October 13th (Naha)

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet style breakfast where I ate scrambled eggs, wieners, bacon and also miso soup, rice and seaweed. It makes for a different breakfast but it was really good.

As we walked towards the monorail, we saw this tanuki statue which brings good fortune

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We took the monorail and went to the only the only thing we really wanted to see in Naha: Shurijo Castle. This castle is one of Japan's UNESCO world heritage sites. Most (if not all) of it was destroyed during WWII and it has been rebuilt since but it was a really interesting site to see none-the-less.

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A tree in the gardens of the castle

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A view of Naha and the sea from the castle walls

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We had the chance to catch a show where a story was told by dancing and singing. It seemed very traditional.

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The castle

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We had to take off our shoes before entering the castle

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Nath took a picture of those little characters from a display

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You can really see the chinese heritage in the arts and architecture of the Ryukyu people. The ryukyu is the name of the then inhabitants and this influence is normal since their king had to be approved by the chinese emperor and the Okinawa islands only became part of Japan in 1879.

We took the monorail back to the city and walked towards the closest beach. On our way there, we stopped for lunch in a really small restaurant. To order, you need to put your money in a vending machine and press a button corresponding to your meal. It gives you a small piece of paper with your order that you give to the cook for her to prepare your meal.

There weren't a lot of pictures and we didn't know what to order but, lucky for us, another lady customer had rudimentary english and helped us choose. We had fresh made "Okinawa soba" (udon noodles) served in a pork broth called "tonkotsu" and a bowl of rice with seaweed in it. To drink, we had the local water which is ice cold tea (this one was much better than the one I'd bought at the airport). We didn't even eat everything, we were too full! We left, rolling, for the beach.

The people working at the restaurant

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The beach was kind of small with a nice view of a highway pass, construction and piers... But the water was hot and blue (hey, it's better than nothing :P). We chilled and got tanned for 2 hours and then left to get to the hotel and get ready for souvenir shopping and supper.

Our view from the beach...

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Just before we left, I bought a drink at one of the many (they're everywhere!) vending machines hoping to get something sweet since I'm never sure what I'm choosing... It was cold tea again :/ It had cute lions on it and it took me a couple of minutes before I realized that those lions were everywhere! I think they're Okinawa's emblem and also a symbol for protection since most, if not all, houses and buildings have them at the entrance or on the roof. The lions really seem to be commercialized too: cold tea, cookies, candy, decorations, souvenirs, etc.

My drink and a small statue at the entrance of a house

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So, after a quick shower and chill time in our room, we left for Kokusai street which is a commercial/tourist street. We did a lot of tourist shops because I really wanted to find myself a souvenir with one of those lions. I finally settled on a key cover (you put it on the top of your key to make it look nice or to more easily identify it).

I almost bought one of these but resisted

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Nath gave me the idea to take a picture of those glasses on display

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We then went to a restaurant where they had a local speciality that my japanese teacher had suggested I try (in fact I have a whole sheet of specialities that she gave me) which is called "ashitebichi". We ordered the said speciality (without knowing what it was) along others that were suggested in our travel guide.


Ashitebichi ended up being pig's foot :S I tried it but didn't really like it because of what it looks like and because it's mostly fat. The rest of the food was ok except the goya salad that was way too bitter for my taste. I drank more awamori (a taste menu of 3 different kinds) and I liked it still but not enough to want to buy some to bring back home.

Overall it was a nice experience. I like ordering in Japanese and pushing myself in understanding and getting understood.

On our way back from the restaurant, we took pictures of the night traffic

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On our way to the hotel we stopped and the "combini" (convenience store) to buy ourselves something to eat the next morning and we then went to bed.

Most hotels offer you a yukata (japanese robe) or pijama to wear during your stay

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This was our alarm/lamp/robot ?

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