For the dedicated readers...

you might be wondering what it was that I had to have from Okinawa......

Well, I did get Ben an Okinawa shirt.....


and for Jena a Japanese doll.......

This was standing on a notebook with a picture
of Jena which makes for an odd picture.
Sorry about that.

I brought home my sea glass from the beach....

And Tosha bought me my carp windsock which will soon be flying in my backyard.  It will serve always as a reminder of Okinawa and my fun vacation there----

But the major item which we searched for--that was worth jumping out of a car in the middle of a foreign country where I didn't speak the language or have a working cell phone--was:

A chicken!!!

Actually this is the more authentic view-
the chickens hanging in the meat shops' windows

It makes the most awesome noise when you squeeze it.  It was a great purchase even at Japanese prices.

It has already made a trip to Pack Meeting where the boys got to squeeze it while the audience "applauded" using "chicken" noises.  This chicken doesn't really make chicken noises.  It makes the kind of noises that make Cub Scout boys laugh.

It then went visiting teaching with me the next day, because the woman we were visiting had a four year old daughter who had been at Pack Meeting.  I knew that she wanted to squeeze the chicken, too.  Her eyes got so big when she saw it and when I told her she could squeeze it, she was delighted...for the next 30 minutes.  Turned out she had Rex, the Toy Story dinosaur, who also made a noise when you squeezed it and she let me squeeze it too.

I think he may live in my office when I work as a therapist with children and their families!  What do you think?

I might have to get the dinosaur as well.

Scarlett does NOT like the chicken yet.