Wednesday, February 20, 2008

FREE Shipping on selected items from www.koralle.etsy.com

Purchase any of the items listed above and receive FREE Shipping for your ENTIRE order: Purchase one of the items in the picture above from my etsy store and send me a convo with the message : Free Shipping from http://www.koralle-japan.blogspot.com/ (convo message needs to be send within 6 hours of purchase). I will then grant free shipping. If you have already paid for your items - I will refund the money with paypal, if you have not paid - I will send an invoice with paypal reflecting the FREE shipping. Please note that all payments have to be received within 48 hours of the purchase, to be eligable for the FREE shipping.
The item numbers are listed under the pictures in red and in the titles of all items at the end! The items are spread out amongst the sections of my shop. So happy hunting!
Here is a list of the items:
- Cute-Kawaii Japanese Note Book - Pink - USA HANA and her friends with names - Y59
- Pretty Patchwork Japanese Paper-Envelope-Sticker Stationery Set - Look on the bright side Y81
- Cute Little Japanese Envelope Set with Stickers - Good Friends - Y87
- Classy Japanese Envelopes - white with fiber - monutain and sun Y97
- Honey Bear and Bees Japanese Felt and Paper Sticker Set - Y138
- Japanese Origami Paper - Pastel Tones with Cute Prints - 6 designs - 36 sheets - Y186
- Lovely Japanese Self Sticking Cotton Cloth Ribbon - Rich Red with Pretty Colorful Fans Y356

questions??? There is a convo link on top of each etsy page!!!!

http://koralle.etsy.com

Soda machines - the Japanese have two or more everywhere




Here is a little about life on Okinawa, Japan. Some things stood out when I first arrived on the island. One of the dominant things were the Soda mashines: Well we thought, that there is a lot of them in the US, but the Japanese have us beat!!!! There are at least 20 of them within a 5 minute walking radius of my apartment building in a very residential neighborhood. The Japanese just love them. The coolest thing about them is that they are mostly filled with tea - green tea, hot tea, cold tea, black tea, lemon tea, apple tea etc. - and with coffee drinks - milk coffe, expresso, black coffee, hot coffe, cold coffee etc. The mashines often have hot and cold items in the same mashine. The hot items are really hot - even in the winter. They usually have a red button or a red label. That is how us non-japanese reading people identify them. The tea and coffe seldom is sweetend and sometimes even bitter. There are a few sodas and energy drinks along with water in the mashines. The fanciest mashines are coke mashines that have a TV screen in them - the TV shows a cute coke comercial over and over again.

Overall nobody has to go thirsty here, all one needs is a 110 Yen.....

I can not leave my house....

Okay, this is a bit of the beaten path, but worth mentioning! As of today we (all Americans affiliated with the US military) can not go anywhere! That is a direct order from the US military. We are guest of the Japanese government here on Okinawa. About 10 days ago a 14 year old local girl accused a 38 year old marine of picking her up on his motorcycle, taking her to his home and then sexually assaulting her while taking her home in his car. First of all that is horrible!!!! No male adult has any business picking up teenage girls (they wear pretty obvious school uniforms here)!!! The guy is in jail for up to 46 days without charges being filed while the Japanese police is doing their investigation. Then last weekend two marines messed-up again - one drinking and driving and the other was found in a locals home with no business there. There are ongoing protests against the behavior and the presence of all Americans on the island. Last night at a family meeting we were informed that of today all military members are restricted from all activity not involving the military installations. Family members were told not to venture out also. We are "banned" from stores, restaurants, bars, clubs, any tourist facilities, the beaches not belonging to the US military etc. We were told that we could travel from and to work, go to all military installations, but nothing else. Since I live about one mile away from a military installation and we have only one car, I am stuck at home unless my husbands work schedule lets me work something out with him, so I can drop him off and pick him up later on....
This situation , we were told, can last anywhere from days to months.... The reason we were given is that we are supposed as low profile as possible, while the powers that be work things out. The last time something like this has happend, the US military ended up giving major amounts of land back to the Japanese and had to pull out troops from the island.
It is very sad that the alleged actions of one idiot reflect upon all ...... I am a female and I do not think, there is a great danger for me to go out and hurt any of the locals....
Let me hear what you think about this!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I saw the sun!


