The Seas, The Sun & The Air - The Okinawa Way Feb 2017 (III)

There is this village of Longevity known as Ogimi Village that I have heard since young.  I recalled there was this documentary showing the very healthy grandpas and grandmas at Okinawa who have lived for more than 100 years! I still remember that the music of the documentary was very cute and I have tried to recall the tune to my dear.

One of the "secrets" of Longevity is the food they take at Okinawa.  Uniquely that most of the traditional Okinawa dish have bitter gourd. There is also this purple potato which we saw it in the TVB show.  Googling for a good place to makan, we found one very interesting restaurant known as Eminomise (Emi's restaurant).  There was this special "longevity" meal which you needed to book in advance but too bad we didn't realise until we were about to check out from our hotel!

We still decided to proceed there and asked the hotel staff to help us booked a table. Upon reaching Eminomise, we parked our car and saw a vegetable farm opposite to the restaurant. My dear said the farm were the source of ingredients for the meals and the food would be fresh.

We were ushered to our wooden table by the staff who all spoke very good English. We were near a TV set which was showing documentary of Ogimi Village, I think.  We were seated also next to the windows and we could hear some noises from the school nearby.  We got to try any versions of longevity meals they offered as we needed to live another more 100 years to travel to many more places and experience life. 

The lunch was indeed very nicely placed and fresh! It was the very first time that I ate a bitter gourd that was not bitter! I was not sure why and my dear's explanation was they were from the farm - fresh from the oven, and organic! I was not sure why they liked to put the giant "ikan bills" - these fishes were the only one that I passed to my dear to eat.  I liked the okinawa donuts which were slightly sweet and since then I craved for them whenever we makaned in okinawa.  My dear commented in the diary that I was very "game" in trying new food in a new country.  However, I would conveniently pass to her what I dun dare to try. Cos of this, she usually ordered another dish different from me.  She didn't indicate the reason(s) but I thought she could pass some of the stuff that I liked to eat to me bah?  Haha. 

The Seas, The Sun & The Air - The Okinawa Way Feb 2017 (II)

Our trip happened to coincide with the Sakura Festival for Okinawa -  there was this Sakura festival at Nakijin Castle and we had not seen Sakura@night.  So, we purposely timed our journey to catch it at night - 12 Feb 2017 supposed to be the last night of the festival.

We passed by this Butterfly Garden from the Aquarium to hotel to prepare for our night "excursion". It is known as Ryugujo Butterfly Garden.  From the exterior of the building, it didn't look like a garden but more like a castle to us. It was a small garden with one indoor section where we could see more butterflies.  I rem I wanted to bring my wife to see the one at Airport (recently we went and did not see many).  It was both fun and a bit scary to see that the butterflies rested on a bouquet of flowers and a red hat which were tools for visitors to use for photo-taking.  We took turns to put on the hat and I had to make sure I dun "snap" or "flap" any butterflies flying or hanging around my head with the red hat. Of cos, took pictures to see how we looked.

The journey to the Nakijin Castle was on GPS and there were full parking everywhere.  We did a few rounds to try to get parking lots but no luck.  My dear then did a very clever move and decided to stop at the entrance of a carpark and tried to seek help from the parking attendants - they looked like retired grandpas but still very strong and fit.  The "grandpa" attendant heard that we could not find any lots and allowed us to wait a while and enter the carpark! Bingo, we got one lot haha.  

We always like to visit Japanese festivals and we had gone to a few. They were very interesting and traditional - you could see arts & crafts, old childhood goodies (I assume as I could not find in Japanese shops) and music. 

Wondered how this Sakura festival would turn out? 

It was quite apt and "romantic" especially nearing Valentines' Day. Imaging ourselves in seas of Sakuras and likely no bees at night to disturb us?  The Sakura trees were "lighted up" with lights and we followed the locals and walked up orderly.  Maybe we were the only foreigners?  

As I didn't take my tripod out, we had to hold our breath and steady our hands to take night shots. I believed my dear loved the night viewing of Sakura. Since our first encounter with Sakura, my dear has been loving them whenever she sees them. Many times, I have to remind her that there are many bees flying just above her head when she gets too close to the Sakura trees.

There were also performances by locals and we sat down on the benches to cheer and clap like everyone. There was then this particular tune and the cute whistling that caught our attention.  Re-playing the video immediately reminded us of the ambience and festive joy then.  I started to feel the warmth of Okinawa people.


