Hello!
To say I must have been a bit tired is a true
understatement!
I went to bed somewhere
in the 6-6:30 pm time frame, and got up this morning about 5:30 am.
That means that I got a minimum of 11 hours’
sleep – and it felt absolutely
GREAT!
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| Entrance to modern shrine |
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| Me at Torii gate |
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| Paper "fortunes" |
As a big believer in the “sleep bank” theory
I think I may have finally recharged my overdrawn account!
Wow!
I
also realize that other than the appetizers that
R had in the Executive Lounge, we didn’t have anything else to
eat.
And actually, that was fine, as
neither one of us felt desperately hungry.
So, up this morning and into my wonderful soaking tub!
Definitely a great way to start the day!
At 7 am we went to the Lounge for
breakfast.
Today’s was not as good as yesterday’s,
as there were no noodles!
There is a
section labeled “Okinawan Specialties” and this time it included small dishes
labelled “Pig’s ears” …
UGH!
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| Stunning bell! |
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| That's a lot of gold leaf... |
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| Detail of decoration |
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| Ancient Shinto shrine next door |
I believe we have now covered just about each
and every part of the average pig, between the feet yesterday and the ears
today.
I never was that much of a pork
fan, and now I know why!
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| Lots more fortunes here! |
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| Me at "washing trough" |
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| Wooden plaques where people write their requests |
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| Beautiful Hoden and quiet garden |
Read books for a bit, as everything we wanted to see and do
today opened at 9 am, so packed up and headed to the car about 8:45 am. Our first stop was the Futenma Shinto
Shrine. My Okinawan guidebook talks a
bit about Shintoism, which is very popular in Japan. To summarize very briefly, it is the belief
that just about everything has some natural power to it – have to admit that I
started thinking about “the Force” and Star Wars.
There were two shrines next to each other, each with their
own Torii gates marking the entrance.
The first, Futenmazanjinguji, appeared to be a fairly modern place, and
immediately outside was a huge beautiful bell hanging in its own enclosure. The inside of the shrine was quite
spectacular – lots and lots of gold leaf everywhere, and beautiful side altars
as well. This was our first stop. In our Okinawan guidebook, there was a
mention that there was an ancient altar still in existence, which was located
in a cave directly below the shrine.
When we asked if we could see it, we were directed to the second shrine,
Futenma-gu shrine, right next door.
This place was definitely more popular than the one next
door, (although not nearly as visually beautiful!) and lots of people were
there already. The first thing one does is rinse one’s hands to clean
them.
Interesting process:
Take ladle in right hand and scoop water into
it.
Pour some of the water over your
left hand first, making sure it doesn’t fall back into the trough but onto the
rocks outside the trough.
Then you rinse
your right hand, and finally empty the ladle completely by running it down the
handle of the ladle and onto the ground.
You then return the ladle to the trough, ladle side down.
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| Beautiful Lion Dog! |
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| Kitsuren Castle from the bottom |
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| Read and look at photo carefully! |
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| Walking up to the top of Katsuren Castle |
It turns out that
people can make requests, that they write on small wooden plaques, and can hang
them on and around the shrine on the outside.
These are called “ema” and there were lots and lots of them around. There is also the “omikuji.” One pays a small amount of yen (5 or 10 Yen)
and receives a folded paper with a fortune on it. If you like the fortune, if it’s good, you
may keep it or tie it on to a set of wires or string set up for that
purpose. If the fortune is bad, you may
wish to tie it on to a nearby pine tree, leaving it there to “wait” for someone
else.
Robert asked about seeing the ancient altar, and we were
told that we could, but not until 10 am (it was about 9:30 am) so we had to
wait a bit. Also, no photographs or cell
phones allowed, which was fine. As we waited, we went around the side of the shrine,
and saw the ancient Honden on top of
the hill, which was locked. It was truly
a stunningly lovely place, though, with huge Shoji Lion Dogs on either side,
and very tranquil garden in front of it.
This was what Robert had been looking for – “old” Japan. Just beautiful! Promptly at 10 am about 6 of
us went through the locked door and down into the cave below. It really was amazing to find a cave of this
sort so close to the surface and right in the middle of town. We paid our respects and then headed back
upstairs and on to our next spot, Katsurengusuku.
