Park Day

It has been raining so much lately that Terra and I had to take advantage of a break and hit the park, until the rain sent us home.

Shurijo Castle

Paul and I have been holding off on visiting the big tourist destinations but recently we decided there was no point in waiting any longer. This weekend we drove down to visit Shurijo Castle. The Castle was built in the 14th Century and over the years it has been reconstructed many times, especially following the Battle of Okinawa during WWII in which it was almost completely destroyed. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor adventure and we were very grateful for the Stamp Stations throughout the compound. Without these stations keeping Terra engaged and entertained it would have been a pretty miserable trip. The compound was very nice and had beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding city. For dinner that night we visited a restaurant that I've been wanting to go to for a while. Americans term it "The Garlic Restaurant" because of the bulbs of garlic painted on the outside of the building and after dinning you will radiate garlic for hours. Oishi!! After dinner we walked the few blocks to a nearby ice cream shop to indulge in one more tasty treat. What a great day!

Tsuken-jima

A.K.A Carrot Island

So today's adventure was to one of the smaller Okinawan islands called Tsuken island, also known as Carrot Island. This island is famous for growing carrots and other vegetables like potatoes and garlic (if garlic is considered a vegetable). We took the a short ferry ride from one of the ports to get to the island, Terra was really excited for the boat ride. While we were waiting in the port ticket station a few girls were dressed up and had a few props like traditional parasols, flowered head dress, some batons with ribbons and bells; we guessed they were going for a photo shoot. One of the guardians of the girls became smitten with Terra and let her play with some of the props. 

We really didn't know what to expect when we got there, we were hoping there would be more legible signs pointing the way to any attractions. This island was very small and not so surprisingly more rundown than Okinawa. For lunch we ate at a small soba shop right near the port and then started our walking adventure. There really wasn't much to see other than run down houses and a lot of junk. There were various gardens here and there and of course the larger farms for the produce. We just wandered around and found our way to one side that had a few camp grounds, more eateries, and beach access. I've heard that this island was once utilized as a Japanese defensive position during the battle for Okinawa and the battle fought on this island was brutal but we did not see any monument or even acknowledgement of that, of course it may have been on the other side of the island. I suppose this trip wasn't an entire bust because we did get to ride a ferry and capture a few cute pictures of the adventure.