Sobaya Chirugwa (Red Roof Soba)

We have been to (and blogged about) Sobaya Chirugwa before, but never knew its real name. We just always called it Red Roof Soba. We still do. It's easier. You can read our other posts about it here and here. (The kids look so much younger in just a couple of years time!)

Anyway, when we were in Hawaii, poor Jake just wanted to go "home." One day he asked me, "Mom...can we go eat at Red Roof Soba as a family as soon as possible when we get back? You know, to celebrate our return to Okinawa with authentic Okinawan food?" After all that kid had been through, of course I told him we would go ASAP. Well, we kind of forgot about it with all the other travel going on...and Jake reminded us a couple of times before last night.


We finally went, and it was worth the wait.



Coree likes to order the kids plate just to get one of those corn snacks on the left (like a single, giant cheeto with corn seasoning instead of cheese) that we could buy for ten cents at the grocery store. They never question her age, so we just go with it.



I kept looking around at everyone, trying my best to soak it all in.



We are definitely counting down the days we have left as an intact family unit as Troy prepares for his mission.



Coree is counting down the days until she can leave for college.



We ordered some gyoza to share. It is pretty good here. A little on the greasy side, so I only had one.



Then the soba started arriving. Nom, nom, nom.



Cliff, Troy and I ordered the (aptly named) Yummy Combo.



Because of the presentation, it actually looks bigger than it is...



But it is still a lot of food. Starting from the left, (bottom row) a grains-rice mixture, soba noodles with fish and pork; (middle row) a mixture of stewed root vegetables, tofu and a pig's foot, fish and vegetable tempura and dipping sauce; (top row) pickled seaweed and a cabbage and corn salad. I enjoy everything but the pig's foot. Troy eats that while I close my eyes.

Welcome home (late) Jake. We're glad you are back among your people.

Eat, Shop, Laugh (Curry House Paradise)

We had another lovely date night. Our kids had all been to the new curry buffet, Curry House Paradise, but we had yet to eat there, so we gave it a whirl.


It's part of the new section of American Village, Depot Island.



There were many varieties of curry. I tried four of them because I wanted to arrange my plate like they did in their advertisements. Doesn't it look terribly clever? They were all wonderful. I don't even remember exactly what they were, other than a couple of them were chicken, one was pork.



We started with soup and salad, which were also included.



The decor had a very Latin flair (as did the music)...which I was not expecting from a curry place. But if I have learned one thing on Okinawa...it's to always expect the unexpected.



Afterward, we decided to do some window shopping.



And found some very interesting items. I don't know what fruit has to do with waist size...



Or what peace has to do with underwear, for that matter.



Utah is famous. Who knew.



There's even a whole line of CTR clothing!



They should really open up a Wasatch Front location, don't you think?



It even comes in Primary colors!



And on redneck hats, too!



I wonder what kind of music the CTR channel would play?
Give Said the Little Stream?
Popcorn Popping?



Look, Lisa! (I didn't see a Bee's Knees volume, though.)



And as if we needed more hideousness in the world, there is an entire store of Crocs (as opposed to a small rack in the Target garden department, where they belong). This is another store that would do well in Utah, me thinks...judging by the number of children I see show up to church on Sunday wearing these. (Can I get verification from any of my Utah peeps?) Apparently, horrid, brightly-colored, foam is the new leather. For the love of good taste, PLEEZE let this fad pass quickly...along with those horrible sandals that squeak with every step.

Anyway, that was our exciting date night for this week. We give Curry House Paradise four thumbs up. We'll be back, I'm sure.

Tortilla Factory

Since reading about this place on OkinawaHai, Cliff and I have been eager to try it. We miss Chipotle back in the States...we miss good Mexican food of all kinds, in general...so we are always hopeful when hearing about someplace new. We knew better than to think it was actually going to be as good as Chipotle (for some reason, Mexican food does not translate well here) but we hoped for some resemblance, since Tortilla Factory was patterned after it.

We were helped by the owner or manager and he was very enthusiastic. Two other parties had just left; it was just us in the place so we had his undivided attention. It was sweet how he stood there near our table waiting with anticipation as we took the first bite. We nodded enthusiastically...and by his bowing, I think we were adequately animated for his liking and he returned to the kitchen.



