saturday was a gorgeous day too, but not enough time to relax at the beach, so i went to a local bakery.. picked up some lunch.. and did the relaxing on my balcony :) there is a circus in okinawa called pop circus, and it only comes every two years or so. i was telling my class i really wanted to go, and i've become close with monica's (girl in my class) mom, so we made plans that i would stay at her house saturday night, and then go to the circus together. we invited lina to come too, so i picked her up and then met up with yumi (i don't know how to spell her name, but you pronounce it "youme") who had monica, lillian (monica's little sister), and hunter (goes to yumi's school she owns) in her car. yumi has been telling me that they just moved to a new place and that it was gorgeous, but i was not expecting what i saw!! it was unbeliveable. we parked under the building that looked like an apartment complex, but there were no other cars in the parking lot. the whole building was hers!! the first floor is parking, second floor is her school (called santa monica), third floor is empty for parties and meetings for the school, and the top floor is her house!! and she designed it all herself.. a very creative lady!
after the tour (with lots of ooos and aaaaahs of course! the biggest oooo moment was when i saw that in the bathrooms, the toilet lid automatically lifts up when you first walk in and the toilet seat is heated.. talk about feeling pampered!) we relaxed on the huge couch and watched a movie while the kids were SUPER hyper. dinner was some delicious okinawan food.. and after dinner was the best part.. a bubble bath! first of all.. the separate room for the shower and tub looks like something out of a day spa. the whole room is the size of my living room haha. the tub was the size of a hot tub, and when you turn on the jets, colored lights come on at the bottom of the tub.. so cute! the water was steaming hot.. not used to that in my apartment! felt sooo good :)the rest of the night was lots of laughing, talking with yumi about hot celebrities, and playing hello kitty grocery store with the kids.. and of course hide and seek!
after a loooong night sleeping in monica's room (she snores.. so i didn't get much sleep haha) and having a yummy breakfast, we headed off to the circus! the circus is in itoman (southern okinawa), which is about a forty-five minute drive. it was a beautiful drive, so i didn't mind it at all. we got there early, so we did some waiting in line.. we kept ourselves occupied :)
monica, lily, and hunter patiently waiting in long.. that didn't last long ;)
lily and hunter in front of one of the signs
after anxiously waiting for an hour, we finally went in. they were really strict about no cameras and cell phones, so i just took one picture before it started, so you could see what it looked like.
while waiting for the circus to start, music was playing that sounded like the clown part in disneyland's electrical parade. such a funny coincidence :) the circus was amazing. two clowns were the entertainment between the acts and sometimes mingled with the acts. some of the acts included:*a bicycle routine, which ended with twelve people (six guys and six ladies) balancing on ONE bicycle.. that takes talent!
*an adorable dog act, which had about seven dogs doing different tricks. the craziest was when one little dog was lying on a lever, and the guy catapulted the little dog in the air and he landed on the guy's hand doing a handstand!! unbelievable.
*lots of aerial acts, like trapeze and silk (one of my favorites. a guy and lady used long silk fabric to float around the stage. one would wrap the silk around his/her arms while the other would only hang on to the partner. it was a beauiful act that showed a lot of strength!!).
*trampoline.. crazy stunts!
*guys dressed as power rangers (well that is what it looked to me haha) doing tricks through little circles in the middle of the stage, and the cicles would get progressively higher. that must take a lot of practice to find ways to fit through those circles and do it right every time!
*the CUTEST act ever was a clown driving a two-car train with stuffed animals in the back. he stops and gets out a giraffe, puts it on the ground, pretends to wind it up, and waits for it to start walking. well it doesn't, so he puts in away and gets out a zebra and does the same thing. this time it starts walking around and then falls "dead" until the clown winds it up again. it was sooo adorable! and then at the end, the clown rips off the costume and a cute little dog runs around the stage and then hops back in the train. the costume made the dog look like a real miniature zebra.. so cute!!
the group!
the line was a little long to get out of the parking lot, so lina had fun taking pictures trying to get the tent in the background :)
the circus was about a 2 1/2 hour show with an intermission. during intermission ayana (one of my students) came up and said hi, so i went over to where she was sitting to say hi to her family. we saw them again during the chaos of trying to get out of the parking lot (didn't recognize them at first because they were using a different car i'm used to seeing, but luckily when they were trying to leave, i motioned that they could come out in front of me.. that is why you have to be nice to everyone! you never know who could be in the car haha!), and then at the food court at the mall. ayana had her heelys (the shoes that are also skates) on and was going up and down the halls haha.if you look closely at the background, you can see the bridge we had to go on to get to itoman. and of course there is gorgeous turquoise water surrounding it!
across from that mall was ashibina mall, which was a huge outlet mall. super cute outdoor mall, but it's all name brand expensive stores, so i couldn't really buy anything haha. but it was fun to walk around and watch performances.
we were all super tired from the day and decided to go back home. monica slept the whole way home, which was good because she was getting a little cranky haha. went home and watched a movie before heading to bed. glad there isn't any school today so i can re-energize before a week of school! :)
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