Oot and Aboot.

My friend Loki is in town, so Eddie and I have been dragging her all over the island to show her all the cool shit. Well, so far we've only taken her up to Cape Hedo and a few places along the way, but we've got a few days left to show her the other stuff. Naturally, the three of us laughed ourselves senseless, but somehow managed to get home without me running the car off the road.

Notable quotes of the day:

1. Wait, does the sun set on that part of the island?
2. You don't put toast in an oven, stupid.
3. You're...making mittens?

It was an interesting day for American-Japanese relations, too. In Nago, an elderly gentleman - and I use that term loosely - ran over my heel with his bicycle. On purpose. But then at Cape Hedo, a girl recognized the 30 Seconds to Mars logo on my sweatshirt, and we had a conversation consisting solely of song titles, nods, and thumbs up. We may not speak the same language, but we both understood "The Kill", "A Beautiful Lie", and "From Yesterday." Good times. It actually made up for the douchebag on a bicycle.

Anyway, first of all, here is a picture of Loki shortly after her arrival at la Casa de Witt:
After eleventy billion hours, she was tired. Imagine that. However, she had no idea how exhausting it would be driving all over Okinawa with the likes of us. Her current state is fairly similar to that picture.

Anyway, day one. First it was off to Moon Beach:
Eddie wasted no time in showing Loki the finer points of molesting the local wildlife:
See? The local wildlife being molested:
Then it was on to Cape Mazamo, where we wandered through the little vendor booths. Being rather small in stature, Loki usually has trouble finding clothing in her size, but we found the perfect dress for her:
Oh look! A kitteh!
Awww. Okay, where was I? Oh yes, Cape Mazamo. Now, Japanese people are very conscientious about not spreading bugs and cooties. It is considered proper etiquette to wear a surgical mask if you are out and about while you have a cold, and many people wear them anyway to avoid contracting the same.

With the H1N1 "pandemic" going on, even the bushes are exercising caution:
We wandered past the bushes, cliffs, safety rails, and warning signs, and we showed Loki a little shrine we found a few months ago. Turns out, it's the perfect size for her:
There is a very cute and curious species of bird here, referred to by the locals as the "staring bird", and one was brave enough to let us get close and take pictures:
And Eddie goes to great lengths to get pictures of birdies:
Taking pictures is serious business. Butt, before we left Cape Mazamo, Eddie decided to show his lighter side. And by lighter side, I mean his pale backside. Fortunately, the Staring Bird of Censorship came along and kept the picture PG-rated.
Once Eddie had pulled his pants up, we continued to Nago. Nago is one of the two "large" cities on the island, and it looks like this:
And this...
And they have, like, signs and stuff:
Then it was even further north to Cape Hedo, where there was a lot of wind, waves, and a giant statue of a chicken, the significance of which escapes me:
Like I said...waves:
We found a few shrines too:


Loki also discovered that the grass is remarkably soft, allowing for a moment of communing with nature:
Then we found this interesting sign in a parking lot where we stopped to take more pictures. I'm assuming we're supposed to lock our cars. Or...something... And not far from this sign, we found a wicked cool view of the west coast of the island:
Yeah. We live here. Srsly.

This picture needs absolutely no caption:
Tomorrow, more trouble-making with Loki and Eddie. Stay tuned. Hopefully I won't be assaulted by an elderly national, and with any luck, we won't laugh ourselves into a coma.

Today? Beaches and scenery. Tomorrow? Culture...