haley's great blog of fun

Update on Japan!

On the roof of our church building.


Views.





And if you climb up a small rusty ladder onto this dangerously slippery precipice...(that was for you, mom)



Later that day we went shopping at a super delux 100 ¥ store, and then to this arcade.

Am I the only one who thinks it's not creepy to take pictures of other people's kids? He's super intense playing this game where you battle bugs. Japanese kids here are obsessed with bugs (mushi). They have bug stores where they can buy this huge ugly beatles (which can run up to hundreds of dollars each), and then they pit the bugs against each other, and whoever's bug rips the other bug's head off wins. Cute, huh?

This is Michael, Pastor Tommy's youngest daughter. She is my coolest 5th grader friend.



My roomie Nicki! She's way cool, and she would never ram her head into her family members' butts when she was little. Just in case you were wondering.


This past Monday Pastor Tommy took us out to some historical sites around Ginowan. They actually believe that this door is the gateway into the next life. Lots of people died in this area during the war, so it's considered a hot spot for spiritists to come and invoke the dead.


Incense altar and gifts people leave for dead family members.


We walked up into some Okinawan jungle and checked out some caves.


During the war many Okinawan people hid in these caves. The Americans tried to coax them out, but when they wouldn't come out the Americans blasted the caves up with bombs. You can still find bits of bones and artillery laying around.




This spring is where people used to come to wash and drink long ago.


The legend that goes with it is...once upon a time...there was a very beautiful woman who lived in the heavenlies, and she wore magical clothes that enabled her to fly. Well, one day she was taking a bath at this very spring, and a man happened to stumble upon her. He saw her clothes hanging near by, so he took them. When she realized her clothes were gone, she saw him and told him to give her back her clothes. He replied and said, "I will only give you back these clothes if you marry me."

So she agreed to marry this dude, and she ended up having two sons with him. Years passed and one day she found her clothes hidden in a closet. So she put them on, flew away back to the heavenlies and was never to be seen again. Her two sons, however, ended up being the first two kings of Okinawa. So the Okinawans believe themselves to be "the people of the gods". The end.

And here's the Ginowan lady herself. Shweet.


I tried to climb up this wall without shoes and almost died. Doug climbed it like a champ though, and Yoshi made a really valiant effort too.



You could slide down this huge...slide...thing. Totally fun.

Yoshi is amazing.


Mark is reading his precious moments Bible - so sweet.


Back at the Ruiz pad.



The guy's dorm slash the Ruiz garage.


Everything in Japan is pink, bubbly and cute. Even the sunsets.



We were so blessed to go to Sandra and Damien's pad for dinner on Monday night. They're leaving Okinawa to become full time missionaries in Italy. So cool. I didn't get any pictures of them or their cute kids. Just Bonnie, the crazy girl who kept jumping in all my pictures, body slamming herself on me, and eventually tried to claw all the skin off my arms. Yikes.



Kay, more to come! I'm exhausted, so oyasumi nasai to all.

posted by Haley B @ 7:52 AM