Shimabara Station Hotel

... the scale of this tank. Truly extraordinary.

Our last stop of the day was at the Nago Pineapple farm. Pineapple and sugar cane used to be a couple of important cash crops here in Okinawa but, due to competition from lower cost suppliers in the 3rd world, are primarily grown today for the benefit of the tourism industry. It was interesting to learn more about pineapple (I guess that I could have simply looked this up on Wikipedia but definitely more interesting ...

... 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 walk to the playground in her extreme stroller. She and another very little girl played on the slides as we and the girl's parents raced around trying to keep them from falling. It was actually not a very toddler-friendly playground, as we had to scale a hill to get up there and navigate the stroller down a staircase to leave. Back at the house, we packed up everything, getting ready to say goodbye to Okinawa in the morning.

... 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 ...

... soaked before realizing that I had packed an umbrella in my purse. Whatever, I still felt like a champ for remembering my way back to the hotel without needing a map.

Luckily our hotel was a stop on the hotel express bus's line, which I must mention was unexpectedly very luxurious, so I was able to hop on the bus with little hassle. Anxiety only developed when the bus got stuck in rainy city traffic, and I got to the ...

... a blast. Aaron and Estaban, students of mine, helped me out a few times watching the kids and keep them close. On Mother's Day I also ran into a few spouses at a brunch that was held at one of the clubs on base. They invited me to eat with them and then to a new park, Round 1. It was a really neat place with, I believe, 3 floors of fun stuff for the kids to do. They had a blast! We had our usual hangouts with the neighbors and our ...

... routes in the forest were paved with stones and surrounded by attractive tropical trees, but some parts of the routes were slippery and it is better to use a cane sometimes which you can borrow for free at the starting point. In the most important site, two large rocks were naturally put together to make a route to the altar, where we can see the Pacific Sea through the bush. Seifa-Utaki had less visitors than the other attractions in ...

... And that my friends, is all for the amusing stories on my blog today. I want to say Thank you to everyone who helped make my year special. I have so many good memories from this year it would be impossible to name them all or even choose the top few. So I won`t! I hope you are all having wonderful holidays where ever you are and celebrating in a way that brings you joy! And if you can eat a Christmas cookie or two for me!!