After a day spent checking out the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & the nearby Omoromachi area of Naha with Aaron, we were quite ready for a good dinner after picking up Masayo from the airport. We wanted a place with good food & a comfortable environment so we could hear all about Masayo's week of adventures in Korea & Kansai.
So we chose a place that we'd heard few but positive things about & that we'd identified as serving a much favored cuisine-style of ours, Thai! Even though the torches weren't burning we had no trouble finding Thai Thai on Highway 58 in Naha. We had heard that the interior & layout of the restaurant were decorative & intriguing, but as we entered, we realized just how true that was. On the ground level was a signature red welcome mat beside 2 elaborately carved statues & we quickly saw that the restaurant itself was on the second level.
As we ascended the staircase, the decorations only became more & more elaborate & shiny. It was like we were entering a wholly different culture from the modern urban Japanese & Okinawan industrial scenery of downtown Naha. We were now entering a lavish southeast Asian environment. It seemed as though we needed to be riding in atop Asian elephants perhaps.
And as we stepped into the main floor of the restaurant we beheld just how shiny & ornate the decorations could be. We were literally surrounded by decorations, on the floor & ceilings & walls. From elaborate stone dragons rising out of the floor to the glass & polished metal that gleamed & glinted in almost every direction we turned, the restaurant is not without an eye towards ambiance!
As we followed our host towards our seating arrangements at a much slower pace than he, of course, as we marveled at the scene we had entered, the thoughts on our minds turned towards excited curiosity as to which of the elaborate & ornate seating styles we were heading towards. Would it be the elevated cylindrical barrel-shaped structures that had short step-ladders leading up into them? Or perhaps somewhere among the very bright & shiny glass-filled booths with high translucent seat backs, quite reminiscent of cathedral design? We began to hope more & more that the food would live up to such lofty standards being set & would bring as much pleasure our hungry stomachs as our eyes were getting.
But as we proceeded past those, we wondered if perhaps we'd get to climb down into the sunken tables set beneath the cylindrical barrel structures. They looked like they were better suited to a couple rather than our party of 4 adults, but they still looked fun. As we strolled past, we soon saw our destination. Several ornate metal lamps hung suspended from the high ceiling in front of the dark red walls of a very elaborately decorated (surprise, surprise) small & cozy room with plentiful cushioned seating for 6-8 along the 3 enclosed walls & 2 free-standing round wooden tables whose position we could freely adjust as we preferred.
We were already thrilled at our selection of dining establishments & we hadn't even looked at the menu, much less tasted the food yet. We felt like that was cause for a silly & celebratory photo. After we had made our appetizer & entree choices (from English menus, by the way; always a welcome luxury for us 2 illiterate gaijin) & communicated them to the server, our shrimp spring rolls came out very quickly along with a tasty spicy thai sauce & creamy Japanese mayonnaise-based dressing (for those that might possess a less spice-enthused palate). Oishii! We were suprised & delighted that each 400-yen plate included 6 large pieces.
Even before we had finished our spring rolls, our entree selections began arriving. Being curry lovers, we had assumed that a 700-yen portion of Thai green curry would not be enough for us all, so we had ordered 2. To our delight, that resulted in more than enough for us, especially including the 2 rather large bowls of white rice that accompanied each. The cashew chicken stirfy with bell peppers that Aaron & Masayo ordered was delicious & looked much better than did the photo on the menu (it's so hard to predict which things will look better & which won't). The 4th entree was the most disappointing, their version of the signature Pad (Noodle) Thai dish. It wasn't awful & the noodles were the right texture. It simply lacked much of any tasty flavors, although we did overlook a spice tray that was brought out with it (we prefer a professional to spice our dishes). Instead it was only salty & a bit overly so. Still, it wasn't awful, just disappointing, probably the reason that we neglected to snap a photograph. On the other hand, the Chinese steamed meat-filled dumplings that Masayo shared with us were delectable & only missed being captured by the camera due to the speed at which they were promptly devoured. ;-)
I'm not sure we can recall the last time we had such tasty food in such a gorgeous setting for only 1050 yen (approximately US$10.50) each! We WILL be going back to Thai Thai again
Our first dive at low tide took us northeast (with the coast on our right) & visibility was excellent, considering the sun was mostly behind clouds. The highlight was definitely the HUGE algae-encrusted Loggerhead Sea Turtle that came swimming by us (in the same direciton) with a couple of Lampreys in tow while we were only in about 35 feet of water. It was about arm's length away from Josh on his right side when he first saw it & watched as it passed him & then Aaron & Betsy just ahead. We followed it for a while, but despite the fact that it was in no hurry to get away from us, we couldn't keep up for long. We're pretty sure it's the largest we've yet seen in the wild. Aside from that, it was mostly an exercise in examining the usual suspects of trumpet fish, puffer fish, anemone fish, Moorish Idols, banded sea snakes, black/blue/yellow nudibranchs (the most common coloration in our Okinawan experiences) and a host of other reef fishes. We did inspect a very colorful scorpion fish (with bright pinkish orange highlights).
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