March 19th '06- Nothin' much

Today was a really frustrating day! All we managed to accomplish was moving from the hotel to the Airforce lodge. Rob seems to have brought the flu with him and is really sick today. By the time we moved into the hotel it was afternoon. So mostly we sat around and waited for him to feel better. The kids didn't mind. The room has a DVD player and we bought them Code Lyoko and Corpse Bride. They seem content to laze around. I guess it's good that we all rest. This lodging is kind of run down, especially in comparison to what we just left. Japanese hotels are so quiet and I hear the thumping of little feet upstairs! At least there are two rooms so we can spread out and have a little privacy. There's also a full kitchen so we can cook some of our meals and save money and time. The largest expense seems to be for transportation. Taxis cost a bit, but they are worth it. Taxi driving is a respected profession here so the cabs are all clean and the drivers polite and helpful. While Rob went into the lodging office to check us in the kids and I waited in the taxi. Robert decided to practice his Japanese by saying "domo origato" to the taxi driver (once I convinced him to stop saying Mr. Roboto after it). The taxi driver was so pleased that it seemed as though we had turned on a switch. He asked us where we come from in the states. We told him California and he got very excited telling us that he has a sister who lives in Takoma, Washington and in 1997 he visited Oregon, Washington, and Victoria in Canada. The dialogue had not been as smoothe as it sounds and so I mentioned that it is very cold there. He said," It dains, it dains" and I nodded and said,"oh, yes, it rains a lot." I started to assume that maybe I didn't understand him well enough because he pulled out a book that I thought was going to be an English dictionary but out of this little book he pulled a couple of dogeared photos and showed them to us. One was a picture of him with his sister at Mt. Rainier in the snow. He was so proud of it that I felt honored to see the pictures. That's how Okinawans have been this trip, if you make even the smallest attempt at speaking their language they just open up. Everyone has been so friendly!

We did manage to stop by the base community services building to check on tours. There is a gift shop inside with a lot of beautiful reasonably priced things. The lady who works there was making a 3-D cloth still-life. She was really nice. She explained everything to us. Katherine bought a blue cloth with Kanji on it that mean snow, wind, earth and of course I've forgotten what the fourth one is. Rob was feeling a little bit better and decided we should eat at the new Chili's on base. It was okay. I still want to have Japanese food. Tomorrow we are planning to go sightseeing on our own by taking the city bus. We picked up an instruction sheet at the community center. It should be an adventure since we have to change buses part way through the trip. We're planning to go to Shuri Castle.

Leaving the hotel: