Adventure Time

Our Adventure this week was to walk across the island.  Sort of.  We drove across the island, the short way, and parked by the beach, then walked the scenic route back to the base. It was somewhere around 5+ miles.

The beach we parked at had this random mermaid in the water.  What the heck?!

Of course I needed a selfie!

And there was this random pirate figure as well.  So fun.

This was why we had parked there.  It is a memorial of some sort.  I didn't research this adventure, so I'm not sure what it is for, and I feel bad about that.

We had to walk across a mountain, and off the road were these stairs.  Lots of stairs.  (Full disclosure, my awesome photographer friend Anna took this shot!)

View from the top of the stairs.

This also was at the op of the stairs.   

(Another Anna Photo!) This is the oldest tomb on the island, I think, from 1400's? And someone important is buried here. 

We walked on windy little roads, saw the ocean, walked over a mountain and wandered picturesque streets.

Did I mention ocean views?!

Amy and Brook, two of the awesome ladies I got to hang out with.

 I love Japan!  Look at these adorable plants.....

The flowers were growing out of large shells.  So kawaii!! 

We stopped by Nakamura House- the only still-standing Japanese house from a long time ago.  It was very cool.

And it had awesome landscaping.

Then we went to lunch at this foodie  place. You know, the kid of place where they only serve 5 things and they are weird?

This is my "raw ham, fig and blue cheese" sandwich.  Thankfully raw ham only meant not treated and cooked like ham usually is.  And thankfully it was really tasty.

We left at 9am and I got home a bit after noon, with a bit of sunburn.  It was a great morning!

Tis Blossom Season

 I went up to Nago to Mt Yaesake with some friends to admire the blossoms.  They were blooming and quite lovely!

So pretty!  And worth the hour drive.  I got roped into driving because I was the only one with a vehicle large enough to hold 5, and enough gas to get us there. 

 See all the trees?!  Sigh.  I love it!

 We intended to approach the mountain from this road, but did not.  The GPS sent us up a tiny one lane road that got narrower and more overgrown as we went.  There were weeds and trees scraping both sides of the van when the road abruptly ended, and I had to back out a quarter mile before I could turn around.  So, it was quite an adventure to appreciate this!

But oh... my heart! I do love the blossoms. 

 Most of the ladies I was out with. I do love them too.

They are such a vibrant color.  This breed of cherry tree is much more like the ume.  But gorgeous, none the less. 

More pretty street. 

 Me and the pretty trees.  I may have taken a ton of photos, so be grateful I did not post them all!

My friend Amy, who is working on her photography skills, and Anna, who is an amazing photographer already.

She took this photo of me. 

After admiring the trees, we went to lunch at this shabu-shabu place in the mountains.  It was impressive, and impressively priced.

Maybe we were paying for the ambiance.  Look how pretty the place was. 

And this was just the outside!

I opted for this tasty soba set.  The fried rice was excellent, and the beef in the soba was fabulous. The rest.... meh. But it was still a great day with some great ladies.

Ryukyu Glass Village

My friend Anna puts together an excursion and aims for one weekly.  I have only been on a few, but with the realization that we are down to a few months before we move, I realized I better go do more stuff.  Her adventure that week was to go to the Ryukyu Glass Village.  I was unfamiliar with it, but it sounded cool.  And hanging out with friends is always awesome.   Anna did mention that her main motivation was to go see the gorgeous stained glass windows.

The windows were rather glorious.

And someone with a cooler camera than I took this photo.  Its so pretty!!

The "Glass Village" was really just a large shop and glass blowing workshop.  So you were lured in to buy things before you could do much else.  Thank goodness the prices were all well out of reach for me!  They did have some lovely things.  The ladies wanted to do the glass blowing experience, but I did not want or need either of the items you could make, so I opted out.  But it was fun to watch them!

For the glass blowing experience, they guy brought out the molten glass. 

He locked it into the mold on the floor, and you got to blow it out to expand it to the mold.

Then he let you hold and spin the pole until your friends got a good photo.  Then he took it away.  You got to sit down with gloves and do something to make the top of the glass smooth and then you were done.  They thought it was great.

This s the workshop.

Since I didn't do anything cool, I figured I may need a selfie with the shop!

I saw my friend my put her phone on the floor to get a selfie with the beautiful ceiling, so I had to do that too!

And then I discovered what happens when you go on an adventure with a professional photographer on a trip that does not involve water.  She makes everyone pose and she takes photos.

She did promise me that no matter how odd it felt to have to put my chin forward and down, that it would look great!

She did a good job.  I need more trips with her to get more great photos!!

Then she asked me to help her try doing some double exposures.  I had no clue what she wanted to do, but I was happy to stand there and let someone else throw my hair into the wind.

Those came out pretty cool too!

Adventures with Katie: Futenma Shrine

 We have lived here for over 2 years and are walking distance from the Futenma Shrine.  I know the girls have gone for Activity Days or YW, but I never have.  It gets crazy crowded at New Years, and for some reason, we decided this would be the best time to go!  Okay, really it was just a short excursion that Katie could do on her last day.  So on Jan 6 we parked by the hospital gate and walked over.

There is this building. 

Which has this cool bell, which apparently they ring a million times to welcome the new year.

 And they had all these New Years wishes hung so prettily.

We roamed and took photos.

This is the entrance to the shrine itself.

There is the Temple there and there were lines of people waiting to go in.  We did not line up or go in.

It is the year of the Rat, so this billboard was up to celebrate that. 

 We went around to see if there was more than one street food vender and I loved all the lanterns.

Katie tried the Squid.  She said it wasn't bad.

 Maybe because it was covered in delicious sauce?