Hello!
We woke to a fairly clear and lovely dawn breaking over the
East China Sea. As it happens, we really
have seen and done just about everything I had wanted to do in the central and
southeastern sections of Okinawa, so we are treating today as rather a rest
day, which, as R pointed out, is
always enjoyable! Tomorrow we are
packing up and moving back south to Naha, for three nights before our return to
the U.S. on Thursday. We do have a
variety of parks, gardens and museums, as well as Shurii Castle and the Japanese
Naval Underground Headquarters to visit, so we are hoping for good
weather. It does look like after sunny
and blue skies this morning, that more rain may be headed our way. The forecast speaks of thunderstorms tonight
and possibly tomorrow morning – which R
says, while on the 10th floor of a building, may not be a good
thing! How exciting!
We had heard that there was going to be some sort of race
around the local area this morning, so after breakfast downstairs, we kept an
eye out from our 10
th floor balcony.
Finally saw a gathering of people at the bridge next to the hotel, with
lots and lots of kids.
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| Lining up at the starting line! |
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| No idea at all what the orange thing is! |
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| Now they're off! |
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| Streaking through the parking lot! |
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| And now running out of sight! |
Turns out there
were two races, one going off about 10 minutes after the first one
started.
Lots and lots of children and
adults racing – I’m thinking that the adults were probably escorting children
around the course.
There were even
mothers pushing kids in strollers!
And
everybody had a number on.
We were able
to watch both starts, but lost them after they passed the building in front of
us, but eventually they all started streaming back, and into the neighboring
park.
Truly, the area next to the hotel
is set up to be quite a sports venue.
There is a very large baseball park with plenty of seating, as well as
three or four additional baseball diamonds.
Then there are tennis courts, and pools and a huge gymnasium.
Quite an outfit for anyone into any sort of
sport of any kind, including the running track through it all!
Very impressive, although we have no idea at
all who won!
Around the same time, it occurred to me that we could probably
stream the Armed Forces Network
(AFRTS it was called 40 years ago…which always made be giggle…) on our computer
to be able to listen to the two NFL football games that will be played tomorrow
morning. We’ll see how it goes!! I should have thought of it last weekend!!
After all the excitement of the big race, we decided to head
the car to Futenma MCAS, where the Marine pilots are based, and while I knew we
wouldn’t be able to get in, I just wanted to see if there was anything of the
base I knew that was remaining!
Unfortunately, everything is really fenced in and secure, so I didn’t
get much of a look, although we did see a C-130 transport plane coming in to
land yesterday, so at least that has remained the same after 40 years!
I want to add here that R
wrote the following paragraph: We hadn’t
been here long before we noticed that, occasionally, Okinawan drivers would
stop their engines while waiting at red lights, then re-starting when the
lights went green. Odd, we thought. Now, after driving around for more than ten
days, we discovered we were doing the same thing! Coming to a stop and pressing hard on the
brake pedal stops the engine. Then,
pressing the gas starts it again. How’s
that for being observant? We might have
caught on earlier if the car had a tachometer but it doesn’t, so…
We were researching things to do here, and
R ran into an entry about hamburgers, of
all things!
That led to another search
looking for good hamburgers on Okinawa, and we found three
recommendations.
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| Yep, this is Gordie's! |
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| A dessert on the menu ... |
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| R and his Orion beer! |
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| R's Teriyaki burger |
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| My bacon cheeseburger! |
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| Being from Detroit ??? |
The first,
Gordie’s, is located a couple miles
north of where we are now.
The second,
Captain Kangaroo’s, is in Nago, which is
about an hour or so north, near the
Pineapple
Plantation, and not far from the
Churaumi
Aquarium and Ocean Expo Park.
The
third (a distant third) is a chain that we have seen, called
Mos Burgers, but never tried.
Turns out that
Mos Burgers was started by a Japanese businessman who lived for
some time in Los Angeles, and upon his return to Japan, decided there was
definitely a Japanese market for decent hamburgers.
Who knew?!
So, he started
Mos Burgers, I
think rather along the lines of
In-and-Out,
as each burger is made fresh upon ordering.
I have no idea if there are lines outside the place, though, like in Los
Angeles!
So, when lunch-time approached, we decided to see if we
could find Gordie’s. To say it is off the beaten track is an
understatement. Truly, if R hadn’t found it on our GPS, I’m not
sure we ever would have found it! There,
in the middle of a residential street, it is!
There was one poor guy who worked as both a waiter and a parking valet,
and was running all over the place! The
parking is difficult, and they are stack parking vehicles in a small parking
garage. I think the garage probably
holds about 10 vehicles, possibly 12 at one time. But he needs to remember who is in each car,
because when someone finishes up and then wants to leave, he has to find the
person whose car is parked in front of it, so the back car can get out. Make any sense?
Interesting place – looks like it is furnished out of a 1950’s
American kitchen, complete with bench seating out of car back seats, and those
wonderful vinyl kitchen chairs that we all remember from our childhoods!
(Or at least I remember from mine!)
R
ordered a Teriyaki Burger Combo, and I had their bacon cheeseburger combo, both
coming with fries and drinks.
R had an Orion (pronounced
Or-eee-own) beer, which he says is very
good, and I had root beer (probably A&W)!
Food took a while to arrive, but was definitely worth the wait.
While it certainly wasn’t nearly as good as a
Tucson
Zinburger, it was definitely
fresh and tasty and we enjoyed them.
After that, I wanted dessert, so we drove back through
American Village, and went to their
frozen yogurt shop!
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| Yummy! |
The shop was very
much like shops in the U.S. although there were definitely some strange fruits
to be added.
That didn’t really affect
me, however, as I was able to top my chocolate/vanilla/caramel yogurt with
M&M’s and was quite happy!
Back to the hotel for naps after that! Not sure what dinner tonight will be, but it
will be photographed, you can be sure!
So! More tomorrow, and lots and
lots of love!
m
xxx
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