I am NOT eating Brazilian BBQ in Japan!

On Saturday night Jason's friends from work were going out to dinner as a send off as one of their wives is leaving the island (lucky). We decided we would call Josie (our baby-sitter) and go. They picked the place - Poco a Poco. A restaurant literally half a block away from our house. Another night with the baby-sitter where we are within 500 meters of our house. I like it better this way, then if anything would happen, we are so close! So we were going to meet up with the other people at 6:30 and it was only 10 to 6, we snuck out unnoticed by Colton and we were ready to go. Jason and I took the long way to the restaurant - we still ended up being 10 or so minutes early.
We looked around and saw a Pachinko place. We've always wanted to try these to see what the hub-bub was all about. We went in and there were children running around everywhere and people chuffing down cigs. So strange in today's world. We get some change and pick a machine next a few other people who are trying their luck. We put our money in and the credits register. There are now 2 blinking lights near where we put the coins in - one is red and one is green. With nothing but kanji all around we try pushing one. Hm... it changed one of the numbers we saw. We figured that meant we had bet. There was one other button on the machine - it said PUSH. We pushed it and nothing happened. Hm... We pushed it again and nothing happened. Hm... Luckily the man to our right saw us struggling and tried his best broken English to tell us what to do. Turns out there is a small knob towards the bottom of the machine that you have to twist and this allows little pin balls to drop through a maze and thus causes the characters on the screen to spin! We were finally losing our money! Just what we wanted to do. We only put in 500 yen (about $5) and it seemed to be lasting so much longer than $5 would last you in any machine in the states so we were satisfied. We eventually lost all of the money and Jason thought we should try one big spin and bet $5 on one spin. We walked over to the machine that we wanted to play and dropped the 500 yen coin into the slot. It fell right through. Again - all kanji - we tried again. We tried while holding down this button and we tried while holding down that button. Just fell straight through. One of the information girls was nearby so we showed her our dilemma. She seemed to understand our problem right away and seemed to have an answer. "Chotto-matten-a" she said. This means one minute please. She opened the machine and showed us a token. "Ohhhhh! Where is the token machine?!" She kindly showed us the token machine. There was a large sign on the front of the machine that said, "DO NOT CONFUSE COINS WITH TOKENS - IT IS AGAINST JAPANSES LAW TO GAMBLE. TOKENS CAN NOT BE TURNED IN FOR MONEY OR PRIZES." So... we realized that all these people were playing for fun. Needless to say, we had wasted our 10 minutes and were off to Poco a Poco.
Upon climbing the stairs to Poco a Poco we realize the parking lot is full and we should ask if there will be room for a table of 8. They ask if we have a reservation and of course we do not. They say we should try Okinawa City (they must have another restaurant there). We thank them and quickly call the guys to let them know we will need to find another place to eat.
They are talking to Jason and they say that they will go to a Korean BBQ. OMG! I love Korean BBQ and I've been wanting it for a long time. Perfect! I say, "I know where they're talking about. It's by the starbucks." They confirm my destination and Jason and I are off on foot. Its not far from our house either.
After getting to nearly every corner and saying, "Its not here? Must be the next one." Jason decides to call them and let them know that we essentially had no idea what we (or rather I) were talking about. We try explaining to them where we are (again there are no street signs). We are right by a VERY large drug store called MORI with a giant apple - they know this place and are coming to pick us up. Jason asks them again what the name of the restaurant is. They say it is Bovino's. WHAT!?!?! That is not Korean BBQ. That is Brazilian BBQ. We ate there once and it was not good. Not terrible, but Jason and I seriously get out about once a month by ourselves and I REALLY don't want to eat there. Jason tells them and we are on our way. By now we've walked close to 2 miles all around town and are headed back towards our hood. By now its 7:30. I am hungry. Mean hungry. I start ranting as we're walking about how mad I am. "Those guys are idiots! Who eats Brazilian BBQ in Japan?" "I want to eat Korean BBQ!" I was even grunting and groaning. A full on temper tantrum. Jason is quietly walking beside me.
At this point we walk past a Ramen house we've eaten at before and it was not very good. I say, I'm so hungry, I want to eat here. Jason quickly talks me out of it. It is so lucky he did because literally right next door is a... (wait for it.... wait for it...) KOREAN BBQ!!!! I hugged Jason and thanked God for sending us here. There is no English on the sign - hence the reason we never noticed it before. The only reason we noticed was because they had the open grills in the center of the tables. Jason had to put out his cigarette before we went in and there were 2 small dishes with salt (at least that's what I thought) next to the door. "This must be an ashtray. Put your cig here." Just as Jason pushes his cig down into the "salt" he realizes it is rock hard and that it is not even slightly dirty. This must not be an ashtray. As we entered we almost expected them to shun us for putting our cig in their possible "traditional spirit warder-offer." When they didn't we graciously accepted their smiles and were seated.
We were the only Americans in this restaurant. It was packed too. People were chuffing cigs in here too! Good thing we never went with Colton. We would've had to leave. They sat us in the way back of the restaurant - basically behind a partition - but we didn't mind. We had just put out our cig in their Holy Salt.
We order a TON of food. Mixed veggies, mixed mushrooms, scallops, a salad, shrimp and premium beef. All of the ordering went very smoothly except for the shrimp. On the menu it said,
           SHRIMP (4)
To me that means 4 shrimp in an order, right? Wrong. Who knows what that 4 is there for. We said 1 shrimp and pointed to the menu and I think the lady was confused because she thought we only wanted 1 shrimp, but we didn't. We wanted 1 order of shrimp. She held up 3 fingers and I pointed at the menu and said 4? And she held up 3 fingers and said, "OK?"
 "OK."
Everything gets delivered to our table at different times which is fine because the grill is small and we have to cook everything ourselves. When the scallops arrive I peek into the foil to see what we had gotten this time. It looked as though the scallops were wrapped up with carrots and onions and stuff. Yummy!
When the scallops were finished we opened up the foil only to learn that that was no carrot and onion, but the entire scallop. Pink gushy stuff and all. Jason mustered up the guts and swallowed the whole shit. He said it wasn't that bad. I mustered up the guts and tried it too. Not bad. We waste that stuff in America and it just tastes like imitation crab. It was not very appealing to the eye, though, I suppose that's why we don't serve it in America.
We asked for our check and as the waitress went to get it for us Jason asked me how to say, "That was delicious." The Japanese is - oishi desu. Jason mumbled the phrase under his breath about 12 times and felt prepared to say it to the waitress. When he said it, the young waitress put her hand over her mouth and busted out in giggles. We don't know what was so funny, except that maybe this white man was possibly completely screwing up her language. The check was completely in kanji so its funny that they even show it to us like we would have any clue what it said or if they were ripping us off. You just have to pay and smile and say, "Aragato ga zai mas!"
We drove past the restaurant the next day and Jason asked me to look if his picture was on the door with an X through it. It wasn't, so we will definitely be frequenting this place on date nights to come.

