Happily Ever After

So Long, And Thanks for all the Fish!

abcarlson — Mon, 7 Mar 2011 22:17:00 GMT

We've had a lovely 2+ years on WorldNomads. It's been a time of getting married in Jamaica, moving to a foreign country, exploring Japanese culture, cuisine, and customs; as well as lots of traveling around Okinawa, mainland Japan, Sapporo, and Italy. Truly a wonderful time!

Now we're moving again. We're remaining in Okinawa, but our website is moving. We're thankful for WorldNomads hosting our site up til now, but it's time for us to continue our learning and move to another site.

Come on over to our new site: www.abcarlson.com and join us in our continuing adventures. (And our adventures as we learn more about our new website!) All of our new posts will be over there. This will be our last post on WorldNomads. We're still in the "under construction" phase and are slowly filtering in our older posts.

Hope to see you again soon! Come check out the bright blue starfish we found!

---Arielle

Sapporo Snow and Ice Festival: Day 3

abcarlson — Sat, 5 Mar 2011 22:21:00 GMT

On the final day of our Sapporo trip, we decided started our day in search of some more action figures. On our walk through part of the city, the boys stopped to play in the snow.

Figured what better way to enjoy Sapporo than to build our own snowman!

We might not be winning any awards this year, but it was fun and made people passing by smile!

On the way to the train station (there was a rumor of a great toy store there), these girls loved our 6'6" Stitch. This is photographic proof of Brandon's success in helping international relations between our countries by making young and old alike smile.

We got to the train station, just as a mini blizzard hit.

We decided it was probably a good time to stay inside a bit and get some lunch. We found a nice little restaurant on the sixth floor. The boys were happy to warm up with some Sapporo Beer boots.

Chris had half-n-half, while Brandon had dark.

After thawing out, and with our bellies happily full, we headed back to the Festival. (It's at this point that I'd like to add in this English link to the Sapporo Snow Festival site that I just found. It has some great information and photos on it, including the answer to Auntie A's questions regarding how they make the really big snow sculptures.)

We arrived back at the festival just in time to watch some of the snowboarding event.

They weren't doing too many exciting tricks while we were there, but it was interesting to see them snowboard down a man-made slope in the middle of the park, nonetheless.

And just in case you were wondering what they do when those mini-blizzards come through and deposit several inches of snow o top of their beautiful snow sculptures?

They snow-blow them, of course!

Next to the people snow blowing the snow steps (yes, I did find it ironic), there was fun to be had for the kiddos on a tiny train!

They also had a slide made out of blocks of ice, but I didn't get a pic of that.

Further down the park, we walked by the sculptors from various countries working on their carvings. The transformation from the night before to today was impressive.

And my favorite:

Next stop in our day was to find the Ferris wheel on top of a building that Chris had seen the first day. Our search led us here:

The building below the ferris wheel had floor after floor of interesting sights. One floor was devoted to some sort of anime event. That's where we found the singing and dancing anime character that Brandon put in his Day 1.5 post.

On another floor there was a bowling alley and arcade lounge.

It was pretty groovy.

Finally, we made it to the top and found the Ferris wheel!

We were definitely grateful for the enclosed cars, as it was a bit chilly to ride any other type of Ferris wheel.

And oh, what a view!

So fun to be able to see the city and the mountains! And we got to watch as another snow storm blew in!

Loved our Ferris wheel ride! We'd definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Sapporo!

And speaking of other things we'd recommend, I think we found our new favorite Italian restaurant! It came highly recommended from Chris, and it now has our full endorsement as well. Do not leave Sapporo without eating here. In fact, it was so good, that we might recommend visiting Sapporo simply for the restaurant!

Cheese Cheese is a very Italian restaurant with a fun, very cheesy atmosphere. Our only caution is to bring a very hearty appetite, as the set portions are very, very generous!

The whole wait-staff called out a cheerful greeting when we entered, and we were quickly set at a bar facing the open kitchen. The wall next to us had a beautiful display of Italian cookbooks that I admired.

And yes, that is a prosciutto carver to the bottom right.

I'd like to say I took pictures of every course of the set Brandon and I ordered, but to be honest, we were so enjoying the atmosphere (and watching all the cooking in front of us) that I didn't get everything.

