Househunter!

Well, somebody has to find the houses!

She might find something wonderful!

Something interesting

And big

And underpriced

Househunter, Househunter,
Make me a (real estate) match,
Find me a house,
latch me a latch
Househunter, Househunter,
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match

Househunter, Househunter,
I'll bring the check,
You bring the yard,
with a nice wooden deck.
Bring me a key for I'm longing to be,
The envy of all I see.

Halsor, oh Halsor,
Have I made a match for you!
It's in your price range, it's big!
OK ... not big, but it'll do
But they allow pets, a good catch, true?
True.

I promise you'll be happy,
And even if you're not,
There's more to life than that---
Don't ask me what.

....
oh yeah, did i mention that we're looking for rental houses lately.
:)
HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!

Konichiwa! (part ichi)

At approximately 315AM my alarm sounded & I was out the door by 330.  My flight left at 6AM.  I spend about 26 hours between airports and flights (mostly flights) to get Okinawa Japan.  But, it was well worth it.  Okinawa was beautiful and exotic, just like you expect it to be.  Everything is tiny there - the cars, the people, the island ... except the cartoon characters that stare at you from every billboard & advertisement - they're giant.  The landscape reminded me a lot of hawaii, but the experience was totally different than anything you'll get on the western hemisphere.
I was there for work & we stayed on the USMC base (thank goodness).  But we had a little extra time to venture off on a few sight-seeing adventures.  It was truly overwhelming being there.  You drive on the wrong side of the road, all of the signs are in Japanese, you eat everything with chopsticks, you have to take your shoes off to go inside the restaurants.  I'm totally thankful for the time I got to spend there (and the fact that Mike did all of the driving) and I'll treasure my memories & my photos for a long time to come.
Thanks REVA.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Katsuren castle ruins (Katsuren-jo)

 (This one was a little cave/hiding place.  You'd have to be really tiny ... or bendy ... to get in here)

(In this next one, you can see the footprint of the old castle.  This was called something like the large room or the large fortress or something ... but it looked really tiny!  I guess if you're the one carrying the giant rocks up the hill to build it, it was probably large enough)

Himeyuri Memorial: - which honors the children & women that fought and formed a nursing unit for the Japanese during the battle of Okinawa.  The stories of these women & children were pretty horrific.  And while Mike & I were going through the museum, there was at least one school of kids walking through as well.  I didn't know how to feel about the whole thing.  Here we are, the 2 obvious americans in the room & we're walking through a museum honoring women and children that fought & many died in this horrific battle against the americans.

(okay, so this had nothing to do with the memorial, but I LOVE IT!)

WWII Memorial Peace Park:

The design of this memorial wall reminded me a lot of the Vietnam Wall here in DC.  The walls were in a zig-zag design with trees planted between the rows.  And, if I remember correctly, the names were organized by year.

The "cornerstone of peace"

This next one shows (right to left) two small-sized oxygen torpedoes and two large-sized oxygen torpedoes of the Japanese Imperial Armed forces.  YIKES.

more to come .... arigato