We could use some of these back home

For all the entrepreneurial types out there, there are a couple things out here that would do great back home:

1) Coffee vending machines. We've got the standard soda/candy machines, but the Okinawans have really mastered the vending machines out here. They are literally everywhere - main streets, side streets, deserted mountainside roads, you name it. Makes me wonder how many people are employed to solely make the rounds and restock the thousands of machines scattered around this island. But anyway, what makes these amazing is the fact that you can get so much more than just soda. You've got ice cream sandwiches, a variety of sodas, juices, teas, and enough coffee options to put you on a perpetual caffeine kick. The best thing is that they offer both hot AND cold coffees from the SAME machine! You can get cafe mochas, cafe au laits, regular coffees, iced coffees, espressos...Why these haven't reached the US yet, I don't know.


These little guys are my favorite. The red button below it means it's the hot option, so I can decide if I want a cold au lait or a hot one

2) Cocos Curry houses. Besides the fact that yes, the Japanese have the ubiquitous Starbucks and McD's out here, they've also got these amazing fast-food curry joints. It was one of the first restaurants I tried, and the Japanese curries are sweeter than their Indian counterparts. Doesn't mean they're not as spicy either, but it's just a different taste.
This curry chain is scattered all over Japan and they're simply awesome -- they're cheap, easy, quick, and you can get any combination you can think of. Whether it's veggie or chicken, steak or fish, they've got it all and a bunch of toppings and spiciness levels to choose from, too. (Or maybe they're in the States already, and if you've seen them then you're ahead of me) but they are sooo goood.








My last curry selection: Level 1 spiciness + red curry + steak and veggies.
I think I'll venture to Level 3 spicy next time, although I've heard the average person cries from just eating a Level 5.




And this isn't a new idea, but I thought these were the funkiest things. It's the traveling Boogie Bagie Boxes! You wouldn't know it by the name, but they're hot dog trucks with little attached canopies on the side that function as a bar. The names out here crack me up.

A rare Brit in Oki

So I've kinda felt like an outsider since arriving in Okinawa since a) I'm leagues taller than most the men and women out here and b) I can't understand a single sign or spoken phrase. But every once in a while you come across some random foreigner who's made it this island their home and you kinda have to shake their hand. Take this little spot we took a dinner party to the other night:
My sister had heard about this spot a couple months ago so we decided to check it out. The British Wine and Tea Shop is this little restaurant run out of this British fellow's home stuck way up in the hills in Nago. Once again, you follow the obscure directions past the Pineapple Park...make a left on the windy road...follow a couple brown signs and then find your way up the one lane road...and voila!


And here's our host, John!

He wears this quirky clown hat for a chef cap, walks around in flip flops, and is about 5'3" tall. Kinda reminded me of a leprechaun except that he's British haha -- and his dry, sarcastic sense of humor kept us laughing most the night. Either his humor or the free-flowing champagne, that is.
But anywayyy, in his younger days, he was a professional photographer in the advertising world. Then he switched to the culinary scene and opened up his own restaurant outside of London. His wife, Maki, trained at Cordon Bleu London and then they both decided to return to her home country and open up a restaurant and tea shop in Okinawa. He does the cooking and she does the pastries, so they form an excellent and unique partnership.

It had me wondering though -- how successful can a tiny place stuck up in the hills really be? It sounds idyllic and nice, but he was quick to respond with the problems they were facing: it's tough to get high quality foods on the island so they have to get the necessary goods flown in weekly from the mainland, their location makes it hard to receive frequent visitors, and they don't have regular hours. Tough situation, but they did a beautiful job and they made us quite the spread! We had grilled ratatouille, boeuf bourguignon, chicken breasts wrapped in proscuitto, an amazing bouchées aux crevettes (these pastry puff shells with shrimp covered in béchamel sauce), and an array of desserts that topped it all off. Ah! Makes me hungry again just thinking about it - and I just finished breakfast. I'll be back here again before I leave for sure.







Doesn't this look good??

Theme park and castles

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).

Pineapple wine tasting
The guys in front of us were having way too good of a time posing in front of Mr Pineapple...we thought they were funny, so we took their pictures too
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.








Favorite picture of the day haha. These people LOVE their hot sauce...Smack my Ass and Call me Sally is evidently a legit, manufactured hot sauce. Who knew??


Channelin' my inner Asian :) Sayonara til next time!

It's just a little wind...

I woke up excited for Angie's day off as we had planned on driving up north to visit some cool spots on the island...only the island had other plans, evidently. The rain was falling like rain can only do on a Pacific island in the humid summer, and the wind was shaking the flimsy-looking tatami mat rooms. It's a TCCOR 4 warning kind of day.

According to the military definition:
TCCOR 4: Destructive winds of 50 knots or greater are possible within 72 hours. TCCOR 4 will be continuously in effect as a minimum condition of readiness from 1 June to 30 November annually. Now is the time to stock-up on food and Typhoon Supplies.