Try to imagine being served a semi-scrambled egg in a tiny dish as an appetizer. Then, watch as our waitress (and chef) spin a bowl full of scrumptious greens on the counter while drizzling in a lovely light Caesar dressing, topping it off with your choice of grated goat or cow cheese.

Then comes the amazing cheese fondue! A wonderful assortment plate of dipping options. And the hot cheese is spectacular!

Next, a giant brick-oven baked margherita pizza is set in front of you. (Thankfully Brandon was REALLY hungry.)

Just when you thought you couldn't eat another bite, they bring out a giant Parmesan cheese wheel. This wheel has a bit of the center hollowed out to form a bowl. They scrape the sides a bit to create fresh-grated Parmesan, and then they put hot noodles directly in the cheese wheel to make what they call, "Cheese Cheese Cheese Pasta." Seriously!

After it is sufficiently cheese-cheese-cheesy, they serve it to you on a very hot plate.

This really was their crowning achievement for me! I loved every bite!

Then, I realized, there was still dessert to be eaten. Pineapple drizzled with syrup, two slices of Japanese cheese cake (and folks, we're talking cheesy cheese cake, not Cheese Cake Factory cheesecake) and raspberry sorbet. So yummy!

So, overall, we had an absolutely wonderful trip to Sapporo! We got to enjoy the glorious snow, found some awesome action figures to add to our collection, and the food was outstanding! When can we go back - all that talk about Cheese Cheese made me hungry! :)

---Arielle

Sapporo Snow and Ice Festival: Day 2

abcarlson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:31:00 GMT

Our second day in Sapporo found us at the Snow Festival, the Susukino (Street) Ice Festival, and Ramen Alley.

The Snow Festival sculptures were breathtaking! It was amazing to see how detailed they could carve several stories tall snow sculptures.

The security officer said it took an entire month for these "buildings" to be finished.

And no wonder, check out some of that detail!

After several years of sandcastle building with my Daddy, I can tell you firsthand how much work had to go into carving just the stonework along the bottom, let alone all the windows and archways!

It's challenging to truly capture in photo how amazing these works of art were, but trust us, they were really, really cool!

The fox's eyes looked so real! They had hollowed out behind the pupil to take advantage of natural shadows. AMAZING!

By this time, I had turned into a human Popsicle and we were getting hungry. (As with winter in PA, it doesn't matter how many warm layers I wear or how many hand warmers I shove in my gloves, I get COLD very quickly.) So we headed over to Sapporo's famous Ramen Alley to get some lunch and warm up a bit.

On the way over, we walked past part of the Susukino Ice Festival.

Yes, those are chainsaws they are using to sculpt the ice.

Some of the sculptures were quite intricate.

This was my personal favorite! Real seafood frozen in the artwork! (Sapporo is known for it's beer and seafood, among other things.)

Ramen Alley is quite literally a narrow alley lined with tasty ramen shops.

There are signs outside each one showing what kinds of ramen they serve.

We chose this shop to thaw out my fingers and toes.

As with most ramen shops in Japan, the inside was small but nice. Four or five tables and a small bar around the kitchen area. Wouldn't seat many, but there are so many small shops to choose from, I don't think that matters.

The husband and wife were so nice as they prepared our ramen.

And oh boy, was it ever yummy!

The happy customers:

Check out all those signatures of famous people who've eaten there! There was even a signature board from "The Glen Miller Orchestra Band!" Pretty neat!

After the delicious lunch, we headed back out on our sci-fi hunt. They had a fun covered-street market (like we saw in Tokyo and down near Kokusai Street in Naha) where we found some nice antique shops, but alas, no sci-fi. Brandon did, however, make friends with an impressively large bear.

This would probably be a good time to point out that my wonderful hubby is getting great mileage out of the awesome Stitch hat we found for him at Tokyo Disney last year. He says it is part of his contribution to diplomacy between the U.S. and Japan. Everyone LOVES seeing a 6'6" guy wearing a Stitch hat! Makes everyone smile and laugh! Chris says it takes a very self-confident individual to be that tall (and thus, stick out significantly in a crowd) and be willing to stick out even more by donning Stitch. We had a lot of fun watching people's reactions.

