Day 134: Big Fish!

After a long night of partying we some how managed to wake up and make it to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium on time. The most impressive feature of this aquarium was the huge tank that held whale sharks and sting rays. It was phenomenal. The aquarium was packed due to an Okinawan holiday, but it didn't bother us. It was fun looking at different fish and watching the girls pressed up against the tanks looking and pointing at the funny-looking sea creatures. At the end of the day, we got to see the dolphin show and left during the sunset. It was a perfect family day.

Day 133: Going Aways

For those of you who do not know my LS is a retired United States Marine and her husband is an active duty Marine. It was interesting seeing the families abroad supporting their military spouse and the men and women walking around in their uniforms buying groceries and picking up their kids from school.  It made me proud to be an American and appreciate the fact that there are people who travel far away from home (and stay at home) to protect our country. It was comforting seeing and hearing our soldiers as well as seeing American food brands (as silly as that sounds).

Okinawa is a temporary home for many military families. On Friday we attended two going-away parties and met some really cool people at both. The people were warm, welcoming and fun-loving.  One going away was a quiet dinner full of good food and good conversation. The other was a two-part event. We started off with an afternoon beach BBQ and continued part 2 at an all-white party. We had equal fun at both and glad we were welcomed to celebrate the return of two soldiers home.

Day 132: Shuri Castle

From Adonis:
We went for our weekly dose of culture, visiting Shuri Castle today.  In 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was nearly destroyed. It was reconstructed in 1992, over the original site. We learned that in it's history it had been destroyed and rebuilt 4 times. In its latest build, they raised it 700+cm above the original foundation. In the main building pictured above, there is a plexiglass window on the floor, for you to look down at that parts of the original foundation and stone work. Before the war, it was designated a National Treasure. Surprisingly during the war, the Japanese military set up its headquarters underground at the castle. The USS Mississippi is said to have "shelled" it for three consecutive days beginning on May 25, 1945. Messed up on both sides if you asked me. If you care about your culture and treasure your national monuments, you don't setup your headquarters in those areas expecting to receive sympathy. However, as a human, I'm still slightly taken back that another people lost parts of their culture in order to preserve my own.  But, and thats a big but, I'm  all about self preservation, so we'll leave it at that. 


After the castle, we headed over to Kokusai street in Naha. This is a main strip with souvenir shops, restaurants, and markets filled with plenty to keep your mind and wallets preoccupied. We stopped off at a traditional Japanese restaurant for lunch. Sat down to a menu completely written in Japanese. We pointed to order several tasty treats and used what little Japanese we knew (yes, thank you, & very much) to make sure the deliciousness would arrive as we pictured it. I had pig's knuckle today, and it was delicious. Actually, it reminded me of brooklyn. Pig's feet and collard greens, HOLLA!! (all that was missing is the hot sauce) hahaha....

Day 131: Food & Family

Today was an easy going day. Rachel showed us a few of the local shopping areas and we scoped out some souvenir shops. We wanted to buy everything but we only bought a few things. Most of the day was spent eating (lol). We had lunch at Bollywood Dreams (yup! Indian food in Japan) and we had dinner at Yoshi Hachi Sushi Bar.  Both restaurants were soooo gooood!! We ended the night with some good ol' Baskin Robbins ice cream on base!

Day 130: Gyokusendo Cave

We headed over to Gyokusendo Cave (aka Okinawa World) to get a quick feel for a traditional Okinawan village, music, dance, food, and drink. We visited a wet, cold, and amazing cave. We watched an Eisa Show (which was our favorite), and we tried Habushu, which is sake with a snake! Actually, that was Adonis, not the ladies. This was a good introduction to Okinawa (and the Ryukyu Islands) before we continued with the rest of our week.

Click here to learn more about Okinawa

In Thailand, there were English signs everywhere. Actually, the english version of the signs were prominent and were subtitled in Thai. Wouldn't you think it would be the other way around? It's not like that in Okinawa. Very very few signs are subtitled in English and all other signs are Japanese only. Even though we can't read them, we like this better.

We visited the base's supermarket... *sigh* it felt comforting seeing all of American brand food and options.  Adonis FINALLY got his crab legs! Trust he will probably overdose on crab legs by the time he gets out of here.

Day 129: Konichiwa Okinawa!

After a short (but seemed like forever) 7 hour total flight from Thailand to Japan, we spent the day hanging out with my beloved Rachel and her family. We enjoyed good home cooked food, a funny movie, and good late night conversation with our new friend Melissa (who, by the way made a bomb-ass carrot cake)! We even lured everyone into "The DNAdom"  and got everyone to auto-tune with us... including Rachel's daughter (Bella)! hahahaha! This is going to be a good week!

Day 128: Unexpected Last Day

Our last day in Bangkok was .... unexpected.

We woke up really late and left the hotel for some delicious lunch. Man oh man was it good! We then decided to see Captain America at a fancy shmancy movie theater. We got reclining chairs, blankets, pillows, and alcoholic beverages! Captain America was goooood and our fav part was that he was from Brooklyn!

We headed back to the hotel after the movie to get dressed for a nice dinner out. I don't know what made me check but I looked up our departing flights. Thank god I did because our flight was leaving that night!! NOT the next night like we THOUGHT it was! We quickly packed and headed to the airport so that we could begin the 3rd and final leg of our trip: Okinawa, Japan!

After one flight delay and one layover we were out of Bangkok.

We have some unfinished business in Bangkok so we'll be back for the walking food tour and Thai cooking lessons.