Typhoon?? I thought that was the kind of storm that happened only in books. Being a California girl, I've never had to deal with those kind of storms. I know we get earthquakes but that doesn't really count...and the last one I remember was in '92 anyway.

So there go my plans for the day. Fingers crossed that this typhoon warning passes soon.

Trip down South

My first day trip from Chatan was spent driving around the southern part of the island. Angie and I grabbed our coffees, got in the car, and just headed south, determined to stop at all the interesting spots along the way. Turned out to be a grim history lesson - the Battle of Okinawa in WWII was the only ground fighting fought on Japanese soil, and also the the largest scale fight in the Asia-Pacific War. Every stop catalogued a pretty horrifying statistic, as more than 120,000 civilian lives were taken in the Battle of Okinawa. The Japanese essentially used Okinawa as a battle of attrition, forcing innocent civilians and students to delay American forces as long as possible and resulting in huge losses of life.

Stop One: Glass blowing factory and Ryukyu lacquer ware factory

The Okinawans (also known as Ryukyuans) are famous for their glass blowing and lacquer ware. The skill of the craftsman in their glassware pieces is pretty evident, and I found these to be more impressive than the lacquer ware art pieces, personally. Hence, no lacquer photos this time.


Angie with a couple of her favorite pieces

Stop two: Himeyuri Peace Museum

As we were driving down the road, we came upon a group of tour buses at the entrance of this memorial site. During the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese Army forced students to work in the cave tunnels - running food and water supplies from cave to cave, helping wounded soldiers, and burying the dead. Himeyuri was the nickname given to the Okinawa Women's Normal School and High School, from where these students were drafted. The students were untrained for battle conditions obviously, and when the Japanese soldiers suddenly 'disbanded' them (essentially kicking them out of the caves when the bombing got heavier), the students had nowhere to go under the U.S. firing. Consequently, almost all of them were killed.

Monument site at the entrance to one of the caves, covered with mourning bouquets
Stop three: Cornerstone of Peace Park and Memorial

The Peace Memorial was erected in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa. It's a beautiful memorial site and kinda reminds me of those Forest Lawn cemeteries back home -- wide green lawns, clusters of trees, an enormous and recently re-done museum at the top of the small hill, and rows upon rows of stone monuments on which are inscribed the names of all those who were killed (Okinawans, Americans, Koreans, and Europeans were all included).

I always love the symbolism hidden in these monuments. I know they're aesthetically beautiful and really peaceful on the outside, but it's the underlying subtle references and architectural details that make it even more interesting.







Take this Cornerstone of Peace to the right:
1) the rows of monuments with the inscribed names of the dead are arranged accordion-style, to reflect an image of praying hands
2) all the walkways converge at the Peace Plaza, which holds the Flame of Peace at its center. The flame is composed of flames from three other places: Akajima Island (the first landing of the US forces on the island), Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
3) the main walkway leading to the Flame of Peace is designed to align with the position of the sun as it rises above the horizon on June 23 (Okinawa Memorial Day). Neat fact, huh?



Looks kinda like the Cliffs of Moher, huh? Sadly, these don't have a similar peaceful past...thousands of Okinawans and Japanese committed suicide by jumping off these cliffs in order to escape oncoming US troops
After reading more about this war and all the horrifying events and huge losses, I was slightly expecting an undertone of bitterness, or perhaps even hostility. I mean, over 240,000 people were killed in the battle in this little island, and it was only 50 years ago -- those decades are so very present in our own parents' lifetimes that it can hardly be classified as history. It really was not all that long ago since this battle was fought...

Yet the message was anything but bitter here. It was overwhelmingly a message of peace. The people believed that only through promoting peace would the dead souls receive justice, and repeat of such a tragedy be avoided for future generations.

Me in the peace butterfly garden tent
Stop four: Thai in the Sky

On a less serious note, I have to pause to comment on a) the frustrating driving situation here, and b) one of my best food experiences yet. The roads are well kept and everyone drives an even 40mph, so I can't complain about the driving itself. But for some reason, they've got an issue with roadway signs and maps. Signs and arrows are all over the place - it seems that local authorities like to rename highways at whim. So when you think you're driving along Highway 58 just fine, all of a sudden it turns into a completely different road (without you making any turns at all) and you're left to just navigate yourself to your final destination by North-South coordinates, or land markers that you might recognize from a previous time you drove that road. Funny thing is, the maps don't reflect this change in highway number at all, and the whole experience becomes extremely frustrating when you find out half way through the journey that the road has switched on you.

