January 1, 2010

Itoman Peaceful Illumination Festival

Happy New Year One and All!
A new year and a new beginning...and a resolution to try to update this blog on a slightly more regular basis!
(it wasn't until I really looked at this picture that I realized just how SHORT I am becoming! Matt simply towers over me these days.)

On New Year's Day we went to a Shrine then down to Itoman's Peaceful Illumination Festival. The boys were less than thrilled, but humored me with me need to "see some holiday lights" before the holidays drew to a close. Itoman is located in the South part of Okinawa, not an area we have spent much time so getting there in the dark was interesting!

Even the weather cooperated to lend the to the Holiday Spirit- it was FREEZING! (for Okinawa standards anyway!). I had on two jackets and both the boys were glad for their sweatshirts...and Matt was wishing he had heeded my suggestion to bring pants along.

The lights display was beautiful, if small by American standards. We were even treated to the rising full moon to add to the display.

Here is what the website says in regards to this festival-
"This event sends out to the world Okinawan's prayers for peace in the form of 600 thousand miniature light bulbs being lit in Itoman City, where the Battle of Okinawa saw its end. Join the prayers at the "starlight wink" every night at 8 o'clock, where all illumination is turned off once and lit back again. "
We were there when they turned off the lights- I didn't know why until reading this...we just heard lots of Japanese then the countdown. Pretty cool when they turned the lights back on.

This part of the park was the "Under the Sea" part I guess- the blue lights were the top of the water and the sharks and boats where underneath.


The vertical lights were gorgeous- like walking through a jungle of lights!


David and I had fun playing with the timed exposure. Matt just stood around freezing.


Here is David at the end of the tunnel of lights.

There was entertainment too. Fun to watch, but cold just to stand around (yes, we are pansies here in Okinawa- it was probably about 55 degrees and we were chilled to the bone!)



The green houses were open so I made the boy s go through those with me. They were good sports...maybe because it was slightly warmer then outside! The day lilies were beautiful and very fragrant.

Here are the boys with their new friend! Matt found him in the gift shop (while he was trying to stay warm) and we just couldn't resist him!

Matt smiling like the Shisa

David giving the "Shisa smile" a go.

Matt and David are in the middle of this picture- see those dark blobs? That's them. I asked them to strike a pose and this is what I got.

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 4

The Beach at Sunset

As the day was drawing to a close, we finally decided to head for home. Little did we realize that half of Okinawa must have decided the same thing at the same time. We got into Nago and sat in traffic...seemingly forever! Felt like we were back in downtown LA on the 405 or coming through Seattle at 5pm. After I thought about it, it made sense...there were several festivals up in that area of Okinawa and Sunday night is apparently a heavy traffic time anyway. Traffic finally cleared up after the turn off for the Express Way- whoo hoo! open road ahead!

On the plus side, the fast approaching sunset promised to be a beautiful one. I debated pulling over but had pretty much decided just to push on for home as it would be too hard to pull off (if you live here you realize what I mean- not always easy to find somewhere to stop). Just as I made up my mind, fortune smiled on me (and frowned on the boys...well, Matt at least!)- I was stopped in traffic for a red light and low and behold, there was an entrance to a actual parking lot on the beach! And traffic was clear to pull across into it! I whipped into the parking lot amid Matt's groans of "Why are we stopping??". David cheerfully got out with me and we walked down to the beach...Matt opted to stay in the car (again!).

David and I spent a wonderful 20 minutes playing at the water's edge watching the sun go down.

David found this neat "Heart Rock". We brought it home to put in our Shell Garden (next to our walkway we have part of the flowerbed filled with sand and this is where we put our sea shells, sea glass and interesting rocks we find).







The sun had set and our wandering was done for the day. Next stop- home and dinner!

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 3

The Churaumi Aquarium

Next stop on our day of wandering, and our original destination, the Churaumi Aquarium. The Aquarium is located about 1 1/2 hours north of us and sits right on the East China Sea. The buildings are beautiful- very striking architecture.

David and I had been to the Aquarium during a school field trip, but this was the first time for Matt (Mike has still not been...that work think just keeps getting in the way of having fun!). The indoor part of the Aquarium itself is huge and you have to pay to get in (well worth it- it is AMAZING!) . However, there is enough outside, which is free of charge, to keep you busy for hours. Since Mike was not along and it was so late in the day, we opted just to wonder outside.

Right now there is a Flower Festival going on, so there are glorious flowers everywhere! These stairs lead from the parking areas down to the main parts of the Aquarium and park. There were designs made out of the flowers, all so carefully arranged. The boarders were living flowers, but all the flowers in the middle were cut. The mama bird and baby bird were neat- the little girl in the picture loved them too. Our first order of business- lunch (it was after 3:30 and we had not eaten yet). We had packed a picnic lunch so we decided to eat while we watched the Dolphin show. While we waited for the show to start, Matt actually went back to the car for his jacket. In the sun it was nice- but in the shade, being blasted with the wind it was down right chilly.

