Onigiri for dinner

(from my December 18 facebook post)

After five weeks (47 left to go) on island I have finally taken the culture plunge. I went to several shops out in town and decided to buy my dinner at one the very popular Laswson convenience stores (think 7-11 but way better). One of the items I selected was Onigiri (though I didn't know that's what it was at the time). It turns out that they are color coded, seaweed rapped, triangular "rice balls" (thank you google). The color denotes what's in the middle. I based my selection on logic, if they stock a lot and there are few left, it's probably a good one. Though I realized after the fact that my logic was based on the assumption that "good" to an Okinawan would taste good to me. Fortunately my guess paid off and I selected blue, which I was pleased to discover is tuna with mayo. I also had some kind of pizza filled dough ball, sponge cake rounds and a cherry flavored alcoholic drink.

Here is what my dinner looked like:

 

And of course I had to show a picture of the middle...

Here is the much sought after Onigiri decoder (thanks again google)

 

All things considered, my dinning adventure by way of the local corner store went well and I look forward to expanding my Okinawan cultural horizons further...but only for another 47 weeks.

Why?

I have been asked why I would want to start a blog. The answer is on one hand simple, and on the other quite complex. First, the simple answer is to keep a record of my experience and to share it with friends and family. Second is the complex answer, a blog gives me an unbiased, non-judgmental, unedited forum to post my thoughts feelings, and photos, of a simi-unique journey abroad, while hopefully sparking some form of intellectual reflection on the events that led to my time in Japan and the emotional roller-coaster ride taken us on. I am aware that that was one hell of a run on sentence, but that’s how it works. No letter grade means that I can say what I want. You don’t have to like it…hell; you don’t even have to read it. Agree or not, I would love for you to comment. I know that I am not going through this experience alone, and one of my goals is to have this be an interactive medium which allows all of you to share your part of the journey too. I would like to say that I would write something every day to post while I’m over here, but then I would already be over six weeks behind. Instead I will say that I will try to find the significant moments and experiences in what is a routine lifestyle and post my thoughts on those. It would be easy for me to logon everyday and say that I went to work and went to chow, but what fun would that be. Welcome to my life…Live from Calcatraz, Okinawa.

Calcatraz…

Cal⋅ca⋅traz   [kal-kuh-traz]

–noun

1.  a prison like location where calibrations are performed and calibrators are confined.

See also: Alcatraz, a small island in W California, in San Francisco Bay: site of a U.S. penitentiary 1933–63.

Origin:

2003–05; Coined during Operation Iraqi Freedom by an unknown Marine Corps calibrator deployed to Al Taqaddum Airbase, Iraq.

The Caveat

Let me be clear from the start, although people have told me that they enjoy my writing, I do not think of myself as a writer. I am writing this simply because I have a lot to say and hope to preserve a log of my time overseas. I am posting this for whoever would like to read it, but mostly for family and friends. I am going to write about life in the military during my year long deployment to Okinawa, Japan. I hope to continue my web log or blog if you must (I think it sounds dirty) the whole time I am deployed but we will see how long I can stay committed. I hope you enjoy my rant and leave some good comments, you know some good ones! (You have to say the last part in a Strongbad voice for it to make sense.)