ITT Tour: Shurijo Castle & Shikinaen Royal Garden

I decided to try a ITT (Information, Ticket, & Travel) tour to Shurijo Castle and Shikinaen Royal Garden.  This is a tour through the military that offers transportation to/from each location and an English/Japanese speaking tour guide.  The day started off by meeting the tour bus.  Most of these tours sell out so ensure you buy tickets ahead of time.  You can try for space-a the day of the tour, in case someone doesn't show up.  The trip to Shurijo Castle took about 40 minutes (we had construction along the way that brought the road down to one lane for a bit).  One plus of going on the tour...no need for me to find parking!  I felt as if the Shurijo Castle was a "quick walk" with brief periods of time to take pictures.  Perhaps "speed walking tour" would have been more appropriate.  Now, part of this was due to the fact that the last 30 minutes of my available time at the Castle I wanted to spend watching a local dance routine.  It was free and at the front of the Castle.  If I had chosen not to watch the dancing, I could have enjoyed a more leisurely walk.  However, I couldn't pass up a chance to see the local custom in the form of dance.  I was very happy with my decision.  Over a period of 30 minutes, I watched 4 types of dances.  My favorite was the Tanchame; a dance depicting the joy young men and women in a fishing village have in their work and their zest for life. 


Shurijo Castle
This was the royal seat of the Ryukyu Kingdom for about 500 years



Tanchame
Created after the collapse of the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879



Next stop was an Aeon (Japan mall), about 30 minutes away, for lunch and shopping.  We only had one hour at this location.  There were restaurants on the first floor and a food court on the second floor.  I ate at A&W.  Having never eaten at an A&W in the states, I randomly selected my food from the pictures as it was all in Konji and the employees did not speak English.  Ended up with a hamburger with a slice of ham on it and some curly fries; very delicious.  I devoured my food so I would have time to take a quick stroll around the mall.  Very interesting things for sell...I will go back when I have the time to shop.

Hopped back on the bus, 15 minutes later ended up at the Shikinaen Royal Garden.  This is a World Heritage Site.  The Shikina-En was the largest second residence for the Ryukyu royal families and was used to entertain royal family members and foreign guests.  We had an hour to walk around, which was a perfect amount of time to walk slowly, stop to gaze at the beauty around me, and take lots of pictures. 



Rokkaku-Do
A bower (place of rest) built in the Chinese style
The arched bridge was made from a single block of Ryukyu limestone



Ishi-Bashi
Designed in the Chinese style

Took about 25 minutes to drive back to our starting point and end the tour.  What a wonderful trip!

Thanksgiving Day: Sunabe Seawall Visit

It's Thanksgiving Day here on the island (though not quite time for turkey day in the US)!

I decided to start my day off by running and exploring the Sunabe Seawall.  A storm was out at sea, the clouds were heavy, and the wind was strong.  It was a very enjoyable experience even though the sky and the sea were very grey.  Started off prior to sunrise and stayed around to watch the sun rise (it rises on the other side of the island, therefore, I saw it through the buildings).  Many locals walk the seawall.  Some were even enjoying a stretch group/yoga group.  Parking along the seawall is banned from 2200-0500; you will get a ticket during this time.  I got to the seawall at about 0530, so no worries!  I parked right next to one of the stairway access points to the seawall. 

Water too high to go down to the lower section

The Seawall is the upper section.  It is a very wide path. 
The lower part is available at select intervals along the Seawall.

High surf today due to the storm

Panoramic view for part of the Sunabe Seawall

Sushi Conveyor Belt Restaurant & Sumu Wrestling on TV

I went and experienced my first ever sushi restaurant.  This one was a "conveyor belt" type restaurant...another new first for me.  These are so popular on the island that it is normal to wait thirty minutes for a spot to sit down.  You go in to the restaurant and at a kiosk you type in the amount of people in your group.  It will then spit you out a number.  As tables become available they go down the list of numbers.  They say the numbers overhead on the speaker (can be heard from the lobby and outside).  I don't yet know the verbal numbers for the local language.  For this reason they also have a TV screen that will show the number they are calling.  We waited about 45 minutes (it was a Japanese Holiday, thus busier than usual) for our number to be called.  Very much worth it!

