Saturday, August 1, 2015

Okinawa World

This week flew by and we had another great Saturday. Friday afternoon we went grocery shopping and got some awesome treats from the bakery. There were some special ones and I'm not exactly sure what this one is supposed to be maybe a cat? To be honest I was a little scared what would be in the middle because you never can be sure especially when your trying to hurry and pick things before your toddler has a melt down over wanting to eat everything in sight. To my delight there was vanilla cream in the middle when cut in half.


We headed out to get lunch and visit Okinawa World Gyokusendo Cave. The expressway is way faster to get there so we decided that we would stop at a rest stop to eat lunch on the way down. There was a little cafe and we weren't sure what there would be for food but hopeful that it would be something delicious. There was a machine to put your money in and then push a button to select the meal you want. I chose the vegetable ramen, not to be confused with vegetarian because it still included pork. The ramen was absolutely delicious and so was the gyoza that we got to share. After you hit the button you get a ticket with your food choices and give the tickets to someone at the counter. You get a number and they call when your food is ready.


There is a cave to walk through, the habu (snake) museum, and walking through the village. We decided not to do the habu museum because we weren't too interested in seeing the snakes. The cave was so awesome and it was really cool to see. The walls were dripping and there was even a small water fall. It kind of felt like we were in line to a disney ride and that was the themed line. 



After we finished the walk through the cave we walked around the village and it was set up with many locally made goods and food stands. There were lots of booths where you can make things like your own paper and kids can do crafts. There were a lot of samples available like dried fruit, mango cake, and hibiscus tea. We ended up with a bag of mixed dry fruit and a pineapple cake. There was an area with glass blowing and you could stand and watch them work. It was really cool to see and then there was a shop where you could buy a variety of things made on site. One thing that I participated in was the doctor fish. Nick had been wanting me to experience it but the place he used to go didn't have them any more. So for 500 yen I got my feet nibbled for 6 minutes. It was one of the weirdest things ever. The feeling was so strange and it tickled but also felt kind of good. 

(hahaha this was in the first few seconds and it was really weird)


After Okinawa world we drove a few minutes to a park to let Tyler run around since he was in the ergo carrier for most of the time. Since we were in the area we stopped by the outlet mall quick. The prices were great and they had a lot of awesome stores. We were pretty tired out so we needed to head back home, but of course needed a little pick me up at Starbucks first. 

(Tyler enjoying his mango frappaccino) 

It was a fun Saturday and we have another big day planned for tomorrow! 

until next time, 
Courtney