In fact, our favorite part of the trip actually happened by accident. When we were walking through the Snow Festival, it was quite slippery in places. After several near-slips, Brandon finally met the ground hard. Fortunately, Chris and I were both right there so we could lend him a hand up. Unfortunately, both of us were incapacitated with laughter. As Brandon had fallen, a lady in one of the food booths were were walking next to, yelled, "Stitch fell down!" in Japanese. It wasn't a "He fell down!" or even a "That guy just fell down." Nope, it was, "Stitch fell down!" Yup, poor Brandon was on his own getting back up. He was laughing as he stood, though. :)

Back at the Snow Festival, we checked out the section of smaller sculptures.

There was everything from Miffy:

To other Japanese cartoon characters:

Soccer, anyone?

Mr. Potato Head

An interesting interpretation of the 3D movie Avatar (they were literally coming out of the television)

No snow festival would be complete without a VW Van, right?

Since it's the year of the rabbit, there had to be a rabbit...or two...or three.

A sculpture done by some of our U.S. soldiers stationed on mainland at Misawa.

Some slightly more intricate artworks:

My favorite intricate one:

Check out all that detail!!!

And to borrow a quote from Darth Vader:

"Impressive. Most impressive."

As the day wore on, they put out more sand/gravel to help aid with traction.

There was also another giant sculpture down at this end of the festival.

You can get a bit of a size ratio based on the nearby tree.

And another angle:

Me, outside, loving every inch of the glorious snow!

They get enough snowfall here that many of the bushes and trees have bamboo supports so they don't get crushed or deformed by the snow.

The last section of the festival was full of in-process sculptures from around the world.

It was neat to see their tools and sculpting techniques.

We grabbed dinner at one of the festival food booths.

So many yummy options!

I was cold enough that we took our kebab sandwiches back to the hotel, but there was a wonderful outdoor seating area with huge flatscreen TV for those less-frozen.

Overall, a another wonderful day!

---Arielle

Sapporo Snow and Ice Festival: Day 1.5

abcarlson — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:19:00 GMT

And Now for Something Slightly Different...

Here are a couple short videos I took at the snow festival.

First up Ball and Cup Game at the Lion King Snow Sculpture.

Next we have Snowboarders going down a jump. This ramp was setup at one end of the snow festival. Unfornately, while we were standing there no one wiped out or did any fancy moves.

Finally a Dancing Anime Character we saw at a semi random anime festival? There was a group of people drawing anime characters and an anime artwork gallery we walked through. Needless to say there were some really talented artists.

- Brandon

Sapporo Snow and Ice Festival: Day 1

abcarlson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:06:00 GMT

On February 5th, we took a long weekend trip up to northern Japan to enjoy the Sapporo Snow & Ice Festival. While our friends and families back home were wishing for warm weather, we were trading our subtropical island for some glorious snow!

The Naha Airport always has beautiful orchid displays, but we especially enjoyed this eye-catching orchid dress. Two plane flights later, we were in snow heaven!

Our tour group of 14 (including our favorite sci-fi loving tour guide Chris) piled in taxis and headed over to the Sapporo Beer Garden for dinner.

Everything was picture perfect as we waited for our reservation time.

The candles outside even had pretty ice holders that helped add to the atmosphere.

There was even a beautiful pipe organ wagon that brought back happy memories of the Debence Antique Music World museum in Franklin, PA.

The Sapporo Beer Garden's downstairs is a large open room full of happy people, cooking and eating delicious mutton and drinking Sapporo beer. Our group split into two tables and immediately joined in on the fun.

We cooked and ate yakiniku-style. All-you-can-eat strips of mutton, bean sprouts, cabbage, and acorn squash (Japan's pumpkin) were available. And the sauce was absolutely amazing!

We were all quite styling in our bibs as we ate and drank the night away. (Brandon was quite taken with the Sapporo Dark and is hoping to find some on Okinawa. I was quite taken with their Coke.) It was so nice to share a wonderful meal and great conversation with our table. We left feeling very, very full. :)

A wonderful night with friends, old and new, and a great start to our Sapporo adventure!

---Arielle

Photos: Sapporo Snow & Ice Festival Part III

abcarlson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:56:00 GMT

Photos: Sapporo Snow & Ice Festival Part II

abcarlson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:48:00 GMT

Photos: Sapporo Snow & Ice Festival

abcarlson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:27:00 GMT

Knock, Knock... Who's there?! Mochi... Mochi Who?! Mochi For You!

abcarlson — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:16:00 GMT

In one of those "Only in ~~Japan~~ Okinawa”, moments I had someone ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door at the same time. I am thinking great now what?! I open it to find a nice Okinawan woman who is selling Mochi of all kinds!

