Zorro was whining at the door like he wanted to go out (yea, right). So I tossed him out there. It was pretty funny. I think it’s his first time being out in snow. They were both born in Spain, so this is a new development for them. They saw snow in Washington once, but it wasn’t like this!

And unless you are a great lover of cats or D.J. don’t bother with the video. It’s just Zorro investigating the snow. 42 seconds of boringness for anyone but D.J. and I. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Please note that I did not pick out these curtains. They came with the house.

This is not the first time he’s tried this. He used to do it in Washington, too. As you can see.

Once he finished, we got Leo on tape.  And that’s my friend Shara’s voice in the background, if you were wondering.

When the boys had to work, my friend Angie and I went to this cultural park (Ryukyu Mura) and wandered around. It was basically a “traditional Okinawa village, dressed as one would find thousands of such villages across Ryukyu…in a time when life was simple, Japanese were visitors and Americans simply weren’t around.” With our ticket came entrance to the snake show. I had no idea what we were in for, but as we sat down in a small theater they brought out a snake and mongoose in a cage separated by glass. They both tried to get at one another and eventually the mongoose fell asleep and the snake slithered all the way up to the glass and tried to get out. Finding no luck, he eventually gave up as well. Then, after about 15 minutes of listening to a Japanese guy give a little presentation (probably would have been fascinating had I understood a single word) they brought out a water balloon and stuck it into the cage. The poisonous snake (a Habu) lunged at the balloon and broke it, soaking the poor thing with water and then we watched a very advanced 3D movie of a mongoose and snake attacking each other. It was a very convincing 3D movie, really. I especially liked the weird hissing. It reminded me of snow on the television.

As we were leaving we stumbled upon a little performance. It was quite cute and they had lots of different people up there giving little dances.

As we were wandering around an older Japanese man around 65 or 70 years old stopped us to chat. He wanted to practice his English and when he found out we were American he was really excited to talk to us. After the “where are you from” question, he immediately whipped out a map of the U.S. and found exactly where we were from on the map. He wanted to know why we pronounced Arkansas without the second S and if people from Texas felt pride because Bush was from there. He asked about birth rates and if DJ and I had any kids. We told him no and he seemed extremely concerned about that. He’s worried about the low birthrate in 1st world countries and is very disappointed with the Japanese and their falling birthrate. My favorite part of the conversation happened when he turned to DJ and said, “Are you proud that your wife is so pleasing…no…beautiful? Are you a good husband and tell her often that she is beautiful in the morning and once in the afternoon and again in the evening?! You should do this! You be..should..be a good husband!” And then he turned to me and said, “Your skin is so lovely and you have such a beautiful appearance. You should know that your face is very appeasing…no…appealing to the Japanese man’s eye.” And he turned back to DJ and said, “I envy you for such a beautiful wife.” Hahaha. And so, of course, as we got back home I announced, “it’s evening and you haven’t told me yet how beautiful I am. You should be a good husband and say this!” I’ll probably never hear it again after this!

We got some sushi for lunch and I totally fell in love with one of the pieces of fish we were served. It’s called Hirame (halibut) and we didn’t eat it with soy sauce because he squeezed lemon over it and put salt on top. YUM. Dinner was Indian at our favorite place in Ginza. We’ve been three times now.

We also wandered through a lovely park and got a beer. That was good..DJ was very happy with his Kilkenney. Later we stumbled upon the Sony building and outside is an aquarium. We took a bunch of pictures and some film. It was really quite amazing to see all the fish as we were walking around outside. They had some music blaring and of course you can hear the entire electronic city buzzing as you’re walking around down there. All the buildings are brightly lit up and they have a huge television screen playing commercials and all kinds of stuff. DJ took this video as we were walking across the intersection. It’s not that great, but I thought Mom might find it interesting since she’ll be here soon. She’ll actually get to see the city all crazy and loud.

We took a couple hour bus ride up into the Blue Mountains and stopped at the Wollombi Tavern for jungle juice and morning tea and biscuits. That was pretty good. Everything was made fresh. It was all outside and thankfully the weather was beautiful. It was gorgeous although cold and windy for the first few days. Then it turned cold and rainy and that was pretty miserable. After breakfast we headed up to the other place. I just remember that in addition to wine, they also brewed beer, including ginger beer. They served us lunch (a bunch of salad and a pasta dish) served with different wines and even paired with food the wine was just ok. Afterwards we went to Lindeman’s and tried more. Again, just eh. Of course this was a MWR wine tour (we were on a tour bus with a bunch of other Navy guys who are stationed on the Kitty Hawk) and of course these are stupid kids so we had a couple of them throwing up on the bus on the way back. Ew. I mean, come on…it’s a wine tasting. They shouldn’t be getting so shit faced that they can’t even stand up straight! Crazy. That was our only foray into MWR sponsored programs while we were there, THANK GOD!

Saturday, DJ and I headed to Clarke Quay and saw the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the Botanic Gardens. We walked all day long and by the end of the day I was ready to drop! The botanic gardens were really gorgeous. I had no idea that Australia had so many wild parrots wandering around. It was very surprising! We also saw quite a few bats sleeping up in the trees. I also didn’t know that the Opera House is three separate buildings. They’re connected underground at the base of the building, but the white structures house different things. We didn’t spend much time inside, but the bathrooms were nice! hahaha.

Sunday we went to an Aussie Rules football game. That was fun. It was the start of the rain, but luckily we sat under an awning and managed to stay mostly dry.

Then we showed up at The Pink Cow and they were having African Drum night. It’s an arty pub. So I got an IPA and sat and we watched the drumming and the fire dancers and eaters and just chilled. We met up with a friend of Shara’s there and got some desserts too. They were dry, so most of the desserts stayed on the table, but it was a good night. The Australian bartender was cute! Afterwards I felt as if I had smoked a six pack. That was pretty gross, but you’ll have that at a bar.