restaurant is called Exit Cafe and it's literally a 3rd of a mile from our house, so the Chauvin's and Blume's came over and we made the short treck up the hill!

So homey, nothing fancy. But the view is overlooks the Bay and the menu was so diverse! I can't believe they are able to produce so much variety out of that tiny kitchen space!

Hard to see in the lighting, but this was a buttered oyster dish.

Italian seasoned scallops - delicious! The other folks ordered chicken, pizza, pasta... all island Japanese inspired. Delicioso! 

Such a fun evening with wonderful friends!

CAFE and POTTERY

Courtney alerted us to a restaurant she had heard about on the other side of the island called Cafe Doka Doka. When I say other side of the island, I literally mean a 10 minute drive from our house, since we live on the narrowest part of Okinawa. Anyway, it overlooked the China Sea and was in this amazing log cabin!

What a view, right?!

The owner is also a potter, so the cafe serves as a store for his wares as well. All of the dishes and cups were homemade and absolutely beautiful!

Delicious dessert and even better coffee!

Some of the pottery for sale...

I loved ALL OF IT. I cannot believe I was able to walk out of there without making a purchase (Joel told me I will need to save up a lot of fun money to be able to afford the sets I want, LOL!)

I REALLY like the crab design on the top right!

Just neat stuff... I am IN LOVE with the beachy, rustic style!

THE MARTINS CAME TO TOWN!

Last but not least, our good friends, the Martins from Iwakuni, came to Okinawa for a vacation and they MADE us go on the famous Ferris Wheel! I was afraid it would give me a crazy headache, but it moved so darn slow, I don't think my head ever realized we were in motion, LOL. Thank you, Jenny, for the peer pressure to go on the ride! The views were amazing!

We miss our weekly dinners with you guys!!

Too much fun - y'all come back, now, ya hear? :)

Okinawa is an amazing place and we are so very grateful for all of the fabulous friends we have to share it with!! Stateside peeps, come on over!!!