Okinawan Afternoon

Last month (yes, I am so totally behind on blogging) a friend of mine asked for company as she went shopping for items to re-do her living room. I gladly went along and offered my advice that we go to Nitori. Nitori is like a Japanese Ikea and I had been meaning to figure out where it was and check it out. Nitori was pretty easy to find and offered up tons of ideas for making our Okinawa houses comfortable homes away from home. I relaly need to go back over there and order some of their custom made curtains for my apartment.




We also went to a home store in Awase and it was a massive furniture store. I couldn't help giggling at the tiny Japanese style furniture, couches and chairs. They looked like children's furniture. But, the Japanese are much better at conserving space than Americans are.



After all that shopping my friend and I were hungry for lunch. I took her to a place I had been a few times before and totally love. Green Green is tucked back in a neighborhood and offers beautiful views of the green jungle trees from their large deck. The menu is limited, but I always get their Pho and lovelovelove it. My friend enjoyed their green curry. We splurged on dessert and split the apple pie a la mode. Amazing!




Such a fun afternoon out shopping and enjoying the company of a good friend!

And We're Back

Oh my goodness. I swear I'm still here, alive and kickin'! Sorry about the disappearing act, but my life has been taken over by the horses the last few weeks. I am usually totally busy before a horse show, but this time I was stretched to the limit with 4 horses hurt requiring hours of daily care and a packed lesson schedule. I was getting far too good at giving injections, soaking hooves in buckets and wrapping standing wraps on horses legs while they were on stall rest. Ugh! But, we are out of the woods now for the most part.

I have so much blogging to catch up on. So many new posts are in the future. But, I just had to share this highlight with you. Makoto, my favorite horse at the barn, is better. He had a horrible abscess in his back hoof. Got a horrible infection requiring rounds of antibiotics and steroid injections. We battled it out daily with me forcing him to soak his foot in a bucket of epsom salts and water and him completely refusing to keep his foot in the bucket and him refusing to hold his hoof up for cleaning and wrapping (he did slightly get used to this eventually over the weeks). About 2 weeks ago I found a stick about an inch and a half long stuck in the frog of his hoof. Yup, that was the culprit. I got that bugger out and Makoto improved the next day, and the day after and the day after. He had been on stall rest for quite a while and when I finally let him out he was so adorably happy. Grabbing up mouth fulls of grass between kicking up his heels and squeals of joy.

Last week I let him run around the arena needing no encouragement from me. He was feeling so much better! He would gallop around, stop, roll and get up and gallop some more. Made my whole heart swell with love for this amazing, beautiful horse.

Then yesterday, after a month of fighting daily for him to get better, I finally got to ride him again.


It was just a little baby ride to see how he would do, but he was completely sound and feeling great. I was smiling ear to ear, so incredibly happy to have "my horse" back. I'm elated.

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday was a terrible, very bad day. I had to say goodbye to two amazing lives.

My Grandpa passed away yesterday. He was at home and went peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family and people who love him. Grandpa lived a wonderful, long life. I remember him taking my sister and I for walks to the ice cream shop for ice cream. I remember how he could talk for hours about books and chemistry. I am so very glad that I got to spend time with him when I was home in the states this past summer. I got to see him and tell him how much I love him. I got to ask him where his favorite places to travel were, how his life was when he was my age, and what it was like to be married to his wife for 65+ years. Grandpa died at 89. He served in the Coast Guard and fought in WWII. You can see his obituary here.

At the barn one of our horses got very sick. We were holding a dressage clinic and the barn was very busy yesterday morning. We held half of the clinic while still treating Essa before I looked into Essa's eyes and knew. Everyone had to leave immediately. Essa was dying. Everyone who could have been there to help was there. The Japanese vet, all the Japanese employees, the owner, and all the American instructors were there to give Essa every attention. Everything that possibly could have been done was done. We made sure he was pumped full of pain killers so he could be as comfortable in la-la-land as he could be. He was humanely euthanized after fighting colic for 4 hours. He was exhausted and ready. It was a very emotional 4 hours for everyone. We fought so hard to keep Essa fighting for his life, but there comes a point where continuing the fight is doing more damage than good. It absolutely broke our hearts to see Essa's life slip away, but we were all relieved when his pain was over. I will miss this amazing lesson horse.

TEN miles!

