"New" Car

I still don't have a camera, but now I have a car. I bought a sweet ride. It's a 1994 Toyota Carib. For anyone who isn't familiar with the models sold on Japan, it is a station wagon. A compact station wagon. I really have to fold myself to get in and out. The steering wheel doesn't adjust up or down and nine times out of ten I hit my knee on the shifter as I pack my six-and-a-half foot frame into the cozy driver's seat. I need to put my left leg in the car on the far side of the steering wheel and simultaneously drop my body and pivot right while doing a sort of sideways backing-in to the vehicle. In the end, I got a reliable car for $800, so as long as I don't end up on fire or covered in flesh eating insects, I am really in no position to complain.

Speaking of insects, the cockroaches aren't getting any better around here. The last few mornings I have sacrificed precious breakfast time trying to kill the cockroaches coming out of my clothes. This morning was especially nice. The cockroach was inside my t-shirt. When I put on my shirt, the large and smooth bug climbed up my back, across my neck, and started it's way down my arm before I was able to swat it. For anyone who isn't familiar with cockroaches (I have never seen any in Wisconsin, so maybe some of you haven't seen any there either?), let me enlighten you: those things are tough. Even though I smacked it, the only damage it sustained was a broken wing. It fell onto my bed and made it's way into the covers. Perhaps there is something to be said for making your bed in the morning, which is something I don't do. There would be fewer places for roaches to hide, at least. Of course, you don't want to smash a cockroach in the place that you sleep, so I spent ten minutes trying to rid my bed of the intruder. I am convinced that that cockroach was a magician. It just plain disappeared. Somehow even after shaking out every sheet, blanket, pillow case, and comforter, I couldn't flush him out. In the end, my room still has too many cockroaches and they probably mock me when I'm not there. I haven't had success in killing any of them. Seemingly old age is the only thing that kills them. I will have to wait them out.

In other news, now that I have a car, I am able to get around. Last weekend I met up with some old friends from college. I hadn't seen them in four years. It's crazy how quickly the time goes by. I was also able to make it to the northern part of the island. Okinawa is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, there are huge power lines ruining almost every view, but I think I can look past/through/around that. I didn't get to do anything outdoors, but we drove around lost for a while and ended up at a nice, small restaurant. The menu was in Japanese and they had pictures of a lot of the food. One thing I learned this week was that having a menu in English isn't really a benefit for me. Danny and I went to a restaurant Sunday night and I had no characters to reference anything off of. I just pointed to a random dish that started with an 'M'. It ended up being slightly hairy pig feet. There was no meat, just skin, fat, and bone. It reminded me of my first meal in Hong Kong. Sheng ordered a "beef" dish for me. It was beef alright: beef intestine, stomach, and other ingredients that are best eaten when disguised in the form of a hot dog.

This coming weekend I am signed up for some softball. I don't have a glove, but I will make do. Even though I'm not a huge fan of diving, I think I will schedule a dive soon. Everyone tells me that Okinawa has the best scuba diving in the world. There are some underwater ruins around here somewhere that should be interesting.

Hopefully my (different) camera arrives soon. The one I originally ordered was on back order, so I canceled the shipment. I changed to a Canon SD800 IS. It still has the two must haves: wide angle lens (28mm) and image stabilization. I traded the 280mm zoom in the Panasonic for supposed better image quality. Hopefully I made the right choice.