One of our first adventures in 2008 was to head south to Naha city (the capital & largest city, by population, of both the island & prefecture). We had heard about several attractions that sounded like excellent places to relax & sight-see. So we spent a lovely first Saturday of 2008 exploring first the west side of Naha. Since we had not brought our real camera along for the ride (hey, it happens to the best intentioned adventurer, right?), all of our photos were taken with our Toshiba camera phones, which thankfully sport a CMOS 3MP sensor for decent sized (& reasonable quality) shots.
Our first stop was the lovely Fukushu-en Garden. This garden was officially opened to the public in 1992 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of international friendship ties between Naha City and Fuzhou City in China. This genuine Chinese garden was built using materials from Fuzhou and with techniques unique to that city.
From there we walked to the nearby Naminoue-gu Shrine, which is adjacent to (well, overlooking really) Naminoue Beach. The beach is located on the west side of the Wakasa Seaside Park, and is the only beach in Naha City. Former head of the Eight Shrines of Okinawa, the shrine is located on top of a precipice. An old shrine dedicated to the Buddha incarnate of the three shrines of Kumano, it had a devout following during the Ryukyu kingdom era. Rebuilt after being reduced to ash in the war, this shrine was reconstructed in 1998. We were privileged to witness the first shrine visit of the year for many locals (a very special occasion, on the level of Christmas festivities for Christian westerners). After that we drove around to the east side to find the old Kinjo-cho stone pavement, a 300m long road that leads to Shuri Castle from the southwest.
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