Okinawa day 1
In September I was able to ride on a pokemon plane and go to Okinawa! This post is about my trip.
First let me start by saying that I am a liar and I didn’t get to ride on that pokemon plane but it would have been really cool if I did. Anyway, I went to Okinawa for 4 nights. Left Tokyo on 9/21 and was back on 9/25. It really wasn’t enough time. The schedule was packed tight and there wasn’t much time to just be lazy and relax, or to just travel somewhere without much of a plan/destination. One of the things I liked about the trip to NY was that it was so long I could be plenty lazy and still see a lot of stuff. Not this time.
So as soon as we arrived it was off to get the rental car and then to one of our tourist destinations – Shurijou. Since we were doing this right after landing in Okinawa at about 4pm, this also meant by the time we got there it was already dark. The picture in front of the main castle ended up sucking because of this, but I really liked the night atmosphere around the place and it was great that it wasn’t crowded.
Welcome to Shurijou!
-jou means castle, so you can think of it as Shuri-castle. I’m used to calling it Shurijou though so I’m gonna keep doing that. When you fly into Okinawa you’re likely to be flying into the biggest city on the island, Naha. Shurijou is in the same city, at the top of a hill that kind of overlooks the whole place.
Shurijou is one of the World Heritage sites, so I’m sure you can find a lot more information online about it if you want to read.
Since it is on a hill, a lot of the place is comprised of stairways leading up to the main castle. The whole place seems to be separated on different levels, with it seeming like a village leading up to a castle. I thought it was all very cool. In fact, I thought the castle was the most lame part of the area. The beginning of the site made me feel like I was in a ninja town or something.
Inside the castle is very small and cramped. I think old Okinawan people used to be even shorter than most present-day Japanese people. Oh, by the way, this castle was built several hundred years ago, back when Okinawa was still independent.
This sign told me that the castle has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.
Now this is what I believe is the coolest part of the whole castle – the miniature castle that was built for display. They built a miniature castle / courtyard and filled it with tiny lego-like men to recreate what old military gatherings used to be like.. It’s extremely detailed. Look!
The first picture makes me feel like I am actually there with all the lego-men. I can feel their sincerity as they sit Japanese style and show respect to their leader.
In the second picture look at the detail given to the flags and ornaments for ceremony. The people also have name plates so you know who not to fuck with.
Here in the third picture is the king of Okinawa!!! A proper king knows how to keep a beard.
In the fourth picture is the monster of legends who attacked Shurijou and was the cause of one of the four times it had been destroyed!!!
After seeing the awesome display, it was time to leave Shurijou because there was nothing that was going to top that display. On the way out we got a picture in front of the main castle, I used strange Japanese to ask the girls who took our picture if they would like to have their picture taken, Chiaki schooled me on “asking people if they want me to do something” (this is my term for the grammar), and we went to check in at the hotel.
The castle itself. I guess they still do work to fix it up because as you can see it's under construction.
I wanted to go to an Okinawa themed restaurant so after dropping off our bags we went out. A restaurant that had a sign saying “live music” grabbed my eyes and I decided that we had no choice but to go there.
When you go to eat out in Japan there is often a non-optional seat charge. Almost as soon as you sit down you are brought some sort of small snack-ish type food that is explained as the reason for the charge. However, I have never once felt that the food I got was worth the $4-5 I paid to sit down.
This time that food was fried cartilage from pigs’ ears.
I tried it at first and thought it was ok. It kind of reminded me of Kimchi (the sauce/flavor, texture is completely different).
Then Chiaki had to go and tell me what I was eating. Every time I looked down at my chopsticks my mind screamed “PIG EARS!” and I felt a sting of hesitation. I tried to put it in my mouth but ever since I found out what it was I wasn’t really able to eat it. 
The flavor actually started to wear off on me (it was crunchy without a crunch…so hard you couldn’t chew on it), so I don’t think it was just psychological, but that was a huge factor.
The music was great. I love Okinawan music. I have a video from another restaurant we went to! They’re pretty similar so I don’t really need to write about twice. In the video is a performance by two guys, who I thought were actually better than the girl and guy at the first restaurant. Since I love you all so much you get to see the video of the good group. Their costumes are also pretty radical.
The last thing I have to say in this post and about Naha city in Okinawa.
What the hell was with all the stray cats????
Walking back to our car from Shurijou we saw about 4 different stray cats. Two were from the same litter and they were such cute little kittens. Also on the way to the restaurant after stopping at the hotel there were about 5 more cats.
