Hotel Nikko Naha Grand Castle

... it in my previous entry) was the original name of the Okinawan archipelago (it used to be known as the Ryukyu Kingdom which was a tributary state of Imperial China). Although commercial in almost all respects, this village was a very beautiful place to visit. We even saw numerous examples of the local poisonous snake (the "Habu") as well as a mongoose. Unfortunately there was no mongoose/snake fight today! I did get to feed a large number of carp as well as a couple of very ...

... was only completed during the early 1990's. This was another interesting spot to take in. Okinawa was for centuries influenced by both China and Japan. Before becoming a vassal of feudal Japan, Okinawa was largely a vassal of Imperial China. The influence of both cultures can be seen in the castle -- there is definitely lots of Chinese influence here from the layout to the colours.

The Gyokusendo Cave was another stop along the way. Unfortunately I don't ...

... next couple of days as we go on two guided tours. One will be up to the north end of the island to an aquarium and a pineapple farm. I am sure that once we get outside of Naha City that we will see the true tropical paradise aspects of this island. We will also be spending some time outside of the city on the south of the island. There is a lot of World War Two history here as this south end of the island is ...

... a stunningly hot day and the indoor area was air conditioned. After Shuri Castle, we went to Kokusai street in Naha City. This is a palm-lined street with tons of small souvenir shops, with a surfer atmosphere. I picked up quite a few gifts here! My favorite purchase was a red coral necklace for myself. The store's owner was so happy to see me for some reason that she gave me free shisa keychain. Riley was getting restless, so ...

On Saturday, I managed to wake up a bit earlier, which is good because we had to be out of the house and on the road to get to the aquarium. Okinawa's aquarium is located near Nago, on the north tip of the island, and is the seconds largest aquarium in the world after the one in Georgia. It also has the largest sheet of plexiglass in the world for its main tank, which holds three whale sharks. We were very excited to see this, even ...

... to the car, it stopped raining, of course. Obviously after all of that I needed a nap, so I took one up in the guest room. When I woke up, we had an excellent dinner of pasta and root beer floats before heading to the mall. The Okinawan mall was different than other malls I've seen, with a more open floor plan while still having sort of individual shops. Right as we walked in there was a cartoon animal to ride on, which Riley saw and immediately wanted, so we had problems ...

Thursday morning marked my third location change of the trip. My 1:30 PM flight meant that there was not a whole lot we'd be able to do before I had to go, so Natalie and I decided to check out the Harbor City Mall again. After a repeat of breakfast at Starbucks, we headed over to the entrance from yesterday. Or so we thought. Apparently this mall is so huge that we were able to wander for an hour, through a luxury brand ...

... Park, so we played on the playgrounds there and worked up a sweat. After that we headed over to Araha beach to cool off and end our fun day by eating Ramen at the beach. We had fun even though it didn't work out how we planned. Other than that we hung out and have sent a few emails to Trevor. We get to talk to him on the computer here and there, but mostly it is just me that gets to talk to him unless he gets a day off. I hope you enjoy!

... but very beautiful and worth a visit.

After leaving Seifa-Utaki, we visited Okinawa World with Gyokusendo Cave, which has one of the largest limestone cave system in the East. There were some strange shaped stalactites and stalagmites. The ticket for the park was the second most expensive, 1200 yen, but we had had a coupon of ANA beforehand, so we couldn't miss it. At first, I thought the cave was too long to my mom who has ...

... bo njegov rizev trikotnicek vsak dan pravilno odvil v treh korakih in da pri tem ne bo niti en rizek padel vn iz posusene alge. (btw so tile rizevi trikotnicki highly addictive). Tokyo je super mesto, ker je zivo, pa Osaka, sam apart from that, mas obcutek, da cetudi si v velikem mestu si na vasi, ker se vse zapre, vse je zapahnjeno, tko kokr da se pozimi ob 7 pm peljes med SG in Velenjem in srecas en avto (to je ekstremno lokalno, sam ce se vam zdi SG bogu ...