The Castle of Sweets

I decided to use my knowledge from working at Information, Tickets, and Travel to plan a day for my friends. I purchased tickets for a glass bottom boat ride from work and planned to take them to Cafe Doka Doka for a meal beforehand. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...we did not do either of those activities that day. Cafe Doka Doka was closed, and the sea conditions were so rough the boat stopped going out. We were on the west coast on the island in the resort town of Onna, and I quickly did some research online to see what was in the area. We ended up touring Cape Manzamo and Okashi Goden, the castle of sweets. 

Cape Manzamo is a scenic point on the East China Sea where the cliffs meet the ocean. It was very crowded with tourists with cameras (I consider us locals by now), but we stopped and snapped some pictures of our own. 

At the castle of sweets we ate lunch upstairs in the restaurant Churaumi, which means "beautiful ocean." While the fare was standard Okinawan ramen, there were two points of interest that had me falling in love with the restaurant: the view and the case of beni-imo (purple sweet potato) desserts. One entire wall of the restaurant was a window overlooking the turquoise East China Sea. There were even binoculars available so we could stare out over the ocean during the meal. I made sure to leave room for dessert since the display case was full of dark purple cakes and tarts. I had a beni-imo sponge cake with a beni-imo sweet cream filling. Amazing!

We were full from lunch, but that did not mean we stopped tasting sweets. Downstairs was a gift shop full of Okinawan delicacies, all with free samples that the salespeople urge you to try. The main flavors were beni-imo, mango, and shiquasa (a green Okinawan citrus). There were sponge cakes, donuts, ice cream, and even some candies with cheesecake filling. 

At the back of the gift shop was the beni-imo candy factory. We could see the machines through a glass wall producing and packaging the cookies. 

We left Okashi Goden very, very full of treats, but overall I was happy my day that I thought was ruined turned out so sweet.