Okinawa Dreaming

Hi! Here's the complete post of my trip to Okinawa with Megan! One of the things I was looking forward to was driving! I haven't driven in 8 months (well, except for the test drive at Toyota), so it was bliss not to have to rely on riding a bike/catching a bus! So to start the post off, here's the car. It was a Nissan Cube. I thought it was like a lesbian tank or something. It was dark grey and very butch.We arrived at Naha airport at about 4:30 in the afternoon and headed off in our rented car to the shopping strip. I forget what it was called, but it was cool. There were great shops and restaurants. Almost all of the restaurants were steak houses. We ended up at a nice restaurant that had a guy singing. They handed out these tambourine things so we went crazy (not really...) Our hotel was beautiful! This is the sunset from the hotel on our last night. Gorgeous huh?This is the view from the hotel room balcony. It was awesome. The water was so clear and nice. Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to have a swim as we had so many things to do! I wish we had a couple more nights there.So our hotel was the cheapest one offered. It was a great deal, and we slept in real beds! Yay!This is a tree that was close to the hotel. I found it amusing. If you don't know why, then ask someone...The trip was crazy, so of course I pulled some crazy moves...This is some of the castle ruins. I forget the name of the ruins. If I figure it out later on, I'll let ya know! It sooo doesn't look like Japan.It's not as good as the Big Pineapple in Queensland, but still fun! We went to the Pineapple Park which was not far from the hotel. We got to ride around in a little cart. Being curious idiots, we tried out the brakes on the cart. It stopped the cart and we had a close call with the cart behind us. It was funny! I suppose you had to be there....These are a couple of photos at the aquarium at Ocean Expo Park. The aquarium was huge! So were the fish! There was one aquarium that was two levels high. One of the most exquisite aquariums I have ever seen (also one of the most expensive!)I got eaten by an octopus made of flowers.... yes, another crazy pose photo....There was also a model Okinawan village at Ocean Expo Park, so we had fun looking around the huts.We had a gorgeous day to go and check out Cape Hedo. The next couple of photos are of the rock formations. The photos don't do it justice. It was a great sight.

This is a view of those rocks from a lookout point. My supervisor thinks it looks like where King Kong lives or Planet of the Apes or something (he likes Sci-fi)Another view from the lookout. The road was along the coast, and it reminded me of The Great Ocean Road.
This is from the final day, when we went to the Okinawa Memorial Museum. It was heart wrenching to read the eye-witness accounts of the war in Okinawa.
These photos are of the memorial at a cave which was used as a hospital during the war. Two girls schools had their students act as nurses to care for the wounded. It is horrible to think that people had to try and recover in a dark, smelly, poorly ventilated cave. Apparently after the war had finished, many people had diseases or were starving. So they commited suicide. One of the methods of committing suicide was by holding a grenade to their chest.So there's my Okinawan report! This weekend I am going to a cherry blossom viewing party, so I will try and get the photos of that up next week! I hope they are all blooming, the weather has been crazy here.