The weather has not changed much over the last few days - I am still cold, but the sun was out for a few hours. I broke down and spend money on two pairs of men's houseslippers - one for me and one for my husband... I do have big feet, but womens shoes end at around an american 8. Men's shoes are kind of the same, but they do get a little bigger to a men's 9 or women's 10. So we have two choices shop on base (very limited selection and everybody shops there, but okay for jeans, socks and underwear) or order through the internet. We are not only to tall and big for Japanese clothing, but the clothes and shoes here are a very different style from what we are used to. The womens clothes at the mall have a lot of very big prints on them and look to me as if they were made for a bunch of teenagers... The mens clothes are alo very flashy. Hey, what can be expected from a bunch of young guys that spend as much time blow-drying their hair in the morning as the girls. And the shoes.... well, the shoes for girls it is the higher the heel the better and also the flashier the shoe the better. For the guy flashy still applies. A few days ago Josh and I were driving or better sitting in stop-and-go traffic on the way home. We were going down Gate 2 Street (the street starts at a gate of a base, is about 1/2 mile long and is lined with clothing stores, bars, eateries, clubs with live bands and more bars (lots of the bars are in either basement or on the second or third floor above the shops). So here we are, sitting in traffic, and it is cold, rainy and windy... There are not too many people about. All of a sudden Josh says: "Mom, look at that bruise on her leg". I look and here is this young Japanese woman wearing a pair of short shorts (daisy dukes come to mind) , a heavy black patent leather looking fur-lined jacket, a pair of black High heel boots, that come up well above the knee complete with gold spikey heels, a pair of socks a little longer than her boots and a knitted cap. Half of her thigh is bare and showing of a huge bruise... That seems to be the dress code for the young ladies here - minus the bruise. One would think, that this outfit might have had something to do with the location, but no - girls dressed like that are to be found at the mall further away from any american base. I just, happen to remember that girl and thinking: If I had that bruise, it was this cold, the last thing I would be wearing is the shorts and boots (if I had the figure).
I have to quitt complaining here!!!! The Japanese have a different dress style and there are lots of people that dress not as flashy - normal in Japanese kind of way. And the great thing is I can wear what I want - in jeans, mulies and a plain blouse. Of course I get stared at a lot, because not only am I taller than most men in this country, but I am also not skinny and have a very light complexion, light brown hair with blue eyes in a country where everybody has black/drk brown hair and brown eyes..... When we go to places, where not very many foreigners go, the staring becomes more obvious. My son is also amazing to them: he is obviously a teenager, but he is way tall for them. Overall the people are very friendly and try to help in any way they can. The politeness is amazing: At night one can frequently see drivers dim their headlight when waiting at a red light to not blind the person in front of them or across the intersection..... Americans and Europeans could learn from them! So there it is: I hate the clothing, but love the people and their wonderful politeness... Just another little slice of living on this lovley island waiting for warmer weather and more sun!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

It is flat out cold on tropical Okinawa!!!!!!


Here is one to cheer us all up:
the bearers of spring
Sakura or Cherry Blossoms
We went to one of the many Sakura Festivals here on the island on 2/3/08
Here we are almost Valentine's day and it actually has become cold in Okinawa. Maybe I have brought that onto us by taking about BBQ on the balcony in January.... But it feels really cold outside (it was around 56F/14C around early afternoon). Here that is cold, because we have a humidity of about 70-80% at all times, plus it has been raining with no end for the last few weeks. It also has been very windy. Tonight it is whipping so bad, that I felt the wind pushing on our ity-bity car (I kept thinking, boy am I glad not to have my big pick-up from the states here).
I laughed when my dear son Josh took his furlined house slippers to a tropical island last summer, but now we are taking turns with them : tonight my husband has them and I am sitting here with cold feet!!!!! Yes, there is a heater in our appartment, but not the kind most people would expect: it is part of the Air Conditioning unit and there are two of them.
When I first saw gloves, hats and heavy coats for sale, I laughed, but now I see the reason.... The Japanses walk everywhere and right now they are very bundeld up!!!!! Just like in the mountains in the middle of winter.... I have not gotten that bad yet (remember I moved here from Colorado, where it actually gets cold!!!!), but I am wearing long sleeves sweaters and a light coat most of the time. I think, the worst part for me is not the damp cold, but the lack of sun...... (Colorado had around 300 days of sun a year and I have not seen the sun in about two weeks.....)
Well, it will not last forever and according to my husband we will be nice and warm again in March and flat out hot by April! And that will last for 6 month. My friend from the Philipines, that moved here from Yuma, AZ, complains that the weather is way to hot and humid in Okinawa. One would think she is used to the heat. Go figure.....