a sashimi emergency

every weekend is different and unique in its own right.
even a weekend during which i decide to do absolutely nothing and stay up north and nurse my cold turns into a weekend worth sharing.
saturday i got up late and cleaned the house. Kelly called with an invite to join the crew for some exploring because the weather has given us a gift of sunshine. I declined, citing my cold and the fact that i hadn't been in my apartment for two weekends in a row and it really needed to get cleaned up.
I took a walk in Kijoka in the afternoon and expected to drive to Okuma for dinner and watch a movie on my laptop at night.
Nope. That didn't happen.
I got a call from Ben, who is my northern neighbor and lives on the other side of the island in a slightly more remote village than mine called Higashi-son.
He called to tell me that he had a sashimi emergency (and trust me, this sounds ten times better when said with a british accent such as Ben's).
Apparently, Ben had also taken a run/walk through his village in the afternoon and happened upon a woman who works at his Board of Education. She happened to be spending her afternoon cutting up small fish that her husband had caught earlier in the day. Ben joined in the sashimi cutting fun and spent a half hour learning how to properly clear the fish meat of bones and fins. The nice woman gave Ben a bag filled with the fish. And Ben now had a "sashimi emergency!" on his hands.
--btw, If you don't know or are not certain about the definition for sashimi, check out this wonderful site for answers.

Ben had also called David out of his Motobu hideaway, and the three of us cut up some tiny fish for sashimi and had a nice dinner with veggies, accompanied by Tom Waits, and complimented by Kirin and Orion beers and awamori later on. We watched two movies that evening: Dude Where Is My Car? and He Died with a Falafel in his Hand. The later one is an australian film that i would highly recommend. The first movie wasn't as bad as i thought it would be but not better than the second movie by the same director, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle .
I drove home that evening in order to get up early and call my sisters, which i did and it very nice to hear about what's been going on in their lives.

Sunday afternoon I decided to drive south to Chatan to perhaps catch the new Harry Potter movie, but on the way decided better of it and turned again towards Higashi-son.


I spent a wonderful couple of hours journaling and reading at Hiro's Coffee Farm.

A wonderful aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans fills the air around this house/farm/coffee shop and it was very relaxing sitting on a small veranda in the sunshine.
When i was leaving Hiro's, I gave Ben a call and found out that David and him were not too far away at an herb garden place.
I found them chilling in the living room/sales area of Meadow Greens , sipping iced green tea and chatting.

I joined them after taking a stroll through the fields and green house of this newly discovered business. David bought a rosemary plant and i got a few things for New Year's presents.
We then decided to look for a coffee shop that i heard about, north of Hiro's farm and deep in the jungle of Higashi-son.
We turned off the main road and followed the signs down a windy road that kept getting narrower and finally turned into an unpaved track wide enough for one car. At then end of it stood a house, surrounded by a green, lush jungle and a coffee shop was on the first floor of it. One of Ben's elementary students lives there but he hid from Ben the whole time, probably intimidated by the two other gaijin Ben brought with him.
The place was by far the best place I have been to in Okinawa so far. And that's saying a lot. It's a perfect getaway, chilling spot, and made all three of us wish that we could own a piece of jungle in the north of Okinawa so that we could open up one of these ourselves.

This is Ben checking out a somewhat pricey menu.




This is David and I enjoying our time.


And i wanted a picture of myself with a jungle backdrop.

More caffeine intake and we were once again on our way. This time south to Nago to join Ben C. and Aine for a dinner at an "all you can grill/eat for 90 minutes" place.



Aine is suspiciously eyeing Ben's serving of ice cream.



Ben is saddened by the prospects of the last piece of chicken on the grill.

At the end of Sunday I was fully loaded on caffeine, protein, and sugar. The drive home was a riot.

And tomorrow i am by myself in the classroom for the first time.

cheers