Kagoshima Daiichi Hotel Kamoike

... rice, soup, yogurt, rolls, and salad. Unlike the Toyoko Inn and Comfort Hotel breakfast buffets, which are pretty much uniform within each hotel chain, this one has personality, local color, and little handwritten signs everywhere (they're in Japanese, so I can't read them). In the buffet line, they have exactly one little kid's bowl with a cute animal design, so the next kid to arrive will feel special, and you ...

... ducks that were living in the carp pond. It is amazing how sometimes the simplest things can bring the greatest pleasure -- I really enjoyed feeding those animals.

We then proceeded to the ocean and a cliff-filled area known as Manza-mo. There were some spectacular sights here. It was a very windy and rainy day but this did not dull the spectacular view. No wonder this was a favourite place of Ryukyu kings.

The Churaumi Aquarium was indeed a sight to ...

Today we decided to do something that I don't normally like to do -- go on a guided tour with a bunch of other people and get caught up on a commercial racket. Given that neither of us have ever been to Okinawa and don't know our way around, we decided to go on a bus tour and are we ever glad that we did.

The tour took us to a number of historical and interesting spots, most notable of which was the old Imperial Navy Underground Headquarters that served as ...

... the US invasion forces landed near the end of the war. Apparently this was one of the most difficult and bloody battles of the Pacific War. It is hard to believe that this beautiful place was once a WW2 killing ground. Thousands of Americans died here and hundreds of thousands of Japanese died. I'm sure that the war memorials here will be very sobering.

It will definitely be an interesting couple of days.

... 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 ...

... other fish was definitely a favorite. There was a diver in scuba gear cleaning the inside of the glass, so that was funny. Riley did not particularly care for the exhibits, but she did like running around.

Outside, we visited the turtle pools and the manatees, which were interesting because they were spacious and had cartoon character mascots (like most Japanese advertisements!) Our next stop was the native Okinawan village ...

... that. But she still let us shop for a nice long time, during which I got to experience the Japanese toy section (full of bizarre toys such as Anpanman, the superhero with bread for a head, Mameshiba, the puppy-faced edamame bean, and various other sad-faced adorable animals). I also perused the candy section but was disappointed- isn't it supposed to be shiny and colorful? There wasn't even a good selection of Haribo- not even fizzy colas! There weren't a whole lot of exciting ...

... pictures during the performance, because of a lot of troubles in the past, but they allowed us to take some picture in the end of the show. After the show, we had lunch in the restaurant next to the stage, where I had green caviar for the first time, although it is an Okinawan specialty. It was not especially good, but the bowl with green cavier and some seafood was very good.

Then we headed for Shikinaen Garden which was our last ...

... ON a plane). And all our pockets. And all our toiletries. And our bags were left a complete disaster. We were questioned over and over again about our plans, and they seemed happier to know we were meeting someone in Japan. "Japanese person?", they asked. Yes, yes. They really liked that. The entire time however, the customs officers were very nice and polite about it all, so we left in good spirits, but despite it, I was a bit confounded. What did ...

... Mr Marc" was called shortly afterwards. We were out at 8.45 unable to return till 5 that evening. At least being out early meant we could sort out the train tickets. It took about 2 hours to organise, but we manage to book tickets to Hiroshima, Sapporo, and back down to Tokyo. The one that took the time to sort out was Hiroshima to Sapporo. It was a long long way from one end of Japan to the other. We probably should have gone somewhere half way up in between ...