Okinawa-rama

It's cold and rainy today. I can see a big ferris wheel from the window lighting up in different neon colors right now. (Funny, I think I wrote about that in Mongolia too.) It's night and I'm tired. Joe is playing his computer game. Today was pretty busy. Newcomers orientation required for all DoD employees and dependants. Basically consisted of this: Swim carefully. Be respectful. Don't drink. Don't do drugs. Don't drink and drive. Learn about the culture. Separate your garbage. Drive on the left side of the road. And if you don't like it, you can go back to the States. Hooah!
We got our driver's licenses today. And you know what else we got? My hot tamale!!!! I wish I had a picture of it to show y'all. It's so cute and Japanese. And, we did more house hunting. It's funny, cause every single house we go to has some little idiosyncrasy to it. For example, the house that had the word "Blue" etched into the entirety of the bathroom mirror with a picture of a 1940s guy next to it. Or, the one with the oven the size of a toaster. Or the ever-present first floor bathtub. Next to the kitchen. I wonder why? Anyway, I like these things. Especially the places that have tatami mat floors. I'm really into this one Japanese style house that is this giant open space almost like a studio style apartment. One wall is made of windows, which you can pull open to walk into the ornate garden. Back inside, in the center of the space, a hole, surrounded by tatami matting is built into the floor. A table rests upon grooves inside of the hole. So, when you eat your meal, you can eat at the short table in comfort, without need of a chair! The the master bedroom, which is quite small, has paper screen doors like you see in Japanese movies and the whole floor is made of tatami mats. A window on one side of it looks onto a tiny patio with windy stairs that go up to the enormous white rooftop. There are two other rooms that could fit maybe a bed each. Maybe a small desk. One has a ladder in it, which goes up to this little bitty loft. (Like one small child could lay there!) It's cute. The only problem is, those rooms are so tiny and dark. They make me think of the movie "The Grudge" a little bit. The Japanese version. Very scary! Also, on the right there is a construction company with huge cranes and stuff. No zoning laws here! (But next to that is a pottery factory!)
Okay, well gotta go eat now. Hungry! More later.
-Kelly