Good morning!
Last night for dinner, we decided to give the hotel’s
restaurant another try.
So, about 7 pm,
downstairs we went.
We looked first at
the “Western” buffet, and that actually looked quite appealing, so we went for
that option.
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| Spaghetti, fried rice, pork stew & chicken |
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| R's dinner plate! |
They had a wonderful pork
stew, along with spaghetti (very popular on Okinawa for some reason) with meat
sauce, fried rice, roast chicken and salad with Japanese dressing (of which we
are becoming very fond!).
I was even
able to have some ice cream for dessert – small scoops of strawberry, vanilla
and chocolate!
Yummy!
Then back upstairs for the night!
Oh – and before I forget, if I didn’t mention earlier, our
clothes did eventually dry completely, although I finally split the one small
load into two dryers, and that seemed to work quite well.
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| Nakijin Castle |
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| Cherry blossoms! |
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| Nakijin Castle |
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| Monument at the Castle |
We are now up, showered (they do have fabulous showers in
this country, for sure!) and ready to head out for the day. Our objective is to follow the Motobu
Peninsula around its northern edge, and then head straight north up highway 58,
which follows the western edge of the island all the way to Cape Hedo, the
“end” of the island. In my two years
here in the 70’s, I never got any farther than where we are right now. I remember once that my friend, Celeste, and
I were going to try it, but we didn’t get very far before we realized that we
wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy the drive.
But now! We will see what we shall
see!!
More later!
m
xxx
We were out the door about 7:45 am and heading east along
the Motobu Peninsula a few minutes later. We wanted to check out the Nakijin Castle as
we hoped to be able to “bag” all five Okinawan castles before returning
home. Nakijin is the furthest
north. Well … we got there about 8:20 am
and fortunately for us, it was open – especially as we needed to buy
tickets! And we weren’t even the first
people there, as a Japanese couple must have beat us by a few minutes.
Got the tickets and headed up the slope and into the
castle. One word: Wow!
Nakijin has huge castle walls in a really idyllic setting. In fact, as we walked up to the first
enclosure area, which was planted entirely with cherry trees, one of the trees
had already started to bloom! I am sure
that in a month or so, the entire castle will be covered in beautiful, pink
cherry blossoms and will look amazing! So glad we were able to see just a few
blossoms!
We walked to the top of the castle to enjoy the wonderful
views in all directions, and then headed back to the car. Now that we have only Shurii Castle left, we
have both agreed that Nakijin Castle is our favorite, by far!
From Nakijin, we then started the drive north along the west
coast of Okinawa to Cape Hedo, the “end” of the island.
I was expecting really primitive countryside;
traffic was very light but more than I expected.
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| View from top of the Castle |
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| Great walls! |
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| Walls and the remains of a village inside |
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| R and the wall! |
Also, there were more villages along the way
than I had imagined.
It took about an
hour to get to Cape Hedo, and there was already a bus in the parking lot, along
with some motorcyclists and other tourists.
Here, at the spot where the Pacific meets the East China Sea, the wind
was howling and lots of white caps on the ocean.
It was a clear day, and we were able to see
the closest northern island, Yoran-to, about 14 miles north of Okinawa.
There are a variety of monuments displayed
here, including one that commemorates the end of US occupation and the return
of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty in 1972.
[The war ended in 1945.
Nothing in haste, I suppose. –
R] There were others that looked like
personal monuments, set up on various rocks and boulders along the
pathways.
It was quite a place, and
reminded me very much of South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii (with fewer
wind mills).
From here, the only direction was south, and we decided to
follow the very twisty and turny road following along the eastern, Pacific side
of the island. Stunning drive, albeit
slow, but again, I was very much surprised by the fact that there were villages
all along the way, and the road was in wonderful condition! (Would that Tucson had some of these roads…)
It took us several hours to make our way south, but the scenery was wonderful
along the way. There is only one resort
on this side, as the Pacific is much rougher than the East China Sea, but in
one place the land comes to a point, and in the inlet, the water is fine for
swimming. We thought about having lunch
there, as it was definitely time for food, but the old adage “If you have to
ask how much it costs, you shouldn’t stay there” was enough to decide us to
keep looking. So, we sent the GPS to our
next hotel, the Kanehide Kise Beach Palace, just down the coast on the western
side from Nago.
Got to the hotel a bit after 1, and found that they were
able to accommodate us immediately, which is always nice! Our room, 812, is on the 8th floor
and has a stunning balcony and view over the beach and water. There is a hotel restaurant here, on the 10th
floor, but it isn’t currently open for lunch, and obviously, it’s a bit early
for the pool bar to be open. So, we were
directed across the street for “Okinawan soba” which sounded like the noodles
that R has been looking for!
After spending so long in the car, I definitely need to walk
a bit, so the short walk felt really good. Soon we were in a restaurant
labeled: Okinawa Slow Food!
Who
knew?!
Fortunately, they did have a menu
in English, which helped a great deal!
R chose the tempura and sashimi set
plate, and I ordered the eggplant plate.
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| Castle doorway with stunning trees! |
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| Traveling along the West Coast heading north |
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| Lovely sand beaches! |
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| Me at Cape Hedo! |
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| Beautiful scenery! |
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| Looking at the Pacific side |
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| R at National Park at Cape Hedo |
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| Looking south down the Pacific side |
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| Crossing of Yanbaru Kuina (which we didn't see!) |
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| Pacific side |
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| Our room at the Kanehide Kise Beach Palace |
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| View from our balcony! |
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| M on balcony! |
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| Restaurant's drinks menu |
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| Me and my eggplant lunch! |
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| R's tempura and sashimi set lunch! |
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| Not sure what they are, but they're hot and beautiful! |
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| R's tempura, shrimp on top! |
Wow! What great food!
I’m sorry the photos aren’t as good as
normal, but the camera’s batteries needed charging, so we did what we could
with
R’s cell phone.
R’s plate included
sashimi, some wonderful tempura (I ate the carrot, which was fabulous) with
shrimp, fish and several vegetables. He
also had simmered dish (whatever that is) and vinegared pickles, rice, miso
soup, and brown sugar pudding – all for ¥1500 (or about $13.56). My eggplant came with tofu and lots of
onions, and was delicious. I also had the
miso soup (a bit fishy for me, so R
took that off my hands) as well as a helping of potato salad! It was great!
We both had small plates of pickled ginger, but R had the only dessert, which he said was too sweet for him. This was all washed down with two glasses of
red wine – which seriously tasted like strong Welch’s grape juice – and for all we know, may have been! At any rate, we were both very happy with our
choices!
Back to the hotel afterwards, and soon to naps after a very,
very busy morning!
Lots of love,
m
xxx
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