Katsuren Castle Ruins

One of the things we really enjoy is exploring. There are so many things to explore from stores to towns to beaches to castle ruins. We have visited the Katsuren castle ruins before but never posted pictures. I've posted a couple of pictures as well as a brief history on how this castle ended up becoming a castle ruin.

The Katsuren Castle is said to belong to the 10^th and last generation Amawari. In 1458, Amawari attacked and destroyed the enemy prince, Gosamaru, who was reigning in the Nakagusku castle. Amawari next attacked the Shuri castle but failed in miserably. The futile attempt at attacking the Shuri castle brought the end of Amawari and his castle.

The Katsuren Castle is surrounded by Ryuku-Limeston walls and made up of four quarters. A filed-roof building used in the first quarter, and a main palace in the second quarter. Many important porcelains, metal arms and Chinese old coins were found in the remains of the castle. Excellent piece of Blue and White porcelain of Yuan Dynasty of China is particularly a significant remainder of the prosperity of this period.

Although is doesn't look like it, the father and son are walking on the top of one of the walls. There is a 60 foot drop off the side of the walls. The town you see in the background is several Kilometers away on a hill. I liked the idea of "generations" in this picture, especially considering how old the castle wall they were walking on and the role this castle likely played in their history.

Spring is here...

Jessie joined us this week. We've been having a fun time showing her around the island, the beaches, parks and cities. St. Patty's day was this past week and the kids each dressed up a little bit with green head-bands and mustaches.
We went to the Azaela festival and enjoyed the bright flowers.
At the sea wall while taking an evening walk.

Strolling the seawall...

Our family outing this weekend consisted of a simple walk along the seawall. I almost didn't post pictures as the seawall is nice and peaceful, but so ordinary and then I realized that it is ordinary to us but some of you might find some of the pictures fun. Enjoy :)

Whale Watching

Pete and the kids before we boarded the 'Island Message.' Almost all the other passengers on board were Japanese. Our Japanese is still pretty limited to simple phrases, shopping related or manners mostly, so we didn't understand most of the instructions but we still had a great time.

Waiting... we did that a lot. Becca wasn't a huge fan.

It was a beautiful weekend, with 70 degree, sunny weather you can't ask for better, definately a perfect weekend to go Whale watching.

The only 1/2 decent picture we got of a whale. Ironically, "whale watching" is the perfect term as when you see a whale you are so caught up in the moment, pointing and saying "cool" that you forget all about the camera you are holding until the whale has disappeared.

Lalee enjoyed basking up the sun's rays almost as much as she liked spying the whales.

Pete and Alex spent most of the trip on the top floor where they had a much better view of the ocean.

Activity Days and Flea Market

This week has been about the same as usual. Work, School, and play. For Activity Days we have been working on cultural awareness. We spent a week talking about how manners differ by culture, learning basic manners and some new words to use while dining. On Wednesday we took the girls out to eat to practice these manners. The girls seemed to really enjoy the activity.

Today was the first Saturday of the month- that means flea market! Okay, so maybe it's not exciting enough for that ! mark, but Lalee likes to think it is. And this time, we rented our own space. Let me back up just a bit. As you all know, Lalee applied for and was accepted as a participant for the Youth Yoron adventure that is coming up this month. She is stoked to be able to travel to another island, spend the week away from home with her Japanese hosts. Of course, mom and dad expected her to pay for 1/2 of her trip. At first, the idea of earning $275 was a very daunting task for Lalee. So Lalee decided to participate in the flea market. With mom's help she went through all the closets and cupboards and got everything ready for the flea market. You can't have yard sales on base here- it's against the rules. You can rent a parking space- literally, one parking space, in a parking lot during the flea market for $15.

(Towards the end when over 1/2 our stuff had already sold!)

Set up was between 5:30-6:00. Of course you only have one parking spot so basically you only sell what you can cram into your vehicle. We got all set up and then hordes of local-nationals show up to buy whatever we Americans are pawning off. It's quite the crowd and can get a bit crazy. Lalee did well. She still needs to earn $20 but that's all and then Yoron, here she comes!

And Finally.... Tech Sergeant Peter Burger

Remember last February (2010) when Pete tested for rank? And then in July when we found out he had scored high enough on his tests to 'make it'? Well... finally, a year later, they have finally gotten to Pete's line number and they had his promotion ceremony. As of March 1st he will no longer be Staff Sergeant, he will be Technical Sergeant (Tech Sergeant). The kids and I and Kacky (Our week long foreign exchange guy) went to squadron wide promotion ceremony and "tacked" Pete's strips on for him. Yep, basically we got to hit him in front of a bunch of military dudes. So Proud of you Pete!

Pete's Birthday

Pete's 30th birthday was a peaceful, mellow day. We started out by making Pete a big breakfast of his favorite foods (Belgium waffles, Hot Oatmeal, fruit, sausage and lots-of-pulp OJ). And then we had breakfast AGAIN as Pete woke up and ran straight to PT.

We spent the morning doing Pete's favorite things: Rock band, chillin with TV shows and staying at home. Earlier in February Pete had bought tickets to a Valentine daddy-daughter dance. The girls and Pete went out to dinner and then to the dance, they all came home smiling and laughing. I'll try to get them to post the memories of it. The picture above was taken right before they left for the dance :)