Just in case you forgot, let’s review mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. (Via Wikipedia https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mochi)

In the picture, you are seeing strawberry on the plate, orange, and...well let's just say I was too excited to listen to her tell me what the other two were. Instead, I ran and got Yen all while she was trying to quick ask me if I wanted anything else. I paid her for the mochi and thanked her for it in English and Japanese, arigato gozaimasu.

This then led to the next highlight of the night. I caught her off guard with the Japanese and I'm thinking great... what great insult did I just say by miss pronouncing Japanese. However, she told me my Japanese was very good. Wow didn't see that one coming. Yes, I have been here for almost two years, but I live in little America. Anyway, instead, she took me off guard and I thanked her again and told her that her English was very good, because it really was and off I went into the apartment to eat some MOCHI! (Sorry no picture was taken of that, because well... I enjoyed one, put the rest in the fridge, and then went back to NCAA 11, xbox360 college football game :)

Hope everyone has a good rest of the week! I'm looking forward to the weekend! ;)

- Brandon

Kinect The Adventure Begins...

abcarlson — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:43:00 GMT

My lovely wife picked us up a Xbox 360 Kinect yesterday and I hooked it up this evening. The Kinect is a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" where you are the controller. There is a sensor that sits below the tv that watches your movements and can even follow your commands by saying for example "Kinect... Play Game." Picture Star Trek where they tell the computer what to do. The Kinect can even recognize you and login your avatar for you!

As you can see from the pictures in the post and the picture gallery we are having a blast playing the game, Kinect Adventures, that came with the Kinect. We also have Your Shape coming in the mail and should be here after the first of the year. We discovered in the hour we played the game that you can work up quite a sweat from playing. We look forward to getting a few more hours of game time in tomorrow.

Come visit us and try out the Kinect!

- Brandon

For a promo video for Kinect to help explain how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf44bWQr3jc

Photos: Kinect

abcarlson — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:39:00 GMT

Aboard the Moby Dick

abcarlson — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:06:00 GMT

My sweetie surprised me with a Christmas Dinner Cruise aboard the Moby Dick last night! We boarded at the Naha Port and spent a wonderful two hours out on the sea.

We had a wonderful table for two.

Beautiful, tasty appetizers were waiting for us when we arrived.

Our table was conveniently situated right next to a window, providing a beautiful view during dinner!

There was a salad bar where Brandon found lots of delicious goodies. (I still fear most vegetables.)

And yes, seasoned French Fries are part of many salad bars on Okinawa.

While we waited for our main course, we ventured outside to watch the sunset.

I enjoyed checking out some of the nautical parts. For example, the magnetic compass.

Made in Osaka, Japan.

The "overboard!" ladder.

And of course, the sea.

And the gorgeous sunset!

We went back inside just in time for the main course - steak and lobster!

Brandon really enjoyed his steak and I was very partial to the half a lobster with white sauce! Delicious!

We were also served a small dish of white rice. (I thought the plate was adorable!)

And we finished off dinner with a nice assortment of fresh fruit and cake bites.

After dinner, they turned down the lights and we enjoyed our nautical candles,

while listening to the musical talent of Kazuto-san, who serenaded us with both English and Japanese songs, as well as a few Christmas carols.

We also had several birthdays so we got to sing, "Happy Birthday" three times. They brought out dessert for the birthday partiers, with large sparklers instead of candles. Lots of fun!

We purchased Kazuto-san's CD on the way out.

And he even signed it for us!

Overall, a splendid night out with my wonderful husband! What a sweet Okinawa holiday memory!

---Arielle

Photos: Moby Dick

abcarlson — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:53:00 GMT

Baking spirits bright!

abcarlson — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:44:00 GMT

(Pin-turned-ornament from my Mama last year)

Last night, as I was using plastic tweezers to "string" candy bulbs on my Christmas tree sugar cookies, I briefly wondered if I was crazy. <pause> Then I decided, that if I was an elf, I'd definitely be a baking elf - despite the fire risks associated with cooking inside a tree. :)

I have been enjoying baking sweets this season. Fancy Walnut Brownies, Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups, Raspberry Thumbprints, and decorated sugar cookies all made it into my Christmas Sweets Baskets this year.

Despite questioning my sanity while decorating my sugar cookies, I was happy with how they turned out.

And the process did start to go a bit quicker after the first 15 or so.