Hungry, we decided to get some "local food" and I again wanted to try the local Okinawa noodle soup. My wife asked me to order one bowl to "test" first and I was initially a bit grumpy why so "troublesome".  Again, she was the smarter one as she knew I dun fancy the "fatty meat" in the bowl. Lucky we only ordered one bowl. 

Something that I should learn to be practical and not too adventurous. 

[See more info for your road trip -  on the Festival at http://okinawatravelinfo.com/events/nakijin-castle-cherry-blossom-festival-2017/]

The Seas, The Sun & The Air - The Okinawa Way Feb 2017 (I)

We decided to venture to Okinawa after being prompted a few times from shows from TVB and Channel 5. A lot of preparation works needed to be done and my dear got the most important thing to get us started - A big Okinawa map.  The map helped us in planning our routes and this was the first time that I would be driving in an overseas setting.  Couldn't help but felt a bit anxious especially with the road signs and driving patterns.  We did our International Driving Permit and one more document to take besides our travel documents. My dear did more research than me, getting the "map codes" and "phone numbers" of places that we planned to visit [These nos were the GPS] after I told her which regions that we would go.

We had a very pleasant surprise when we checked in at Airport - upgraded to premium economy seats and delighted that we joined Asiamiles membership. Haha, I was still a bit frustrated when I could not check in on the self-service kiosk cos they had upgraded our seats.  My dear thought only my seat was upgraded and she thought we would have to sit separately which I won't do so.

Cosmo Omoromachi Station 

We took Cathay to HK and transit to Okinawa & the journey was good. From flight to Okinawa from HK, we were amazed and at the same time a bit anxious flying over the deep blue seas haha (too much TVB show). We decided to relax and stay one night in Naha. We had booked our rented Toyota car near DFS and we stayed near the Omoromachi Station on Yu rail monorail. It was like a service apartment and typical small room but very clean and neat.  There was a big emporium nearby for replenishment.  To be well prepared for journey tomorrow, I was asking my dear to observe how people drive and park, and how was the parking system.  A bit too edgy.

"Ninja" WIFI

One point worth mentioning is the rental of WIFI Box - we got this Ninja WIFI rental from Naha Airport and it turned out to be a very useful tool for our WIFI on the move like "Ninja", haha. In fact, kudos to my wife for the suggestion as I was still stuck to "travel SIM" method. 

We didn't do much shopping but my dear already "targeted" her shoes and things to buy. As we would also be returning car to the same place, we could buy the stuff on way back. My wife promised me that she would help me look out traffic when I began driving tomorrow. Yup. 

Picking up the car was easy and took us about an hour including registration, short briefing on road signs and driving speed (40 km/hr) and purchase of discount tickets. We had chosen Toyota Axio - slightly smaller than Altis but still a very comfortable car which could seat 5. It was a white car and we were taught how to use the in-built GPS and off we went.  Car rental is useful and essential if you need to travel around Okinawa. With this mobility, we also managed to go Hotel Hopping daily. The first step out into the roads was quite OK though we got lost in making too early turn. After 10 minutes, we were quite used to the Okinawa Car and on our way to our first sight - Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.  It was a long drive and we were on the Expressway which allowed 80km/hr drive. We collected the toll ticket from the entrance of the Expressment and payment of toll would be done at the exit point. Very interesting feel for us. 

After driving for a while, the GPS "spoke" to us that we had been driving for nearly 2 hours and asking us to take a break! It was so funny and interesting and we drove past some eateries and decided to stop at one to try. Amazing feeling just like the show in "Japan Hour" where the hosts would drive and stop to taste nice food. You never know what to expect to eat if you have not planned  to do so. My dear asked me to order a vegetable with luncheon meat noodles soup while she tried the Okinawa pork noodles. Well, the dish was suitable for me as not much "fats". It was a pleasure makan for replenishment.  I liked this kind of feeling and impromptu stop, and I didn't know I was "addicted" to it during the journey.

The climax of the Aquarium was the big tank and seeing the big whales. Very big aquarium and largest one we had ever seen in our history of aquarium or underwater world visits.  Haha.  We wanted to see this "Kuroshio" Adventure and missed the lift to Level 4 a few times until we had to ask an auntie at the cafe.  There are fixed timings to venture into Level 4 and hence could not miss it. Surprisingly, not many people or visitors were interested. This place is where you can see and walk along bridges above the water tanks with the whales/fishes below you.  It was a big complex and you could also have a bird eye view of the seas around the Aquarium.

   

Well, we also followed the crowd to see the Dolphin Show. They were very well-trained and some were really very big. I wondered how the big ones jumped so high. Very cute dolphins and it reminded me of "Free Willy" equivalent though Willy is not a dolphin.