The Dolphin show was fun and featured several different kinds of dolphins. The main feature of the show were the False Killer Whales. They did a lot of interacting with the trainers.
In this photo I'm not sure if he was sticking out his tongue at us...or playing dead! Since all the announcing was in Japanese, we weren't sure.

The stars of the show where these guys- the Common Dolphin They definitely had the WOW! factor with their incredibly high jumps (and personally, I thought the False Killer Whales looked just a tad sinister!)

After the dolphin show we saw the sea turtles. The breed several different kinds of turtles there at the aquarium and we got to see adults as well as babies. You can view them from the top, then go downstairs and see them under the water. Next best thing to diving with them.

Since I take such great delight in dragging the boys around, we had to check out this little beach. We kicked around for a bit. I made them pose for some pictures then turned them loose to play. The had a blast throwing rocks into the water (do boys EVER outgrow this??)Here is Matt putting his shoes back on as we left the beach. The story behind the photo- he was giving me a hard time about taking pictures of EVERYTHING "We're at the beach- let's take a picture. Oh, hey, he's putting on his shoes- lets take a picture!" Since he was being such a smarty pants I just stood there and took pictures the whole time he put on his shoes- me laughing and him grumbling the entire time.

Hey, anyone want a soda?? Pick a machine, any machine! (just a note here- Matt does not have his hand on David just being nice...he is actually pushing him away from the soda machines so he can't check out what kinds there are).
The boys discovered their new favorite drink- Melon Cream Soda. I am not much of a melon person, but it is surprisingly good.

Matt was uncooperative for pictures after the shoe incident, so David was the only one agreeable to pose in the pictures of this cool dragon like guy (Thank you David!).

Another fantastic feature at the Aquarium is the net play area. This statue is right outside the entrance to the nets.The nets cover a huge area and are very popular (and definitely not something you will find in the states since the potential for injury- ie: lawsuit- is there).Unfortunately, the play area is for children 12 and under...although Matt tried to play, but I made him get off. No way he can pass for 12- especially around all those little Okinawan kids. David had a blast jumping from net to net- we had to drag him away. I will admit to being jealous- looked like ton of fun and I would have been out there in a heart beat!

For some obscure reason, David was really taken with the walking escalator ramp and wanted his picture taken as he came up.

Last stop of the day: The Beach at Sunset

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 2

Manzamo Point

Our next stop along the way was a surprise find. Matt had asked to stop at the next restroom so I was on the lookout for somewhere to stop. My first attempt of finding a beach (and hopefully a restroom) was short lived- there was a locked gate right off the road.

The next sign I saw looked promising- big white sign with blue Japanese writing. I saw something "Point", threw on the blinker and took the turn. The parking area was just a bit down the road and as we pulled in we were amazed to see Tour buses even! There were vendors on either side of the parking area, wonderful bathrooms, and soda machines (of course!). The twist to these soda machines- one of them sold BEER! Can you imagine a Beer vending machine just out in a parking lot in the States? Don't think so! David wanted to know if he could buy one- "just because". (we didn't)

We wandered through the vendors and discovered some wonderfully tasteful donuts (not sure WHAT they actually were, but we'll go with donuts). They were so good (and fresh and hot) that we bought two, then bought two more on our way out. Here is Matt telling the vendors which ones we want (they had three different flavors- all yummy)

After going through the parking lot a trail lead out into an open area then along some bluffs. The view was amazing! There was a stiff breeze coming off the water which put a chill in the air, but it was magnificent.



The blue of the water was so vivid.

As the trail wound a bit north and made a loop (the whole trail is probably only a 1/4 mile or less) you could see the coast to the north (where we were heading to the aquarium).

As it turned back towards the parking lot you could look into this cove. From what I can tell from the map, it is looking towards Onna Village.I don't know what the purpose of the rope between the two rocks- but I loved it!Our own little blue bird of happiness...

We checked out the vendors of the other side of the parking lot as we came back. Same exact stuff that the other vendors tents had! The thing that struck me as odd was that it appeared to be lots of individual vendors...but each one sold almost exactly the same things...arranged in exactly the same manner. A group of three Okinawian ladies visited with us. They commented (using broken English and lots of sign language) on how big Matt's shoulders were and how big and strong he looked. They asked if he did weight lifting. We told him "Yes, a little, but he wrestles right now." The weren't sure about the "wrestling" part until we mimed the wrestling stance "Oh, Hai!!" Sounds funny, but what comes to mind to describe them is "they were twittering like little birds", smiling and nodding. Matt was horribly embarrassed to be the center of such attention.