I'd like to add, that flipping the candy canes so they were two different directions was a lot faster than determining which side was both "up" and "front side" for each individual bulb, not to mention making sure the colors were alternating correctly.

I made Christmas Sweets bags for my favorite librarians on Torii. They were so happy! And they even had a new cookie decorating book for me to check out to get some new ideas from!

I found the super cute bags at the 100-Yen store. They were perfect sized to tuck a few sweets inside. Although Christmas is not a traditional Japanese holiday, it's definitely taken over Okinawa. Many stores are decorated for Christmas and you can order your Christmas cakes in the Japanese grocery stores.

I delivered cookies to the Torii Post Office staff, and Christmas Sweets Baskets to the two Housing Agencies again. So much fun!

Brandon and I are going to bake kuchen together on Christmas Eve. Not quite the same as baking with Gramma Lou, but Brandon's being a good sport. :)

I love how yummy the holidays are, don't you?!

---Arielle

Photos: Christmas cookies

abcarlson — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:40:00 GMT

Shum from Triple-P Concert

abcarlson — Mon, 6 Dec 2010 21:54:00 GMT

The last free concert we went to in American Village was held at the end of September. We were very happy to go out and support Shum from Triple-P as he rocked. You may remember a previous post about how much we enjoyed the brother-sister duo Triple-P and their cute music video shot on Okinawa. Shum has a side project out right now that's much more Japanese rap/hip-hop.

He had a very good turn out for the evening. He did some sound-mixing, singing, and dancing. Quite the show! Here's a video clip of his intro.

There was a full-moon that evening, too, which provided an interesting sight.

I may have to use the photo in some Halloween crafts next year. :)

While many music artists Stateside often do side or solo projects, I haven't come across one that makes their name a clear advertisement for their band. He doesn't go by "Shum," he is literally going by "Shum from Triple- P!" Here's a video clip from his One-Two-Three song.

We were also very impressed with his dance tribute to Michael Jackson.

We really enjoyed his concert and hope to see him again in American Village!

---Arielle

Photos: Shum from Triple-P

abcarlson — Mon, 6 Dec 2010 21:49:00 GMT

Stamp Set

abcarlson — Sun, 5 Dec 2010 22:03:00 GMT

So I was exploring the 100-Yen Store near Torii, on a hunt for red felt for a Christmas project when I was magically pulled into the stationary/paper good section. (Brandon can attest that I just cannot walk by that section in any 100-Yen Store.) Look at the goodie I found this trip! Talk about an adorable stamp set!

Right down to the misspelled English, "We always have a wonderfl time." And I can tell you I just couldn't pass up a stamp set that assured me that, "Every day is fun and shine!"

The back advertised, "Please put stamp in the case compactedly! Very convenience case for carry!" So cute! :) But here is what really sold me on this stamp set:

In the caution section: "Please it never licks..." I think fellow shoppers must have thought I was nuts with the peals of laughter that rang throughout the small store. :)

Today I made 41 envelopes for the greeting cards I make. These tiny stamps will be perfect to spice up the back flap, don't you think! (Especially the stamp that simply states, "Happy!") I sure do love Japan!

Hope you all have a happy day!

---Arielle

Photos: Stamp Set

abcarlson — Sun, 5 Dec 2010 22:01:00 GMT

Let me explain...

abcarlson — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:30:00 GMT

In the famous words of Inigo Montoya, "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

Wonder where all the updates are of our trip Stateside and all the wonderful adventures we've been having since we got back to our island? Well, I've been busy doing things like this:

(Chocolate and vanilla cookies for my co-worker's farewell party.)

And making cards like this:

(Sniff, sniff. Sad to see people leaving our island. But on a happy note, I actually found those stamps for 25 cents a piece in a sale bin at Michael's when I was Stateside! Oh how I miss huge craft stores and sale bins!)

Receiving wonderful packages like this:

(Wait til you hear about all the wonderful holiday baking I have planned this year!)

And frantically trying to get out our massive number of Christmas cards (where did we meet all these people - oh wait, we're related to most of them, never mind)(hehehe) and mail out Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving so they all get there on time. It's been a little hectic, but I haven't forgotten you all. No sirree! I've got all sorts of exciting posts in the making, so keep checking back (and keep the email reminders and hint-hints coming.) I'll be back to regularly updating the site again soon! :)

---Arielle