You have two options once you sit down...you can "order" food or you can pick up what you want as it goes by on the conveyer belt.  It is the same food offering no matter what.  We had fun looking at all the different options as they zoomed on by.  We also had fun with the touchscreen menu option for "ordering".  I am not a seafood person and I was not in the mood to try them out today.  My counterparts were more than happy to devour their seafood options.  I, on the other hand, had plenty of opportunity to stay away from seafood.  I first got fresh pineapple...I love fresh pineapple.  It is so good on this island.  I then tried hamburger on rice.  The hamburger tasted like sausage I would eat in the states.  Sticky rice was amazing.  I had edamame, another favorite of mine.  This edamame was chilled, a first for me.  Would be very nice on a hot day.  I decided to branch out and try something unknown...it was rice that had been smashed so much that it was of a jello-like substance.  It was covered in brown or green.  I tried the green.  It was a weird consistency...the green covering adhered to the back of my teeth and tasted like I was eating a tree...not good at all.  One of my counterparts offered to try the brown one...they said it was of a nut type flavor.  For future reference, no mossy rock looking food for me.  I then tried the baked cheesecake.  It's not as sweet as in the states nor did it have the graham cracker shell.  It wasn't too bad.  I will definitely go again.

To pay for your meal you hit the "ready for check" button on the touchscreen.  A staff member will come and count up all your plates (pay per plate per color).  You will receive a receipt in which you will go up front to the cash register to pay.  For 4 adults who ate a ton of food (except for me), we paid about 4200yen. 

Conveyor belt (no food in the picture), partial view of the touchscreen, hot water tap for tea you make at the table

My "mossy rock" I tried

View of my partially eaten sticky rice/hamburger and pineapple

The end result...I had 3 plates worth.  The other 3 group members tried a lot more food!

I caught sumu wrestling on the tv.  Very exciting to watch.  Hopefully, I will be able to attend a live sumu wrestling competition during my time in Japan.

Sightseeing: The Nakamura House

Went and visited The Nakamura House.  From the brochure given to me upon admission:

The history of the Nakamura family dates back to the early part of the 15th century when Gashi, an ancenstor of the family moved his residence to Nakagusuku from Zakimi in Yomitan.  The reason for the move was because Lord Gosamaru of Zakimi had received an order from the king in Shuri to relocate his castle to Nakagusuku.  Gashi served as Gosamaru's teacher until the latter's downfall at the hands of Lord Amawari of Katsuren CAstle just across from Nakagusuku Bay.  It was not until 1720 that fortune came back to the Nakamura family when one of the ancestors was called upon to serve as a Jitoshoku (village headman) by the royal government in Shuri.  It was around this time when the first foundations of the Nakamura house was set in.

 

 

The Nakamura House was so pretty.  The house had a great breezeway that would feel wonderful on a hot day.  You could have tea on the porch, if you so desired.  A lovely place to come visit.

You can see the wheel for the well
The barn/workhouse

Kitchen/Dining Room

Pig Sty (pigs were very important and a staple in the diet)

Tatami mats and traditional tea service/table

Locals still wear this style of shoe

First Week

My first full week here on the island has been packed full of things I had to do.  Besides the mandatory things I had to do for work, I did a few other memorable things. 

