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

We visited a few "Capes" during our drive to our next destination, the American Village. One particular interesting thing at one of the Capes was the "couple rock" - the Okinawa version.  We didn't see the rock clearly but could see the rope tied between the Hubby rock and the Wife rock.  I remembered telling my dear that there was a beach resort nearby and the visitors could see the rock clearly from their resort.  For my wife and I, we also "tied ourselves" together regularly even at home - holding hands even in the kitchen and quite funny when we ask ourselves why.

My dear has the "passion" to see pottery which I wasn't aware of.    She even did a research and found a very interesting pottery village known as "Yomitan Pottery Village".  Visited the Pottery Village and saw the kiln and pottery shops.  

 

It was a new experience for us as we have not seen a real kiln before. During one local pottery exhibition, I recalled my wife told me to feel each pottery art piece as each art piece has its own uniqueness and could understand the feeling of the potters.  Though I may not grasp how she feel it, I diligently feel each art piece.  No wonder she was touching the pottery when we were at the village - trying to talk to each pottery and the potter behind it? Haha.  We did find one which could really communicate with her but practical reasons kicked in - whether we have use for it and of cos, S Eleven also matters.  

Something else attracted my attention at this village though - the glass maker using recycled soda and beer bottle.  I was particularly attracted to an article placed on the wall outsides on recycled glass shop - it stated there was an Okinawan poem - "When life is blown into reticent discarded bottle it starts to speak".  Seemed that there were many glass bottles left behind during WW and locals started to recycle them to put into better use.  We didn't buy any of the glass art piece.  

We reached the American Village and stayed at Beach Tower Resort.  Managed to get a glimpse of the sunset from our hotel room.  My wife was surprised to see an owl at the hotel and she initially thought the owl was just a fake decoration.  The hotel was quite strict in the dress code - no bathrobe at reception.  One surprise was the onsen linked to the hotel and it was like the authentic public bath that I tried at Beppu.  Finally got to dip into onsen and I couldn't remember if that was the reason why we booked the Resort. 

The feel at American Village was a bit different from our previous visits to other parts of Okinawa.  It felt like a town with outlet malls, fast-food and more US-brand goods.  We decided to pay a visit to the Village due to "Tanglin" show and we tried to find the cafe shown in the show.  The cafe was closed that day.  We had taco-rice, as our dinner and the taco-rice was quite popular food in the Village - one of the few restaurants opened during our visit.  

We celebrated our Valentines' Day in Okinawa too.  We happened to chance upon a bread shop and surprised to see our favourite turtle bun.  I secretly bought a small gift on our journey to the Village and a simple treat for both of us in Okinawa.  I felt that I was quite romantic, haha.  


As part of our routine travel, we will buy a Starbucks for our uncle.  Well, it happened to be the launch of the Sakura-series of mugs and bottles again, and I helped my wife to decide on which one to buy and it was a good choice to-date - people will take a glance at her tumbler whenever she brings it out.