Okinawa Diary

We arrived at the bus terminal only five minutes before the bus we wanted to take departed, which was fortunate, since there was only one bus every hour, and sometimes not even that many. We did not know that it would take one and a half hours to Katsuren Jo (Castle). We were not sure whether it was better to visit Katsuren Jo first or Naka Gusuku first, so we got advice from the driver. He was very friendly, and he explained everything in detail. He explained things we saw from the bus, etc. We found that Futenma Helicopter military base is very large, and we understood that it is not easy to move it. It was a very short one and a half hours.

Katsuren Jo
Katsuren Jo is one of the nine world heritage sites in Okinawa. It is located on the top of a steep hill. We walked up the steep slope.

Katsuren Jo has three citadels. From the top of the castle, we could see beautiful scenery. We could see Naka Gusuku (Castle), which we visited later. There was utaki on the top citadel.

The second citadel was used for ceremonies, and we could see the foundations of a building.

Nakamura House
We took a bus to Naka Gusuku. It is not near the bus stop, and we had to walk for 20 minutes or so. We took a wrong road and ended up visiting Nakamura House first. Since we approached from the back, we entered the house free.

We found that there was the ticket place, and we paid and got a brochure which has descriptions of the house. It is a nice house, and the descriptions were helpful. This was a wealthy farmer family's house. They had horses, a cow and pigs, which were very important in Okinawan cuisine.

This house was built about 280 years ago. It was not destroyed by World War II, and it is an important cultural property now. We can see the inside the house as well as the outside. It has a raised floor storage barn.

The house has a typical Okinawa roof which is with red tiles and a big shisa on the roof.

At the ticket place, they have a free tea service with black sugar (a kind of Okinawan candy that tastes like molasses), which was nice. Since there was a colorful Okinawan hat, we took a photo of Kathi wearing it in front of the house.

Naka Gusuku
Naka Gusuku is only a ten-minute walk from Nakamura House. This one has a very clear sign for the ticket place.

This gusuku (castle) is much larger than Katsuren Jo. It has five citadels and even a horse training ground. Commodore Perry came here about 150 years ago and was impressed with it. He was thinking about using the Ryukyus as a trading base if Japan refused to open to the United States.

This castle still has nice stone walls and stone arches. We can see where blacksmiths worked, people prayed, etc. We could even walk on a part of the stone walls.

We took a bus back to Naha, and we found that it takes much longer to go back. It took one and half hours from there to Naha. The main reason was that from Sogenji to the terminal on Kokusai dori was completely jammed with many cars. It like it would have been much faster to walk. We got off the bus at Makishi Market.

Tsuboya Yachimun Street
We walked to a pottery museum. We had to go through crooked roads off of Kokusai Dori. We got lost a couple of times, but it was interesting to see small shops, restaurants, ordinary houses, etc. That is the real Okinawa.

Finally we found the museum, but it was closed for New Year, starting on that day. We stopped by shops and saw pottery. Tsuboya Yachimun Street has many shops and galleries, and they make pottery even today.

We bought a plate and found that they were making pottery near there. So we stopped by their factory to see how they make it. It was interesting.

We can still some old houses where they made pottery. However, some are causing pollution, and not making pottery there.

Makishi Market
After we saw the pottery, we walked back through Heiwa Dori and streets around it where there are many stores.

We went to Makishi Market where they have fresh fish, vegetables, meat, other things necessary for households, etc. You can buy fish there and take it to a restaurant upstairs, where they will cook it for you.

We went up to the food court and had dinner there.

On the way back, we stopped by an ice-cream place and had mango soft ice cream. They had beniimo (red potato) icecream, but it did not taste much like beniimo.

We also stopped by a small restaurant where we had zenzai. Zenzai in Okinawa is quite different from what I am used to. There is shaved ice on top of the sweet red beans, so it tastes like Kintoki. However, they have kintoki ice, and we wondered how they are different.

Market

dinner

dinner