Okinawa Diary

Since it was raining hard, we thought it would be difficult to sightsee by ourselves. We decided to take a tour bus to go to North today. We left Naha at nine o'clock. There were only 17 people on the bus. The guide was very attractive and good at singing. This made my day.

Ryukyu Mura (Ryukyu Village)
Driving about one hour to north, we stopped at Ryukyu Village, which is similar with Kingdom Village at Gyokusendo. They brought old houses and factories to this site. They showed us how to do weaving, dyeing, pottery, glass materials, etc. If you pay, you can experience making those things.

We had only forty minutes there, although we paid a 750-yen entrance fee at the gate. We had a guide in the village, and she showed us old houses, factories, and shops. Then we had about 20 minutes to see a glass factory, a pottery place, a press to make sugar juice from the sugar cane, etc., by ourselves. We had to ran through the village.

Manza-mou
Then we drove up to Manza-mou, which has very beautiful scenery. It is a cliff with a hole in the rock, and this is one of the most famous views in Okinawa. You may recognize its photo.

It was raining hard and was windy, and we had trouble keeping our umbrellas from turning inside out. We had only twenty minutes, and we could only walk along the scenic path.

Ocean Expo Site
Then we went to the Ocean Expo Site, which is located at the top of Motobu Peninsula. We were given a lunch box when we got off the bus. It was not easy to find a place to eat it. We had about one hour, and we visited an aquarium which had opened a few months before. It was 1,800 yen and even Kathi, who loves aquariums, hesitated to go in for such short time, but we did.

We had to rush through the acquarium, and it was crowded. They had some subtropical fish, which were interesting.

Pineapple Plantation
We stopped at the place where they grow pineapples. We had a guide, but we spent only five minutes seeing the field where they grow pineapples.

We could taste pieces of fresh pineapple. We heard that more yellowish parts are sweeter than whitish parts. The sweet parts are at the bottom, and not the top.

They had many kinds of souvenirs, and we could taste various interesting Okinawa treats.

Southeast Botanical Garden
We took the express highway to Okinawa City. There we visited this botanical garden. The entrance fee is 1,000 yen. Fortunately it was included in the cost of the tour. There were two parts of the gardens, and they were pretty. I do not like botanical gardens much, but even for me, it seemed that we had very little time, and we had to go through the gardens too quickly.

Koza Shopping Center
Koza is a part of Okinawa City now, but it was a kind of the center of the American military for a long time. Even now, there are some stores which have English signs.

We stopped by a shopping center. We found a bookstore where they sell many English books. Kathi was happy to see so many English books.

We returned to Naha at around 7 o'clock in the evening. It was a ten-hour tour. We enjoyed it a lot, and we could see many things. However, it seemed rushed.

We went to a Ryukyu restaurant again. We had squid in black ink, which looked grotesque, but which was pretty good.

dinner

dinner

dinner