Last of Okinawa

Alex has a little scooter that he let us borrow for our daily trips to the grocery store. It's techincally a one-seater but we're tiny enough so we were able to make it a two-seater. Since there was only one helmet, Alex gave Emelie the choice of borrowing his Lacrosse helmet or his uniform helmet...

She went for the uniform helmet.

She really liked the helmet.

We mostly scootered to the grocery store just down the road since we were afraid to venture out too far in case we got stopped.. Alex lives about 30 minutes walk from a place called American Village. It reminded me of a beach town area - like something you would find in the Florida panhandle.

Since Alex was letting us stay with him we did the dishes and cleaned up. We also managed to make lasagna, cookies, cheesecake, fajitas, greek nachos, and homemade ice cream! In most Japanese houses (at least in Tokyo) there are no ovens. So naturally we had to make the most of Alex's oven.

Alex also had a nice couch (another thing you rarely see in Tokyo/Japanese houses). Here he is studying his little heart out.

Chef Alex would look up recipes on his iphone or kindle and then the sous chefs (worker bees) would make whatever it was he wanted. 

It was so nice to be able to wear shorts! The weather in Tokyo has been awfully cold this winter - record lows!

This is a 'look both ways before you cross the street' sign but it just looks like a siamese twin panda.

This area of somewhat shady looking, run-down apartments had some animals painted on each building. I guess they thought that the cute animals on the buildings would distract from how run-down it looked. Kind of worked.

Found some more crazy kitkat flavors! There was Strawberry Cake flavored

And Beni Imo (a kind of purple sweet potato) flavored. Beni imo is famous in Okinawa, literally everything is beni-imo flavored.

I had never seen Strawberry flavored Chocolate pie oreos... 

Or so many different kinds of Spam! 

Umi Budou (sea grape) is not quite what it sounds like. I'm personally not a fan but they are also famous to Okinawa. I think they taste like a combination of seaweed and just super salty ocean, but some people love it!

This giant statue was outside a Beni imo shop on Kokusai Dori.

There is an Okinawan brand of ice cream - Blue Seal. It's everywhere! They had all sorts of random flavors - beni imo, sugar cane, salty vanilla, and the regular flavors too.