Example: we were determined to eat at this Thai restaurant Angie had been to a couple months ago, called Thai in the Sky (it's the American translated version, called so because it's a Thai restaurant, and it overlooks the ocean on a cliff so you feel like you're 'in the sky,' so to speak). Our directions as written down by a friend:
Take Highway 331 to the 86...then follow the large brown signs with red half arrows on them...look for a T-Rex dinosaur statue on the side of the road...make the first left turn after the dinosaur...if you've gone past the windmills, then you've gone too far

Doesn't seem too complicated from first glance, right? Only until we realize that the 331 doesn't connect to the 86 after all, and there are tons of brown signs all over the place, and it's kinda easy to miss a dinosaur statue in the middle of sugarcane fields on both sides of the road...So several U-turns and road changes later, we finally made it to the place and the food was hands-down the best Thai food I've ever had.







Pad thai, Malaysian curry, and papaya salad

Irasshaimase...to Okinawa!

Tropical island, palm trees, fishing boats -- just a few of the immediate words that sum up Okinawa. My sister is stationed in the US Naval Base on the island, so I came out here to spend a month with her. She has a cool little rice rocket for a car, and she lives in an apartment two blocks from the sea wall in Chatan (a short 15 minute or so drive from Okinawa's capital, Naha).

After spending the first couple days getting over my jet lag, I now divvy up my time between walking around the little city, trying out the various sushi and yakitori spots, and attempting to pick up some Japanese. I've learned that basic tasks are alternatively frustrating and amusing - I spent a good hour and half at the store just trying to find 5 ingredients because I can neither read labels nor recognize most of the goods on the shelves! The Okinawans find a way to package everything in neat little sterile packages. Doesn't matter if it's a couple tomatoes, a garlic clove, or a pound of meat -- it all gets covered in plastic. Then decorate all that with Japanese writing, and you'll understand why I can't recognize a thing.

View to the ocean from our porch
I can't be too upset considering this is my daily view, though. I take the dog out and we walk along the beach a couple miles until we reach the convention center and baseball field. The Okinawans love their baseball, by the way. There are always tons of kids playing and a good group of onlookers no matter what day it is.

My partner-in-crime, Scooby dog
Scooby has been my willing exploration companion and everyone loves this little dog. The poor thing does get pretty hot on our walks in this humidity, though, and I always end up carring him on our way home.

Lunch on the beach doesn't get much better than this

Napa - what?

Life has been uneventful (in a good way) after all my Chicago happenings. You might be happy to know that a) I got all my stolen wallet and credit card issues worked out finally, so now I just have to look forward to opening entirely new foreign accounts once I get to France, and b) I managed to get on that flight home to LA just fine. I realized that if I just wore the excess 20 pounds of luggage, I could actually lighten my load quite significantly and spare myself the embarrassing problem of finding other passengers to carry on my other bags....so yes, all those winter coats and jackets I had shoved into my overloaded suitcases? I wore them.

So for the past 2 weeks, I've been spending time in LA and taking some West Coast road trips. There must be some heat wave going East to West because I left NY on one of the hottest days in the summer (we hit 103 degrees), to land in Chicago which never fails to be hot and miserable no matter what time I show up, and then the day I flew in to LAX we hit triple digit heat that entire week. Ends out working pretty well because no job = ample time at the beach. So I've been practicing my boogie boarding skills in the meantime, eating legitimate Mexican food (which somehow I still couldn't find in NYC), and seeing friends and family.

I decided to spend a few days in San Francisco with friends. Because I always make travel plans last minute, I had to take a combination of flights, buses and trains to get myself up to SF. Taking a train at midnight always seems like a simple process, until I'm sitting in San Jose train station in the middle of nowhere, and wondering if I'll make it onboard since I forgot to print my ticket..


The Embarcadero and Market Street shops in San Francisco
Anyway, we were planning on spending time in downtown SF, hiking around Golden Gate park and doing a Napa vineyard tour. Luckily a friend of ours had a pass for a tour and tasting at Concannon Vineyards and we were all excited about finally getting to Napa country....only, it just so happens that Concannon is nowhere near Napa and is actually in Livermore. Now I've been up and down the coast of California and I've never heard of Livermore before. And who wants to say they went wine tasting in Livermore anyway? Sounds like a poor excuse for a real California wine tour, so we were close to ditching Concannon and heading up to 'legit' wine country.
Thank goodness we didn't change course, because Concannon is an absolutely beautiful place. It was founded in 1883 by an Irish immigrant, James Concannon, and is one of the few vineyards in the state to remain in continuous operation since its beginning (most vineyards ceased operation or completely shut down during the Prohibition era). So not only does Concannon have hundred year old vines, but they also have historical wine-making equipment and 16 of the original 20 oak barrels that James Concannon shipped from France so long ago. The vineyard has a spacious front lawn where the Livermore Historical Society holds summertime Shakespearean plays in the park...there's an old Victorian manor on site which also functions as lodging for vineyard guests and employees (it was bought by Joe Montana's wife, who was big into buying historical buildings and remodeling them)...and a nice restaurant for the touring groups in town. Who needs Napa anyhow? Livemore is the place to be!









Entrance to Concannon Vineyards