A Wet and Rainy Day!

Hello!

Well, we opted for Domino’s Pizza last night, and it wasn’t half bad!  There is something about the familiar that I am really appreciating now, for sure! 

Up this morning to a very rainy world.We’re really not used to a place where the Weather Channel (on the internet, certainly not on the local TV) predicts the percentage of rain, and it’s 100% -- and of course, they’re right!  It was pouring!  Our hotel offers coffee and croissants for breakfast at 8 am, so down we went.  R said the coffee was excellent, but the croissants definitely needed jam.  We then packed up for the day and headed out to visit Okinawa World which is about 15 or 16 miles to the southeast of us.  Considering how wet and rainy it was, the traffic wasn’t really too bad, and we arrived there about 10:30 am. 

Trying to figure out top right of list!

Beautiful cave!

Thousands of stalactites!

 

We also had to get gas this morning, as the tank was about down to ¼ full – and we’ve been driving since last Thursday week!  R was surprised to find the total for the fill-up was about ¥4,700 (about $42 US).  But as I told him, we’ll only really have to top it off when we turn the car in next week!  Certainly not a bad deal!  The funny thing, though, is that I cannot remember anything at all about getting gas when I lived here!  I keep thinking that there must have been a gas station on base, but do you think I can remember it?  No way!  Old age is creeping up!

We had a slight break in the weather, as we crossed the parking lot and bought tickets. 

Lovely running stream through the cave!

Stalagmites starting to form on the platform!

We were very surprised to see many, many big tour buses.  I somehow had thought we’d be the only ones there, however that was not to be the case.  Okinawa World is split into three separate categories.  First, the cave, then the Ryukuan Village, and finally, the Habu Museum.  As the Habu are deadly snakes that live here, we definitely gave that attraction a miss, and headed first down into Gyokusendo Cave, first discovered in 1967.  I had visited Gyokusendo several times when I lived here before, and believe me, there was no such thing as Okinawa World surrounding it then!  Very simple kind of place.  Now, the cave is quite well controlled temperature wise, and still as beautiful as I remembered! 

For anyone who has visited a real “wet”, “living” cave, you know the care and attention that goes into its operation.  Our very own Kartchner Caverns near Tucson is one such example.  It’s temperatures and number of visitors are tightly controlled, and no one is allowed to touch anything along the way.  There are several locked and bolted security doors, and visitors literally go through chambers designed to keep in the moisture in, as well as getting lightly sprayed along the way at the entrance so that any hair or follicles may be cleaned off before people go through. 

Me and vanilla ice cream cone!

This wasn’t quite like that.  In fact, as far as we could tell, there was no control at all over how many people visited at any one time.  Everyone just climbed down the stairs and voila, you were inside!  Also, no problem taking photos, even flash!  Wow!  So, through it we went!  In Kartchner, if a drop of water lands on you, it is called a “cave kiss” and you are deemed to be very special! Here, with the amount of water coming down the formations, you were lucky if you weren’t soaked by the time you got through!  Cave kisses everywhere!  There was also a small, flowing river that followed the trail for quite a distance; really lovely! 

Robert with first oyster

Opening it up!

It is reputed to have more than 1,000,000 stalactites and seriously, I wouldn’t want to be the one to challenge that number and try to count them!  We also saw cave “bacon” as well as “fried eggs” – definitely formations we remember for Kartchner.

The trail goes on for about half a mile underground, and finally, you are let out into Tropical World, which is their tropical garden with fruit trees and plants everywhere.  At this point, we took a break, and I had a vanilla ice cream cone.  I could have had vanilla and mango or vanilla and sweet potato (which is a lovely purple color) but once again, I stuck with what I recognized, and actually, the island’s Blue Seal Ice Cream is wonderful!

From there, we walked through the glass making area, as well as the pottery making area.  R added a coffee cup to his collection, and I picked up a lovely, small glass vase handmade on the island.  As we were walking through the glass shop, one side of it has been given over to Okinawan oysters that produce pearls! 

First pearl!

Lifting it out of the oyster

Second pearl in the oyster!

A young lady was trying very hard to open one, and it caught R’s attention.  As he says, it’s SO much more rewarding than buying and opening a geode!  So, when there was a space clear, R sat down and was given the bucket of oysters to select.  I selected the first one, and R selected the second.  Interestingly, R’s hands were too large for the plastic pull-off gloves that they had, but R being R just decided to go it bare-handed.  It took a bit of time, but eventually the oyster opened, and voila, there was a lovely yellow-white pearl of very nice size!  The second oyster contained a smaller pearl, with a blue cast to it; quite lovely!  Then, if you want, you can choose settings for your pearls, and they will set them or do whatever to them in 10 minutes!  What fun!  I am now wearing pearl #1 in a lovely necklace setting, and will be bringing home pearl #2 in a silver setting.  So fun!  

We finished wandering through the village, and as it was already past lunchtime, we decided to try the restaurant’s buffet – ¥1,300 each (which equates to about $11.70) which was fine and very reasonable.  The selections all over seem to be pretty much the same, we have found, but they do a nice spaghetti with meat sauce, meat balls (chicken this time) and fried chicken and French fries.  R’s lunch was sushi (not Ahi and otherwise unidentifiable but good), fish tempura, rice noodles, steamed broccoli and small pieces of fried chicken.  I have been drinking hisbiscus juice, which is excellent, while R usually has tea or coffee.

Love the captioning!

 

Me with my new pearl necklace!

Entrance to Village

Now those are roots!

Typical Okinawa house with tatami mats

R's lunch - sushi, noodles & tempura!

By this time, we figured that we had now seen enough, spent enough, and eaten enough, that heading back to the hotel for naps sounded like a really good idea.  We did want to stop first, though, at a grocery store.  I had seen one this morning, called Union, and we did have a bit of a time, first, finding it again, and second, actually getting to it and finding a place to park!  Interesting store – definitely groceries, as there was a small selection of produce, meat and fish.  And of course, everything in Japanese!  We wanted to get jam, paper towels for the apartment and more bottled water.  Fortunately, Robert is a trained observer, and he is really amazing at being able to find anything!  I never would have spotted the jam, but there it was, down on an obscure bottom shelf in an out of the way location.  Also picked up some cookies for munching!

Back to the hotel, and I let R off by the door with the groceries, and I went down the block just a bit to the hotel’s parking lot.  Back upstairs, and now we’re reading and watching the rain come down, and it’s lovely and warm in our space; good preparation for napping, don’t you think? 

Rain is predicted for most of the time now before we leave (Thursday) except for Sunday and Tuesday.  So, we are planning on doing some of the major sights then, when we will hopefully have more cooperative weather.  I definitely don’t want to go to the monument at the south end of the island in the rain!  So, we will hope for the best and keep you informed!

Lots of love,

m

xxx