I just ran 10 miles. Totally proud of myself right now. And totally in love with my body that can run me that far. I set out to do my usual 6, but my path at the beach was blocked (maybe because of the gigantic waves we're getting from the typhoon off the coast), so thanks to the good 'ol iPhone I found a new running route I really liked. It also took me through some parts where if I was in the states I would have been really freaked out, but good thing I'm in Japan where there isn't much crime. Did make me run pretty fast through those parts though!

It was such a beautiful night. It's really getting a bit fall-ish out there! Hurray! I snapped this picture on my iPhone around mile 5. How did I ever run before having an iPhone?! I was listening to music, taking a picture, tracking my speed and miles and looking at the map. Love it.

Today was a really busy day. I had a early dentist appointment (loath), went to work, took care of poor hurt Makoto, rode and taught lessons and then came home and ran.


So now I'm rewarding myself with a nice glass of Riesling made from organic grapes, Autumn Leaves candle, fresh flowers from my favorite florist and feet in my comfy bunny socks (and knees covered in icy hot). By the way I'm watching Thor. That Chris Hemsworth is quite pretty! Yum.

Also, this past weekend in celebration of this new fall-ish weather I made vegan Pumpkin Brownies. So, I'll probably reward myself with one of those too.

Funky Feet

With all the running I've been doing, I decided to make an appointment at the Mizuno Shoe Measurement. I was hoping they would tell me if I was running in the correct type of shoe, if I needed a wide shoe and why my big toe on my right foot kills me after my long runs. So, when I heard mccs was doing a foot analysis at the gym at my base I jumped on the opportunity.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and had my feet scanned to determine my foot type. Unfortunately I wasn't really told anything new. I was told I have "normal" feet with "perfect" heel and ball of the foot weight distribution and very, very high arches. There was a bit of a language barrier to get in depth with my toe problem. They had me try on a number of different Mizuno shoes, but nothing felt better then when I put my Asics on again to head home. I think an appointment with a doctor/podiatrist might have to happen to figure my foot problem. Cest la vie.

Organic Goodies

This past week I set out to find Tenbusu a natural and organic store. I'm always on the lookout for a Whole Foods substitute over here and this cute little store (while not quite a Whole Foods) was full of wonderful organic and macrobiotic options.

I came away with some wonderful local, organic eggs from down south on the island, some brown rice and flour bread, blueberry preserves, and some options from their yummy homemade prepared foods.

The eggs and bread with blueberry preserves have been a wonderful breakfast the past couple days!

Big, giant hurt baby

Last week Makoto was suddenly horribly lame. He was in a lot of pain and he would barely walk on his back right hoof. There was a lot of heat and swelling in his fetlock and up the tendons in his lower leg. The next day I could see an abscess in the bulb of his heel and it was starting to drain. He was in a ton of pain, poor thing!

A hoof abscess is a localized bacterial infection in the hoof. The infection causes pus, pressure and pain. In Makoto's case to relieve the pressure in the hoof the pus burst out of the bulb of his heel.

Then, I was treating the abscess in the back hoof when he started totally freaking out stomping his front right hoof and an abscess burst out of his front hoof. Seriously. Oh. My. God. Saturday had at least 3 crying meltdowns, it just broke my heart.

I think this abscess happened due to the introduction of bacteria and moisture into the hoof. Or it could have happened because of compression and poor blood flow. So what to do? To treat an abscess it is important to keep the hoof as clean and protected as possible. I've been soaking his abscess's in Epsom Salt baths and using poultice on the bottom of the hoof to help pull any remaining infection out of the hoof. I then wrap his hoof in vet-wrap and then cover that with duct tape (or I used a special treatment boot) to help cushion and protect the hoof to keep dirt and manure out to prevent even more problems (infection). I've been wrapping his back legs in standing wraps to try and keep the swelling down.

This week the vet came out and confirmed the abscess. He gave me some black tar like paste to put on the abscess and 5 days worth of huge, heavy duty IV antibiotic shots.

Makoto is a huge baby. A horrible patient. When he feels bad he makes everyone know it. I've been totally abused taking care of him this past week. My back is killing me from bending over to treat his feet. It is a battle every day to soak his feet, clean them, poultice them, wrap them, duct tape them, give his shot and wrap his back legs. All in all it is a ton of work. Good think I love this horse like crazy.

To make up for stabbing him with needles, scrubbing his painful wound, forcing him to stand for long periods with his foot in a bucket of salt water and not letting him get turned out with the rest of the horses, I'm trying to make it up to him with lots of love, treats and private turn out on the nice grass. I really hope my poor baby heals quickly and feels better soon!