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| Excavated castle foundations |
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| Great view on a lovely day! |
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| Looking east over causeway to next island! |
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| On causeway to next island! |
By this time (10:30 or so) the sun was out and the sky was
blue, and the wind that had driven me crazy the past few days was nowhere to be
found! Yeah!! It
took about half an hour to get to Katsuren, yet another incredible castle built
on yet another defensible high ground. I
have absolutely no recollection at all of ever having seen it before, but as R says, 40 years is a long time! It was quite a trek from the bottom to the
top – and no convenient electric golf cart to help us along! But we made it, and enjoyed reading the
various signs along the way. Katsuren
was built similarly to Nakagusuku, in that the stones were so perfectly cut as
to leave absolutely no room for mortar or anything else, and it was finally
conquered in the 15th century by troops from the King of the Ryukus
from Shuri Castle in Naha. (We’ll see Shuri
when we head south again in a bit.)
By this time, it was definitely lunchtime, so we headed down
the road back towards Chatan. We came to
a large store which looked interesting, so as we needed to find Kleenex and
nail polish remover, in we went. They
actually had a McDonald’s inside the store, as well as a really lovely coin
laundry! And, there were instructions in
ENGLISH on the washers and dryers! May
definitely keep this in mind for the future “just in case.” You never know when you’re going to need to
do wash! We did learn that the Japanese
word for “Kleenex” is: Kleenex! Who knew?
The problem was that we couldn’t find a single box … so we bought six
that were packed together, all in different colors. At least I know we’ll have enough to get
through the trip now!
We then decided that, as two neighboring islands were very
close, we would see them both before heading back to the hotel.
The Henza-jima bridge was great – a big parking
lot with restaurant and small museum is in the middle of the span, which gives
great view points of both a popular wind-surfing beach, as well as a
kite-surfing beach, apparently because of the wind that blows forever past
these points.
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| Off of causeway to island |
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| Restaurant on causeway! Love the "ship!" |
Henza-jima turns out to be
almost entire oil-related – a refinery as well as storage depot, with just a
small town in between.
Then over another
the bridge to Hamahiga-jima, which was a very cute, tiny island with one
smallish resort and a nice marina.
Strange as it seems to me now, when I lived here, I don’t even think I
knew that Okinawa was more than one island!
Duh!
As It was now about 2 pm, we decided to head back across the
island to Chatan and the hotel, where we are now. I wanted to get caught up on sights before we
venture out to the American Village!
In answer to a question, the American Village was modeled after a California beach town, like
Venice or Santa Monica. There is
purportedly great shopping and eating there, as well as a giant Ferris Wheel. I really freaked on the Lyon, France Ferris Wheel,
but seemingly have forgotten enough of the terror to want to do it yet
again. R just shrugs his shoulders! So!
More later!
m
xxx
Yet another night without a proper dinner!
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| Giant Ferris wheel! |
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| "Hello, Kitty!" |
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| R on Ferris wheel! Our hotel in background |
Well, we walked through
American
Village, and honestly, neither of us was very impressed.
As it was Saturday afternoon, there was quite
a crowd there, consisting of Okinawans and Americans – many, many families!
We headed first to the giant Ferris Wheel,
and, as
R predicted, I hated the “going
over the top” part, but very much enjoyed the rest of it.
I did spot a frozen yogurt place, but (again)
as
R indicated, I didn’t want to
spoil my dinner!
Hmmm… It was really
difficult to tell if some of the places were really, in fact, open or were
going to open.
Having not found a place
that either of us liked for dinner, we sauntered back to the hotel for Happy
Hour.
Today’s food was entirely
different from yesterday’s, and included some excellent Korean chicken, as well
as risotto “balls” with a Marinara sauce, and a tomato soup with mozzarella
cream.
Yummy!
Also some wonderful cookies for dessert.
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| Our hotel from the Ferris wheel! |
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| View to the east -- Naval hospital! |
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| Me and the Ferris wheel! |
I had champagne, and
R had the same red wine he enjoyed yesterday.
In fact, we were so “happy” with our Lounge,
that I came back to the room and promptly fell asleep!
(That’s what I get for not taking a proper
nap this afternoon!)
Up now – 9:45 pm
and will post the blog – and head back to bed!
Tomorrow we will pack up and leave our lovely hotel, and
head north to the Motobu peninsula!
Lots of love,
m
xxx
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