Japanese Piñata

So we tend to spend many of our days beachside as it allows to Colton to move around freely as he is really cruising now! Colton loves people watching, and let's admit it, trying to eat everything in sight. We usually just sit and watch and don't participate in the hoopla that is ensuing around us, most times we don't really understand what's happening. People are smart. It's hot here and where else to go but the beach.

Most of the people here are just BBQing and drinking and listening to the music, occasionally taking a dip. It would be just like any American beach, except that a lot of the women that are there cover themselves from the sun from head to toe. They believe a fair skinned woman is more attractive. Large visors, face masks, long sleeves or arm covers, sometimes even jackets and sweatpants. It's hot here, sometimes with the humidity it says, "feels like 116." No wonder they're so skinny! You couldn't get me dressed like that for anything. I always want to take a picture of them, but I can't do a secret picture and I don't want to offend anyone. 
At the little "snack shack" you can buy food or drinks or get shaved ice (which is very inexpensive here and I LOVE it even though it's just sugar). They have about a million different types of mojitos and beer for sale. I decided to get a mojito for myself one day, just because Jason isn't allowed to drink off base doesn't mean the fun should be ruined for everyone, right? 

 


Soon after sitting a large group of women came near us and they had watermelons in plastic bags and large wooden dowels. Now, we were confused too until the blindfold came out and the spinning commenced. A Japanese piñata! How fun. We got a little closer for a better look and of course the women loved Colton, again, who wouldn't?!

 

 

 

In the end, this was the first thing Colton's ever gotten us out of his own money ;)

Life's a beach!