Joelle Yamada's blog

LEAVING VOX!

It was so easy that I almost cried.

Wordpress announced a Vox Importer tool three days ago and I stumbled upon the announcement today. I created a new blog there (joelle71.wordpress.com) and within about 10 minutes this ENTIRE SITE had uploaded into a new Wordpress blog. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!

SO, for any of you who would like to follow me, I'll finish up our Okinawa adventure there. And begin our new one on that platform as well.

Island Paradise - Okinawa

Island Paradise - Whidbey

Sorry Vox, I was happy with you in MANY ways. But not allowing me to export easily so I could print this baby up for posterity (and give to my kids instead of spending hours scrapbooking) was the straw that broke this camel's back. Sayonara!

Jan 30, 2010 12:53:24 AM

MBD - Multiple Blog Disorder

I've had it with Vox. And so I'm taking my toys and going to play in another sandbox. There are two reasons why:

1. I hate that you must log in to leave a comment. This is just ridiculous and keeps people from commenting (I've been told).

2. Vox has yet (after a full year of requests and bugging by yours truly and others) to create an export tool so that the blog can be saved as a file which can be printed or whatever. All the other major blogging platforms have such a tool.

So off I go.

However, I'm having trouble making the switch! With only 8 weeks remaining in Okinawa, it seems strange to blog about the uniquely Okinawa things over on my new "Whidbey Island" blog.

So, off I go... soon.

I've decided that I'm going to post about our outings and adventures here, but post about the angst of leaving and other packing issues over THERE.

So, check me out here and there...

***OMG UPDATE!!! Just saw that Wordpress (my new blog platform) has just created a VOX importer!! WOOHOO! So all of this will be going over there soon... Will let you know when that is accomplished!

Jan 29, 2010 6:50:11 PM

Latest from Koza

These pix came home recently. I think they are from the summer??

These first few are from Jake's Birthday celebration. LOVE the one of Jake and Mary. :)

Sooooo wish I knew what he had "said" here...

And then some shots from in the classroom. All the lovely Montessori toys. Love that when it gets REALLY hot in the summer, they let them take off their shirts and just wear their smocks!

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They took a trip to a nearby park in the summer. We're actually going to this same park today to have pictures taken with cherry blossoms.

The red hats mean they are in Agnes ("A-gu-nus") class.

Some end of the year shaved ice and water play and one from the summer festival...

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And walking down the drive to school and enjoying singing in chapel time...

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Man, we are going to miss Koza!

Jan 28, 2010 6:39:38 PM

Giants in the Land

I have been meaning to scan this photo for eons.

Well, at least since April.

When Jake had his beginning of year program at school, we took a class photo. Parents included.

This photo appropriately captures how we "stand out" here in Okinawa. Even though I wore the correct color by chance, the fact that I'm a FULL HEAD taller than the women next to me is just flat out crazy. Foreigners are called "big noses" in China, not sure there is a similar derogatory term here -- but there should be. (Brent is second from the left on top row, I'm third from left on second row.)

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(Even being 6 months pregnant isn't a good enough excuse for looking THIS big...)

Jan 14, 2010 5:27:12 AM

Review of 2009

I'm not a big New Year's Resolution person. Well, that's not completely honest. I just don't make resolutions.

But for many years now, I have come to the end of each year and made a list of ten things which, if mentioned to me ten years from now, would totally mean 2009 to me. So here we go:

1. Pregnant for the third time and the birth of *SHOCK* a beautiful girl, Kira Natsumi.

2. Brent started college again.

3. Jake learned to ride a bike with no training wheels.

4. Half a year with Hannah living with us.

5. Beginning to understand Quinn's speech.

6. Watching the whale migration on the Keramas.

7. End of Fresh in Oki and end of writing for Okinawa Hai (though still very involved with the blog).

8. Brent's 40th birthday at Ie Island.

9. Really beginning to get out of debt.

10. My Pop's death in November.

And how about you? Memorable things from 2009?

Jan 1, 2010 5:29:38 AM

Okinawan New Year's Tradition

Thanks to our wonderful Taba-san (below with the kiddos on Sports Day), we had a traditional Okinawan New Year's dinner last night!

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She arrived yesterday with all the fixin's for helping us live long and happy lives -- which is what eating the loooonnnngggg soba noodles signifies. Soba is one of my favorite food discoveries here on Okinawa -- not surprising when I'm a well-known pasta girl. But I haven't known all the things needed to make it. And magically, HERE THEY ARE!