First, document the moment...now let the feeding frenzy begin!



I'm getting hungry again just looking at this. We both opted for the pork carnitas. I would have loved chicken (ala Chipotle), but they use solid pieces of (reheated) chicken, instead of shredded chicken, so I went with the shredded pork. I have texture issues and didn't want to take any chances.



It was super-yummy! Here's a look at the layers inside.

The tortilla soup was also very good. We will go back, for sure. We were correct in assuming it wouldn't be Chipotle, but it was still delicious. Does it sound terrible to say, "Go in with low expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised?" I know that's not what I'd want reviewers to say about my restaurant, but it's just that when you live near "the border," most of your life and have access to all manner of Mexican food (from large chains to holes-in-the-wall), it's hard to measure up. By Okinawan-Mexican standards, however...this place gets 4 stars!

Hot Date and Sea Side Cafe

I love lazy, weekend, daytime dates! Cliff and I decided to park in a neighborhood near the sea wall and take a walk along the water.


You just never know what you are going to find around here. Exploring never gets old. This is a bar made out of an old bus. See the sign by the door? We were pretty sure the place was abandoned by the looks of it...but you really never know.



Beautiful stained glass...



Interesting architecture...



And of course, fishermen.



We walked from one end of the sea wall, as far as we could down to the other, and then came back for lunch nearer to where we started at the Sea Side Cafe. We've heard rave reviews about this place and were eager to try it. There was a family with wild kids running roughshod over the place inside (it's a very small restaurant) and it felt like they had no AC going, so we did an about face and opted for the front patio seating. It was hard to beat the view. A couple of the other tables on the patio had chillin' dogs tethered to them while their owners relaxed and ate. Combined with the sound and smell of the water, the whole scene was very serene.



A little peek at the menu. While hard to pass on a "Big velly burger"...



I had to go with the number one Smoked Salmon & Avocado (with lemon cream french sauce).

Cliff thought about the classic burger, but rumor has it, it's number two...



So he opted for the fish and chips.

The food was simple, but delicious. I think it's a perfect spot for lunch. They even have (not free) Wi-Fi if you are interested...and it's pet (and apparently kid) friendly.

All this travel is getting old...

I know, it's fun to travel...and normally I love it. Looking back at the past couple of months (and the next few to come) makes me tired, though.

I mentioned Cliff had a conference to go to (in San Diego). Even though I've hated having him away (especially after being gone myself) I am so glad he is having some (relative) down time. This is no boondoggle (it's a combat operational stress conference) but he will get to spend time with some good colleagues, and afterward he tacked on a few days of leave to see good friends.

He made sure to eat at Rubio's for me. And of course he hit In N Out Burger. (Not that we are starved for good restaurants here, but there are just certain American favorites you've gotta get while the gettin's good!) He says he misses me and hated being alone in the hotel (yeah, what's he going to say?!) but hopefully he's taking advantage of the serenity.

I shamelessly stole these photos off of his friend Dave's Facebook page:


These guys all graduated high school together. Cliff, Dave and Gerry. Dave's mom kept Cliff fed consistently as a young man (their nickname for him was "Pobrecito"). I impressed Gerry early on with my tongue-cherry-stem-tying trick. They both gave Cliff the "thumbs up" after Cliff's idea for our fourth date was a Steven Seagal film festival with all of his buddies at his place. Hey, at least they let me have the bean bag. (And in all fairness, our second date was a Tupperware party at my place.) They are good guys and I'm glad Cliff got to spend some rare time with them.



They even went back to their alma mater.



Can you believe a high school in Anaheim, California lets a couple of middle-aged men just wander around the campus? Apparently, there was a basketball game going on. I'm sure they just thought they were a couple of dads, hehe.



He also got to see Sterling (no pics, though) and Sterling's parents, Bob and Gretchen. We love them so much...they are just golden people. I'm totally jealous he got to spend time with them, hopefully it will be my turn soon.

OK, honey...enough fun now, COME HOME!

