Asia trip Day 16 - Naha, Japan (Okinawa)

Monday March 13

First stop in Japan. For days all of us had been asked to register on a gov. site and had terrible trouble to do so. Between their website, to know the answers (like port name etc) and the WiFi it was a challenge. Mine finally went from red to blue as it was supposed to. 

This morning, after the ship was cleared by authorities, we were asked to leave into the terminal one appointed group after the other. We were in the last so we had a very leisurely breakfast with a nice view to watch the taxis line up. Ha-ha, it took us a while to figure out what they were doing.

We were in the last group because we had not booked an excursion and tried again to just walk around the city by ourselves. 

After all the hoopla about the visa thing everything went very smoothly and efficiently. 

Oceania had set up a shuttle service and we boarded the bus right after we were done with immigration. It took the bus about 15 minutes and we were let out at at this place. We had a schedule so we knew when one of the buses might take us back right from this spot later. 

We also had a city map. The red circle is where we were let out. 

We walked the main street which is very bold on the map and just had fun looking at everything.

Our grandsons would have had fun looking at what this shop had to sell. Bottles with snakes in it ... we think with liquor.

Where the red arrow ends to the right was a street with a roof. We walked one way and then the parallel street back.

Interesting stuff they were selling. 

Almost opposite was a McD and we also saw a Starbucks. 

And not far was the Kibogaoka Park which was supposed to have the "Great Tug of War Monument". That sounded very interesting but first we could not find it. We walked around in the park which was nice but when we turned around: there it was.

I thought the drawing was so cute. HERE is a link to read about it. So interesting!

After that we continued our walk to the Pottery district. 

We had been told that there were even kilns to see but we mainly saw shops which were actually open but had mainly those dragon figures for sale. Some had very stylish Japanese pottery but we really didn't need anything. Some of the houses were obviously old and very interesting. The museum was closed.

Okinawa has a monorail which we saw coming by once in a while but I always saw it too late to photograph. 

We went passed the Asato Station and were a bit lost but after a while we found our way again and headed for the Naha Haari Monument. It said on the map that it was "a life-size replica of dragon boat used in Naha Haari Festival". Well, it was something like fiberglass with the other side open for a group of tourists to sit in for a photo opportunity. Fun though.

We were back on that main street walking towards the bus point. 

At this point it was afternoon and we decided that we were very thirsty. And to have some nibbles would not be bad either. James spied an interesting restaurant across the street. It was a fun place. We wanted local beer which we always like to try and it was really good. The server liked to talk to us and told us it was the best in Okinawa. And we also had a mini taco each. This place was in the Mexican style. 

The server was delighted when I asked her leaving whether we should have a selfie. She was beaming.

Walking along this was the entry to the parallel shopping streets we had visited in the beginning. 

Back at the beginning. We decided to not take the bus but walk to the terminal.

And a good decision that was! On the right side was the Matsuyama Park. Not quite so taken-care-of looking but still very nice with huge old trees and a small pond with turtles.

No info (in English) what this statue was. But there was also a plaque honoring a Karate teacher. He was quoted "Do not put your main purpose in mastering Karate techniques itself, you should study the way of life through Karate". I think our daughter Helen would like that.

Opposite was the Fukushuen Garden. We still had tried and decided to give it a try even though it was 200 yen fee for each of us (about $1.50). We were lucky that we had exchanged some dollars this morning on the ship.

This was one of the highlights of the day. The garden was beautiful and so peaceful. We were almost by ourselves and so enjoyed it. Here just a few photos.

This little statue in a niche was not even a foot tall. Anybody could have taken money but obviously nobody did.

I looked it up and found: Kijimuna are energetic creatures of Japanese folklore. They resemble small children with bright red hair and grass skirts. The sign in front said Please feel free to use.

The sign on this tree said: Moraceae (ficus microcarpa)

This must be Kume Shiseibyo Confucian Temple. 

It started to drizzle a little on the rest of our way but not bad. These are the two figures we saw on the way out.

There was happy hour in the Horizon and we had a very lively conversation with another couple. It was so lively that we forgot to look at the watch. At 6:29 pm we remembered that we had a reservation in the special restaurant Toscana at 6:30 pm with a couple we didn't know yet. 

Luckily it was on the same deck just the other end of the ship. No time to change. We appologized profusely to the restaurant host and asked whether it was ok to come to the diningroom as we were. They were very nice about it and took us to our table. The other couple arrived a minute later and we had a very nice dinner. The couple were from New Zealand and we had another very nice conversation.

Toscana of course is a Italian oriented restaurant. This server came with a cart full of olive oils and balsamic vinegars. He poured a little bit of one of each into a little dish and I shared with James. There was the appropriate bread on the table for dipping into it instead of bread and butter on the side.

Ravioli with lobster filling. The veggies on top were actually the best part. Very delicious but no idea what it was.

Dessert: apricot tart. Very good.

James had not problem finishing his dessert too. 

The shows are all nice but tonights didn't seem really special and we were so tired so decided to call it a night. Night night.