First are the noodles. These are different than the soba noodles used on the mainland. Okinawan soba is made from wheat, while those on the mainland are made with 30% or more buckwheat. In fact, there was a big fight when Okinawa rejoined Japan in the 70's about whether the Okinawan noodle could be called soba. The Okinawans won the fight. Right on.

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Next is the broth that makes up the soup...

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So I put the pork short ribs (soki) that Taba-san made into the broth to warm...

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Then set the water to boiling for the soba...

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Watching water boil...

Then, the noodles only need to be reheated for about 2 minutes.

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At this point, choose your favorite soba bowls! Hannah helped me pick these out last year at the Yomitan Pottery Festival:

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Next, we need to talk about toppings. Taba-san brought these from her own garden (I LOVE THIS WOMAN!):

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Beautiful green onions...

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And then there is my favorite (koregusu), chilis soaked in awamori (Okinawan rice liquor):

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And of course, the pickled ginger (beni shoga):

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If you are brave, there is also a spice mixture to sprinkle on top:

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So all together now...

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Beautiful and yummy! Jake is great with his chopsticks, but below decides to tackle the short ribs -- any way he can...

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Quinn has this thing where he likes to eat with his eyes closed... to savor the flavors?? So he's doing that here:

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But he's not just eating this way, he's reaching into his bowl with his eyes closed, too. And in this shot has MISTAKENLY picked up a handful of pickled ginger...

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And the reaction...

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But mostly it was just YUMMY!!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Dec 31, 2009 5:02:54 AM

Brent's New Toy

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27 inch iMac, thanks to the subsidized Federal Stafford loan. WOOHOO for going back to school for photography. What a great excuse to turn this into a MAC HOUSE!!!

And I thought it was pretty amazing when I got him to switch to crunchy peanut butter. I'm so good. :)

Dec 28, 2009 6:06:06 AM

Yamada Hike

We're getting down to the wire. Running out of time on Okinawa. So I've made a list. And doing the hike around the little town of Yamada, is was on the list.

Unfortunately, the Japanese to English directions didn't quite make sense to me and we never got to the MAIN part of the hike -- which will come later! But we still got to see some fun stuff.

One of my favorite moments was watching Jake "read" Japanese to Quinn. Fantastic!

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Then some obligatory pictures in front of the Yamada signs...

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Notice the "Maribu Beach" in the background?? And "Ryukyu Mura"?? Ryukyu is the name of this island chain. Ryu also happens to be Jake's middle name. Named before we ever considered coming to Okinawa!! Amazing, eh?

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We did part of the correct hike and I have to say that one of my favorite things right now is watching the boys play and enjoy each other. Here they are looking at bugs...

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And then hitting the "feather plants" together...

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And no visit to the Onna Village area (where Yamada is) can be complete without a stop at the shave ice place. Another favorite!

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Will miss these for SURE.

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And will miss the two handed pass that is the rule in Japan. So formal and nice.

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Sad already.

Dec 23, 2009 6:55:23 AM

"Crawling" to Moka

Ok, so she's not REALLY crawling yet -- but she's VERY close... thinking maybe by the end of the week.

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She's up on all fours and even pushing up her bottom up into a downward facing dog sort of pose. It won't be long. (Sorry not a great shot, but you get the idea...)

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Unfortunately, Moka gets the brunt of the "crawling." Kira loves to mess with poor Moka.

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Who me? I'm just being friendly!

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Sometimes Moka seems to like it...

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But then sometimes, she doesn't... a little nip...

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Trying to ignore her...

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I'm sure they'll be the best of friends!

Dec 23, 2009 4:47:41 AM

Decorating the Tree

We put the tree up shortly after Thanksgiving, but it somehow took until three days before Christmas to actually decorate it!! Not sure how that happened, but I probably extended the lives of some of my ornaments by an extra year!

The kids seemed to sort of "get" the whole tree thing a bit more this year, but were EASILY distracted by all of the candy canes... Here's a glimpse of our fun:

Handing the boys their kanji (Japanese character) name ornaments (this year's buy):

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Quinn (aka Superman) finding a place...

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A favorite of Brent's...

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And one of mine...

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One from Jake's "homeland"...

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And last years... missing someone, it seems!

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Okinawa 2009!

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Then it was time to take the obligatory "First Christmas" shots of Kira. This outfit was handed down from Tommy and all my kids have their pix in front of the tree in this costume. Isn't she adorable??