I've sure missed hanging out with this guy

This past several weeks have been so crazy for me, but they've been just as crazy back home. I felt so guilty leaving when I did. As Operation Tomodachi was kicking into over-drive here, I left with Jake (leaving Cliff to manage the other three and their busy schedules) indefinitely. Cliff's boss left for the US for a conference and leave for several weeks...leaving him to manage working 14-16 hour days doing his part in the coordination of the relief efforts, while trying to handle things on the homefront, too. I did my best to try to stay connected with the kids via Facebook and email, but it's just not the same. I so wanted to be able to be that support and sounding board for Cliff when he came home at the end of a long day, especially under the current, stressful circumstances. It hurt my heart not to be able to be there for him.

The kids don't seem to have suffered much. There were some tough times with school stuff where I felt one of them really needed me here, but all in all, they did fine. One of my Visiting Teachers from church asked Patrick during Seminary carpool, "I feel bad that I haven't done anything for you guys...could I bring you dinner?" To which Patrick replied, "No, we are doing great! My dad bought all kinds of good food! White bread, toaster strudel, Chef Boy R Dee..."

It made me laugh when she recounted the conversation, because I could totally see Cliff walking into the commissary with the purpose of getting the most easy to prepare, most kid-desired food possible to last the rest of my absence. The kids knew a good thing when they saw it...and who wants to risk the Relief Society bringing over something actually nutritious?! (Now it's back to wheat bread and non "shelf-life" food. Mom's home. Bummer.)



Today was a real treat. We just had some mundane errands to run...but how lucky am I to have this man to run them with? It's SO good to be home!



We managed to squeeze in this lovely tempura and miso lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Jusco (Aeon, whatever! I'll never get used to their new name. Just like it took years to make the switch from Price Club to Costco...and I will NEVER call the Wild Animal Park "Safari Park." Won't happen!)



Even as we sat here with this wonderful meal in this cute little restaurant, things were different. We were more quiet than usual. I think we were kind of struggling to reconnect after fighting separate battles for the past almost-month. I know in the grand scheme of things, what we had to endure was nothing compared to what some people handle on a daily basis. Certainly nothing compared to what the people of Sendai are dealing with. We've had WAY longer deployments, and we've dealt with medical issues, too...so I'm not exactly sure what made this time so hard...except that I wasn't home. In the five deployments Cliff has done, the two that were preceded by a move were the hardest. There is just something about being settled that makes things easier to bear. Obviously for us, home varies greatly. It's wherever the Navy sends us, it's whatever structure happens to house our little family at the time...but having our family split in so many pieces, each of us dealing with our own battles just compounded the stress, I think.

At any rate, it's so good to be back home again. It sure makes one appreciate the little things, like grabbing a quick lunch in between shopping, getting keys made dropping off kids, etc. I'm sure we'll be back to normal in no time.

If you had one more day in paradise...

What would you do? Jake would have loved to have spent the day at the beach or a water park...but since those were out of the question, he asked to go back to Waikiki to take another spin around the International Marketplace.


We made one more trip to The Cheesecake Factory, so that Jake could order this monstrosity (he did eat lunch first).



There's nothing like this on Okinawa...which is probably a very good thing!



As we were getting ready to cross the street between The Cheesecake Factory and The Marketplace, we encountered a bird man. He was covered in exotic birds (obviously looking for "tips" for pictures). I saw dollar signs appear in the bird man's eyes as I rolled up with my kid in the wheelchair.



He paid special attention to Jake...



And of course, I fell for it completely!



Remember how I can't pass up a cheesy, touristy, photo-op?



Have I mentioned how extremely ticklish Jacob is? The most ticklish person I know. That forth bird trying to make his way up to Jake's shoulder with his beak just sent him over the edge.



We did some final souvenir shopping for the peeps back home, and I had to get a pic of this old graffiti tree. What can I say, I'm a tree hugger.

Then, we drove back to the hotel to do laundry and pack for our big morning tomorrow. Home sweet home, here we come!

Hawaii...it's been real. You will forever stay a honeymoon destination in my heart, but other than that...I want nothing to do with you. Nothing personal...it's the traumatic stress talking.