Sayonara to Jeanne

We drove our good friend Jeanne Huber to the airport on this beautiful Saturday morning & decided to hang out down on the populous end of the island. We spent most of our day browsing the stores on the well-known Kokusai-dori (street), including a lunch of yummy Okinawan cuisine.

Kokusai Dori

Sam's By The Sea

We ventured to a well-known restaurant called "Sam's By The Sea" and enjoyed a very delicious meal together. The presentation and the flavors were excellent & highly recommended.

Sam's By The Sea

Enjoying Torii Beach

Enjoying Torii Beach

After a couple of leisure dives early in the day, we enjoyed a picnic lunch on Torii Beach prior to our afternoon dive with 2 whale sharks. It was a lovely day!!

We don't even have to drive to find fun!

We took a day off from adventuring out by car to discover Okinawa. Instead, we enjoyed a lovely day within walking distance of our apartment in Chatan. We had discovered that the roof of our 6-story building is open to us all, with some great views (I do believe that we will be spending more time up there). So after we snapped some good shots from up there, we set off to discover the reef during low tide. For weeks we had been noticing people reef walking out there where the waves break (it was all a vibrant grass green). So we hiked out there & discovered fishermen & gatherers of all kinds of things (perhaps mostly edible?). All we did was photograph our discoveries along the exposed dead reef top but it was quite fun:

Beautiful Sunday in Chatan

We finally remembered to snap a photo of the park rules at the end of our excursion. Engrish can be such good comedy (click photo to enlarge):

A group of friends (6 of us total) joined us on an overcast, drizzly Saturday to do one of the cooler things we've done since Montana! We had heard very good things about hiking to Hiji Falls, about 1.5 hrs north of us (Nago was only the 2/3 of the way point). And indeed the rumors were all true! The weather might have been dreary at first glance, but it was perfect for a hike along the gorgeous, lush Hiji River on our way to view Hiji Falls. The trail was all nicely laid out, partly boardwalk (sometimes over fun suspension bridges) & partly gravel. A few too many stairs (going up for a while, then down, then back up again...) than we may have ordered, but they were good for our cardiac muscles. The terrain was reminiscent of a hike to a waterfall that we did in Big Sky, but the vegetation was much denser (more tropical perhaps). It was well worth the time & effort, highly recommended! We only took a few too many photos (less than 100 this time):

Hiji Falls

After the hike, we found the military's Okuma Recreational facilities. We saw their nice beaches, miniature golf, 9-hole par 3 golf course, basketball & tennis courts & cabin rentals. We also found their restaurant & had a lovely meal before setting off for home again (our neighbor Jason that went with us hosted a barbecue that night).

Snorkelling after work!!

Because it just seems like a crime not to take advantage of where we are & the great weather we have, we decided to go snorkelling on a couple of weekday afternoons after Betsy got off from work. And our friend Jeanne joined us It was awesome! On day 1, we checked out a place called Maeda flats (near Cape Maeda-misaki) after Maeda Point was a little rougher than we wanted it to be. Unfortunately, we didn't bring a camera with us, but it was low tide which meant we were feet & sometime inches from the coral & other marine life. It was so cool! We will admit that more shivering was done after we had finished & the sun was set, than we would have liked. But it was worth it! The next day we checked out the same location where we made our first ocean scuba dive while getting certified, Sunabe Sea Wall (by the Water Treatment Plant). Josh got there ahead of Betsy & Jeanne so he pulled out his camera phone & snapped a few shots of the intended location (& his already-starting-to-rip Okinawan water felt-bottomed shoes/socks). It was quite the inviting scene:

Snorkelling

We were very pleased to discover that the snorkelling was almost as good as the diving. We'll be coming back here again!!

Motobu's Butterfly Park & a few beaches along the way

We spent a nice leisurely Saturday heading northwards (our favorite direction on the island) with our friend Jeanne Huber. We decided to take Highway 58 all the way up, instead of the toll Expressway (with its HIGH 50 MPH speed limit). And so we were able to stop & explore a few beaches & resorts along the way. It was a gorgeous day to check them out:

Butterfly Park & Beaches

Our eventual destination was the Butterfly Park, which is right beside Expo Park (home of the aquarium & the orchid show's "Tropical Dream Center"). It was quite the popular Japanese tourist attraction & bus loads of them pulled up while we were there. The gift shop (with restaurant upstairs) surrounding the entry point to the park was about the same size as the gardens but that was OK since it was big! ;-) We were able to interact with some really beautiful butterflies, hermit crabs & some huge coconut crabs, besides strolling the gardens. Oh, yeah, & we took too many photos again! ;-) We also had a delightful return visit to the restaurant that we call "Pizza in the sky" for lunch. Jeanne had heard much about it, but this was actually her first samplingn at LONG last! We reluctantly headed home in time to have a farewell dinner at Jeanne's place, a great excuse to consume the tuna she still had left from a deep-sea fishing expedition:

Dinner with friends!

Checking out the F22

On Kadena Air Force Base, we got wind of a public viewing (to anyone with a military ID, that is) of the military's brand-new, much-heralded F22 fighter jet. It is supposed to be the most technologically advanced jet this side of manned flight (as in the next step will not require human presence, supposedly). And we must admit, it was indeed pretty cool (if for no other reason, then just for the excitement that was in the air). We got a little tour of the machine by a mechanic that seemed to really enjoy tinkering with them & we were allowed to snap photos, as long as we weren't too close (there were ropes to designate "too close"). Unfortunately, we didn't remember to take our camera for the ride, but we had our nifty cell phones! Hopefully the quality of the photos in the album is decent enough to give you an idea of the craft's presence & buzz surrounding it:

F22 Visit

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

We took 3 friends with us to check out the much heralded & anticipated aquarium. In the Okinawan language, "Chura" means beautiful & in Japanese "Umi" means sea. The aquarium definitely lived up to that billing, so we were wise to go ahead & get the unlimited entry annual pass for just twice the 1-day adult admission price. We had quite a fun time admiring all the marine life being cultivated & studied. They boast the world's 3rd largest holding tank (to Chicago & recently Atlanta's aquariums, respectively). And they hold the Guinness world record for largest single viewing window, which is quite impressive. The prize inhabitants are the whale sharks & the largest captive manta rays in the world. I personally enjoyed their shark exhibit area also. We even were able to have lunch without losing sight of the whale sharks & rays in the main tank. It was cool & great inspiration for diving!! We will be going back soon & hopefully taking some of you! We, of course, took many more photos than you care to peruse:

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Note that the first 50 were actually taken with our nifty camera phones (Toshiba W45T which boast a 3MP CMOS sensor) so if you want the high-def, clear photos, skip ahead to the photos of the flowers that we took in the park before we actually went inside the aquarium! ;-)