First was the housing brief.  I, like most people, want a house as soon as possible.  After living out of luggage and hotels for a few months, I want to settle down in my own home with my own stuff.  I have a unique situation in that housing is only authorized to let you move in when your dependents (spouse and children) are 30 days out.  I have about 50 days until they get here.  I was required to show proof of their arrival date (copy of their airline tickets).  It takes about 7-10 days to process your housing application and receive a call from housing with your offers.  How it works here is they will give you 2 offers at the same time.  You have 24 hours to decide on which one you want.  You cannot decline both, you cannot request another housing development, you cannot ask them to alter those 2 offers in any way.  If housing is less than 98% full for your rank and bedroom size, you are required to live on base.  If you arrive and on the day of your housing brief your housing is over 98% full (for your main base and your two secondary bases) then you are given the option to reside off base.  You will get an authorization letter from housing and then will be required to attend the off base housing briefing.  For those assigned to Kadena; Kadena is our primary with Foster and Lester being our secondary locations.  This means that I could get my 2 offers on Foster and/or Lester and/or Kadena.  When I went to the housing brief my rank and bedroom size was 99% on Kadena and 100% on Foster and Lester.  I was asked if I wanted off base.  In addition, because my family is more than 30 days out from arrival I was asked if I wanted off base.  I do not want off base.  Therefore, I requested to be on the waitlist for on base housing.  Now it's just waiting for housing to call me with my 2 housing offers. 

Another exciting occurrence this week was picking out my car.  The car buying process if very different here on the island.  You have 2 options: buying privately or buying from a dealership.  Each has pros and cons.  I looked at the Lemon Lot a few times and researched available cars on Bookoo.  Nothing really caught my eye as they were mostly larger sized vehicles.  I'm on a tiny island with tiny roads and a tiny family; I want a tiny car.  I went to 3 dealerships: BC Motors, Payless Motors, and US Auto Sales. 

Each dealership had outstanding workers and outstanding cars.  It was a pleasure going to each lot.  The workers are very nice, they will come up and introduce themselves and ask you what you are interested in.  They will then point out what they have available.  There was no hovering and no pressure to buy a car from them.  All of them were beyond helpful in helping me find the best car to fit my needs.  You are allowed to look at each car, sit in each car, and turn on the engine in each car.  It is illegal to test drive in Japan.  BC Motors had a lot of tiny cars but nothing caught my eye.  Payless Motors had one car I was very interested in.  Before making a purchase I wanted to check out one more dealership and one car I had been eyeing on their website.  We headed to US Auto Sales and as we turned into the lot "my car" was right there.  Have you ever felt drawn to a car, like you were meant to have it?  That's what this felt like.  Loved the car, it was exactly what I was looking for.  Turned the engine on, the AC was quick and super cold, the car was simple without many extras...in a nutshell, this is the exact car I had imagined driving around this island.  The dealerships offer financing, usually 0% over 24 months.  If you don't finance and pay cash you can get a discount off the price of the vehicle.  This is what I chose to do.  The car was listed at $3995.  I got it for $3300 (and included in that cost was 2 year JCI, 2015 road tax, 3 month warranty, 9 month free labor and parts).  On top of the cost I had to pay $230 for my year of American Insurance (this cost is based on rank, married/single, and age).  Another plus is this dealership set up the JCI, road tax, and military stickers all for me.  This saved me from driving here and there to get it all done.  I picked out the car on Tuesday, got my driver's license on Wednesday, got the mandatory LOA from legal on Thursday morning.  I was driving away with my car Thursday afternoon.





My 2 cats are housed at the kennel, since I am in non-pet friendly lodging.  They offer visiting hours during the week.  Now that I had my own car, it was very easy to go visit them.  They have a nice cat playroom where I could take them, let them stretch their legs, and meow to their hearts content while I scratched all their itchy spots.  Spent about an hour with them in the cat playroom.  I'm looking forward to visiting them a few times a week!



Visiting the vet for their initial quarantine check



The door in the cat playroom...they just wanted out





Their kennel...they also have a bathroom and a bedroom



First Weekend on Island

The days seem to go by so fast here!

