Laundry and other matters!

Good morning!

Excellent, quiet night and we were up about 6 am this morning.  It still looks cold and blustery outside, but so far, it doesn’t look like any rain.  Robert inquired about doing laundry, and as we had visited the coin laundry last night, (when the dryers were all full) I thought this morning early might be as good a chance as any.So, we packed up all our dirty clothes and headed down to the ground floor, stopping at the 3^rd floor lobby to inquire about soap and water temperatures.  We were told that the soap is added automatically at the right time (and right amount) when we paid the ¥300 to do a load.  Nice, new machines, and truly, other than the words “coin laundry” there wasn’t a word in English – and of course the hotel had no instructions for non-Japanese speakers.  So, downstairs and loaded up a machine.  R had carefully printed out the Japanese word for “cold” but when we got to looking at the machines, we couldn’t find anything resembling it.  We called the front desk and one of the gals came down immediately, but she couldn’t find “cold” either.  Finally, she said it looked like there was just one cycle, and we tried it.  The water was cold coming out, so I am hopeful.  It took about 40 minutes for the washer to run, so we sat in the lobby for a bit and read books (phone and Kindle) and then went downstairs to put clothes into the dryer.  As we had washed a pair of R’s jeans I figured they would take some time to dry, so we put yen in for 40 minutes worth of drying.

Instructions on dryer (?)

Instructions on the washer

Me and machines!

 

We then headed back upstairs to have breakfast at the Executive Lounge.It was absolutely LOVELY!  We could either have breakfast there or in the restaurant, but I honestly can’t imagine the restaurant having any more choices than we had on the 9^th floor!  Both American and Japanese-style breakfasts were presented, with lots of both hot and cold choices available.  R tried the grilled fish, smoked salmon, smoked chicken and the bacon, as well caponata, which was a nice surprise.  (R makes his own caponata, and he said this one was very good!)  I had bacon, sliced cheese, scrambled eggs, and a green salad with Japanese dressing, along with an excellent croissant with strawberry jam.  We both went back for plates of newly sliced fruit – the grapefruit and the pineapple were wonderful! 

R's breakfast plate

One of the breakfast buffet areas -- the Japanese!

 

By the time we finished, it was time to head back downstairs to see about the laundry.  Well, it wasn’t dry by any means!  So, we’ve split up the load into two for drying, basically putting the jeans in by themselves.  I’m thinking I may be ironing a bit, as the clothes are not coming out very warm.  Oh well!  What’s vacation without ironing a thing or two, right? 

Then, we will be heading out for another drive in the area and a sight or two in the area.  After that, we will probably explore the American Village although I’m not too hopeful about that!  We saw the Red Lobster and there is signage for Tony Roma’s, but we think we’ll pass on that!  (Turns out that Tucson’s two Tony Roma restaurants pulled out of town more than a few years ago, so no, there are none in Tucson – so we come to Okinawa for that?  Don’t think so!)  We did see some wonderful handmade Okinawan glass in the hotel shop downstairs, as well as some of the beautiful Okinawan glass beads for jewelry.  I’m thinking that we may want to come back here right before we leave, to have a few things shipped home.  Certainly don’t want to have to carry home water glasses!

So, more later!

SUCCESS!!!  I FOUND IT!!

My apartment was the second from the right

Me and our little Mazda in apartment parking lot

Looking up at my porch windows

My former front door!!

I found my old apartment building!!!  Incredible!  I did think, that even after 40 years, I would be able to find it again, if it still existed, even if I did have to drive up the other side of the road to get there.  And, once I oriented myself from the road to the former Hilton Hotel, there was only one road it could have been.  So, headed there this morning, and truly, I felt like I was on auto-pilot and went up-up-up and made all the correct turns and before I knew it, I was back in the apartment’s parking area, and into my old garage!  I went upstairs and rang the doorbell, but nobody answered, unfortunately.  R asked me what I was going to say if someone did answer, and my response was that I have a friendly face, and things would have been fine.  I’m thinking either tonight or tomorrow night, we will head over there once more, just to see if I can get in.  I would love to see inside once more, although honestly, I think I could draw a blueprint of the place.  Two years is a while to live in a place.  One of the things I found most amusing is that at the bottom of the hill on the main road, there was a McDonald’s, right there!  Robert said that was probably a hold-over from when I lived there and was a frequent visitor to the McDonald’s down the road!

From there, we stopped at a Lawson’s (the local equivalent of 7/11) to look for water and Kleenex.  We were successful finding water, but less successful finding Kleenex.  And, R came to tell me that this was the only country on earth where he couldn’t find a Snickers bar!  However, I did a bit more looking around, and was able to come up with Snickers Mini’s – ¥38 each, so I got two for each of us.  So, he has hopefully had his Snickers fix for a bit.  Also, I brought quite a bit of loose Kleenex with us on the trip, as I didn’t want to run out on the plane, and I have a variety of pocket Kleenex for my purse as well, so I think we’re fine.

We then drove towards Futenma Marine Base, but somehow managed to miss it! 

Me with Mini-Snickers!

Grand entrance to the AEON Mall!

HUGE atrium going up 4 floors!

We’ll try again tomorrow, as I thought we would head to the AEON shopping mall for our first Okinawan mall experience.  It was interesting!  We were so surprised to find modern, up-to-date shopping malls in Turkey, I don’t know why I should have been surprised here, but I was.  In the mid-1970’s, there were very few stores anywhere on the island, with the exception of Mitsukoshi Department Store in Naha (which has closed by the way) and Plaza House, where I bought the Waterford.  But here was a huge – 4 story – shopping mall filled with all kinds of stores! 

Aquarium at entrance

Some HUGE fish!

Robert really liked this display!

And believe it or not, these were all different kinds of salt!

There was a Sports Authority, H&M, and Forever21, plus dozens of other stores, some with names I could read but many others I could not.  The entry plaza had a stunning large aquarium inside, with some really huge and beautiful fish!  Really fascinating to watch, and is a good preview to the world-famous Churaumi Aquarium which we will visit early next week!  They had two stories worth of food choices, although R couldn’t really find what he wanted – noodles, so we may try again tonight.  We walked around a bit, and I was able to find 4 pairs of white socks that looked as though they might fit!  When we left Tucson, I had packed only footies – and honesty?  My ankles were getting COLD here.  So, success again, as I now have enough socks to actually get me through the trip!!  Yeah!! 

Finally left the mall around 1 pm and headed back to the hotel to take a nap.  We encountered the first rain we have seen here, but now the sun is actually shining on the brilliant blue water and it looks like it might be a sunnier afternoon!  Time to nap!

m

xxx

Up again around 5-ish, and went to the Executive Lounge’s happy hour.  I had a glass of champagne, and R a glass or so of an excellent red wine.  They did have lots of food around, but honestly, nothing that really appealed to me.  R had some crab wontons which he said were very good, and some fried chicken. 

View out 9th floor window looking at American Village in sun!

We then picked up our jackets and headed downstairs to walk to the American Village, just across the way.  As we started out, it started to rain – and from a spectacular late afternoon in the sunshine, suddenly, lots of black clouds and rain!  We did go back upstairs to get our umbrellas, but decided at the last moment that we really weren’t that hungry – and it was cold and windy outside…so, back upstairs and figuring we’re probably in for the night!  We will get to American Village, I promise!!

Night all!

m

xxx