We sought out the ultimate tourist trap today: Nago Pineapple Park. It's exactly what it sounds like -- a theme park dedicated solely to pineapples, complete with a ride on a pineapple car through the pineapple garden to - what else? - a pineapple tasting room! We had samples of fresh pineapple, dried pineapple, pineapple wine, pineapple juice, pineapple cake, pineapple bread...basically, anything you can think of with that fruit in it, they had it. Pretty cool place, and I don't care if it's a tourist trap because it was that fun I'd go again. The pineapple car ride through the gardens kinda reminded me of the It's a Small World ride at Disneyland...same song playing on repeat as we circled through a tropical forest (although it had real trees this time). 
We figured we might as well have a serious educational stop along the way too, so we toured Nakijin Gusuku Castle on our way home. I'm not a big museum person since I've always preferred to be outdoors as much as possible, so castles and ruins are definitely more my thing. And this particular fortress was quite impressive -- Nakijin was built near the end of the 13th century, and although it's mostly in ruins now due to years of wars and typhoons, the remaining castle walls and dwelling places are incredible to look it. Placed in a strategic spot bordering a cliff drop-off into the river below, the castle has a sweeping view of the valley directly to the sea.
It remained for centuries as the seat of power in the North and a valuable trading partner with China, until attacking forces brought down the dynasty in the 1400s, and it was fully abandoned two centuries later.
that picture of your inner asian is amazing. reminds me of when kumo & patchy thought you were asian!
ReplyDeletemiss you man & the pineapple park sounds AMAZING. you get to eat tons of pineapple and no one will kick you out of the produce section for it.