Okinawa, Spring 2005

Yup that's Okinawa. I was there to help edit the Sun31. We didn't get to see TOO much of the island but we did get to see a little of it. The weather was actually lousey when we were there. They said they were going through a cold spell.	Here I am at one of those rotating sushi bars. You sit at your table and all this sushi goes around on these conveyor belts!	This must have been early in the meal because my stack of plates is so small!	Sushi + Conveyorbelt= Awesome each plate is color coded so you know how much each piece costs. Some things are more expensive than others. Fatty tuna is the most expensive.
More sushi! The cook is in the center of the room. Once you're all done they had this neat device that would scan the plates and give you a total. There were little microchips on the bottom of the plates. They recorded your total on a small memory card and you gave that to the cashier! It was so neat!	The sushi just keeps coming!	We went to Sunset Board Walk one night. It wasn't terribly exciting. But it was nice to look around.	They let us out early on Friday and we FINALLY got to do some REAL sightseeing! I kept pestering everyone about seeing a castle, so that's what we decided to do. Our first stop was Tamaudun, the Royal Tombs of the Ryuku Kingdom... I sure go to a lot of tombs don't I?
This is the walkway leading to the tombs. I liked the trees.	This tree kinda reminded me of the Taotaomona trees in Guam. They used to say that the Taotaomona spirits only lived in ancient trees that had lots of roots and vines in them.	Here is the entrance to Tamaudun. It's made out of coral stone.	A slightly different view of the entrance.
Above the tomb were guardian ShiShi (or Shisa) lion-dogs. We saw a lot of those in Okinawa.	Another Shisa dog sits atop the tomb. There were 3 of them all together.	All around the tomb were these stone carvings. Each carving was different. There were dragons and phoenixes as well as other animals.	More carvings, this one shows a phoenix.
Even more carvings.	These carvings were much easier to see in real life.	One more picture of carvings.	The tomb had three different entrances. One of the plaques near the tomb told you what each one was for.
Here's another entrance.	Here's the third entrance.	Moving back out the way we came. This doorway is actually kinda low. You had to stoop down to fit through. I wonder if that was done on purpose, since this was a royal tomb. I know they make the entrances to tea houses short so you have to stoop down.	One last look at Tamaudun.
More trees near Tamaudun.	There was a wood building near Tamaudun. I think it was some kind of education center.	The inside was really nice. It smelled like fresh wood.	Here's a small plaque explaining Tamaudun.
Next we visited Shurijo Castle. Here is the first gate, Shureimon Gate. Which was being painted. The inscription on the gate says, "Ryukyu, island of propriety."	Despite the cloudy weather, there were a lot of tourists out that day.	Kankaimon the castle entrance.	A slightly different view of Kankaimon.
Two Shisa dogs guard the entrance.	A staircase leading up.	The stairs go to Zuisenmon Gate.	Ryushi spring was for the castle drinking water.
There is the spring. The spout is shaped like a dragon.	The stairs to Roukokumon gate.	A plaque near Roukokumon gate.	Looking down at some of the other gates. The castles outer walls are all made of coral stone too. The castle itself, however, is made entirely out of wood and lacquer work. The original castle was destroyed during World War II. The castle that stands today is a giant, accurate replica.
Some buildings just past Roukokumon gate.	This is Kofukumon gate.	Another view near Kofukumon gate.	Information on Kofukumon gate.
Houshinmon gate is really big, I'll bet there's an important thing behind it ^_~	Oh look there's Shurijo castle's main hall, Seiden! And it's being repainted, lucky us! 9_9 Good thing I bought a book on it in their gift shop so I could see how impressive this SHOULD have been.	Dragon ornaments on the roof of Shurijo castle. I would have taken pictures of the inside of the castle, but I wasn't sure if you were allowed to. But the book I got shows you just about everything anyhow.	A side view of Seiden. You can see the red lines where the nobelmen were to sit in ranks. The walkway is at an angle. One of the other teachers with us, who was very knowledgeable and has lived in Asia for a long time and spoke fluent Japanese and near fluent Korean, said that the walkway is crooked to remind you to make yourself presentable before you enter the main building.
One the way out you end up at Uekimon gate. Here is the plaque explaining it.	Uekimon gate.	Here is the walkway just outside of Uekimon gate.	Now we're working our way out of the castle.
This is further down that same walkway. Don't you think that the bright orange cones add to the charm of the castle? ;p	A different view of the same path.	Here is a plaque explaining the castle drainage system.	Here is the drain.
Right next to the castle is Bezaitendo Shrine on Enkanchi Pond.	At one time this shrine housed sacred Buddhist texts that were given to the Ryukyu kingdom by the king of Korea.	Ryutan lake is an artifical pond created in 1427.	John, our informative teacher guide, told us that in Buddhism still water is supposed to be pleasing, and they like the green of the algae, and often cultivated it.
I think this is the drainage leading into Ryutan lake that they talked about in the castle.	Tennyo-Bashi bridge leading to the Bezaitendo Shrine on Enkanchi pond. I'm not sure why they call that Enkanchi pond, since it's part of the same body of water as Ryutan lake. That bridge didn't look too stable to me. There was warning sign, but it said not to sit on the EDGE of the bridge. I wasn't terribly fond of what looked like sand bags stuffed in what look like HOLES in the bridge.	Another view of the bridge.	A plaque with information about the bridge.
Two people sitting at Bezaitendo Shrine. I kinda kept hoping they'd move. I wanted a nice picture of the shrine all by itself.	Next we saw the reamins of Enkakuji temple. This plaque talks about it.	The remains of Enkakuji temple. Someone was praying there despite there not being much to look at.	While making our way back to the van we came across KAWAII NEKO-CHAN!
Here is the narrow road back to the parking lot where our giant government van was. I'm glad we had John along with us. He helped read the signs to the parking lot. When we arrived and saw the first lot was full, we would not have known which way to go if he hadn't been able to read the signs for us!