Saturday my sponsor was set to pick me up to go phone shopping.  Can't do much here without a phone!  I woke up exceedingly early and decided to go stretch my legs by taking a quick run around.  As I'm running (in the dark) I suddenly had a fear of a habu snake attack, etc.  So many new nature noises!  I made it unscathed, thank goodness!  After my run I headed over to the Officers Club Café for breakfast.  Quick service, nice staff, great food!  Glad to find a good place to eat.  My sponsor then picked me up and took me to the BX.  At the BX there is an AU store and a Softbank store (the two most popular cell providers).  Picked up an IPhone 6.  Phones are different here in that we don't get locked into a "plan".  You have the option of outright buying the phone or you can have the cost of the phone split up into equal payments to be paid over two years, with the cost being rolled into your monthly bill.  They offer a discount if you have the phone cost split over two years (my take on this was their was to have you on "contract"...I use that term lightly as it is different than the US contract most people would think of).  imessage texting is free, however, other texts and calls cost money.  In addition, voicemail is an extra fee each month (after 3 months of a free trial).  Tethering (to make your phone a wifi hotspot) is free.  I chose a 5gb monthly plan with tethering and a 64gb phone.  My cost each month is 4580yen (this changes based on conversion rate, currently this would be $37).  Yes, $37/month for my data and my phone cost!  An amazing feature the company offers is the ability to change your data plan as frequently as you need.  Say next month I realize I want more data, I can just stop by the store and request the change.  A few weeks later I want to decrease my data to the lowest amount, again, I just head in and make the request.  There is no fee to do that.  Their saying was, "you can't change your phone but you can change your data plan!".  When my other half gets to the island he will get his own phone with AU.  The "family plan" is where they link our phones to allow free texting and phone calls between the two.  He will have his own phone and plan and I will keep mine.  However, we will be able to communicate as frequently as we want between the two of us without cost.  The personnel at the store were very efficient and knowledgeable.  You pick your phone out, your plan, sign some paperwork, then come back in 1 hour to pick up your activated phone.  When I went to go get mine they put it through a quick test.  My phone actually ended up having issues in the fact that the speaker was not working.  They immediately tagged the phone as "broken" and asked that I come back in another hour and they would give me a different one.  When I went back my new phone was perfect!  The broken phone was an oddity, the employees said that had never actually happened before.  After I got my phone my sponsor took me out to a Jamaican Café about a 5 minute drive off-base.  I got a jerked chicken sandwich.  It was amazing!  Sponsor dropped me off at my hotel room.  I collapsed into bed about 1730!  My body is still trying to recover from my trip over.

Sunday my sponsor took me out to Tenkaippin; a ramen restaurant.  Words cannot describe the amazing food I ate!  You choose the type of noodle (I believe there were 9 options), add any extra toppings you want, and get various sides if you want that too.  They will ask if you want garlic in the ramen (garlic is very popular here).  I do not like garlic so I did not get it.  I chose Shio (later I found it this means "salt").  I wanted to try a noodle topping (it comes on the side for you to add yourself).  I forgot the name but it was basically a white rice ball surrounded by egg and in (soy sauce?).  It was interesting but I don't think I'll get it again.  My sponsor got chicken dumplings and wholly goodness those things are delicious!  My dish was so filling that even though we ate at 1100 I ate nothing else the rest of the day. 

We then checked out the Sunabe Seawall and got my first view of the beach and ocean.  The breeze on the beach felt great.  I know I will be spending a lot of time here.  The water felt perfect...a little cool but not too chilly.  Just perfect to get relief from a hot day.  And the water is so clear!  The day was just to perfect to end after the beach so we decided to go see The Nakagusuku Castle.  Amazing that these ruins are so well preserved after such a long period of time.  How majestic it must have looked in its prime!  Near the castle was the Haunted Hotel; definitely gave me shivers just looking at it.  On our way back we stopped at a Baskin Robins for icecream, I stuck with my traditional chocolate, however, they had a lot of interesting choices I've never seen before.  Then back to my hotel, where I again collapsed, though at 1820.  I'm getting better!