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. 

The Murder Mystery Party

Even though Halloween is months away, our neighbors gave us an excuse to dress up in costumes when they hosted a murder mystery dinner party. This specific mystery was entitled "Pasta, Passion, and Pistols" and took place at an Italian Restaurant. For those who have never been accused of murder for fun, everyone is assigned a character beforehand. I was Angel Roni, the tough daughter of the deceased living in New York City. Matt was Father Al Fredo, a priest who knows everyone's secrets. We enjoyed an Italian dinner, and afterwards we were all given a script and secret clue to reveal. We take turns revealing clues and accusing each other. We all make a final guess on whodunnit, and the murderer is revealed at the very end. I loved how everyone at the party stayed in character, and some even attempted Italian or French accents. We had a wonderful evening, and this time neither Matt nor I were guilty of murder!

The sign greeting us at the door. 

Tara Misu and Rocco Scarfazzi

Mama Rosa and her son and daughter

Clair Voyant, Father Al Fredo, Bo Jalais

Who committed the crime?

The Staycation Highlights

My friend Ellie left this morning, and now I am facing the end of my staycation. Since I had a guest in town I simply had to eat out every day, spend entire afternoons at the beach, and visit lots of local attractions. Tomorrow I go back to work, but I thought first I should blog about some of the highlights of our trip. I had so much fun sharing Okinawa and its food, beaches, and hospitality with a friend from back home. Ellie-you are an awesome travel buddy!

Todoroki Falls on a rainy day

Courtney Beach

Katsuren Castle Ruins

The Nail Art Masterpieces

I am so excited to introduce my friend Ellie! We met while both attending the University of Georgia. Now she lives and works in Chicago, a cold land far, far away from the tropical sun and surf of Okinawa. I am so excited to show her some of my favorite places of the island!

I made a reservation weeks ago at Cocok's Ocean View Nail Cafe since this place books up fast. The salon overlooks the Sunabe seawall, so you can watch the ocean waves as your toes are transformed into works of art.

The grumpy cat look-a-like that lives at the salon.

The paint and nail polish used to create art.

When you walk inside you are escorted to overstuffed recliners. After you put your feet up you are served iced hibiscus tea and handed a binder full of nail art options as well as wooden boards covered in plastic nails with even more examples of paintings that can be replicated on your fingers or toes.

Your feet soak in scented warm water as you struggle to decide which design out of hundreds to choose. After the soak is a long foot massage, and then the painting begins with tiny brushes to capture every detail of your chosen design. The whole appointment takes over an hour, but it is an hour spent in bliss. Afterwards you are handed a personalized receipt of the service so you can pay and walk outside to admire your toes in the sunlight.

The check with Hello Kitty!

Ellie chose a painting of Mt. Fuji with cherry blossoms, while I went with yellow stripes and summer flowers. I am thrilled with the intricate designs on my toes, and I  love that I get to share such a unique place with my friend Ellie.

The Zip Lines

My brave friends invited me to join their group going zip lining through Forest Adventure. I had experience running the zip line when I worked at the 4-H camp, so I was excited to show off how well I could handle heights! Unfortunately, I showed up woefully unprepared. I wore long shorts for the harness and brought two water bottles to keep in the car, but it wasn't enough.

"Where is your hat?" my friends asked when I arrived. I laughed a little as I explained we would all be wearing helmets, of course!

"How will you carry your water?" was the next question as everyone else strapped on backpacks. You can't wear those on a zip line, can you?

I was wrong on both counts. Safety was a little more lax at this zip line than the one I worked at. No helmets were available and you could carry whatever you wanted on the zip line with you. My friend Tonie carried a bottle of water for me in her backpack after the guide warned me about the five cases of heat stroke the day before. She pretty much saved me from passing out. It was so, so hot, and, despite the fact we were zip lining in the jungle, there was no shade on the course.

We stood in the sun as the guide explained how to use our carabiners attached to our harness. We had two: one for safety as we climbed up the rope ladders or stood on the platforms and the other was our zip trolley. We went through a practice course about six feet off the ground as our guide watched, but then we were left on our own to strap ourselves in at every station.

There were about eight stations of obstacles or zip lines that took about an hour to complete. I was so hot, there was no hesitation when I got to the top of the line. All I wanted was the slight breeze to cool off! I don't know if I have ever sweat so much in my whole life. When you reached the end of the zip line there was a pile of wood chips. In theory you could land on your feet, but seven out of eight times I hit my back and rolled. The dirt from the landing mixed with the sweat, so by the end I was covered in mud.

Hooking myself to the zip line, sweat running down my face.

There was an additional high ropes course, but I had to sit out with a water bottle at the shaded picnic tables. I felt pretty wimpy as everyone else continued zip lining, but as I looked back on the heights I had climbed I guess for a wimp I was pretty brave.

The Waterfalls and Flowers

As evidenced by my blog, I love new experiences on my island home. However, when I am invited to a day of exploring with my friends Vickie and Tonie, I have to ask for all of the details before I commit. These are two very strong women, for crying out loud they climbed Mt. Fuji earlier this month! They mentioned hiking to a waterfall, and I wanted to make sure I could keep up. I was so glad I didn't let my trepidation of hiking in the jungle hold me back, especially since the waterfall ended up being only a two minute walk from where we parked the car!

We drove north to Nago in search of Todoroki Falls following directions that should have led us to an ice house as a landmark. We weren't exactly sure what an ice house looks like, and at first we ended up parking on top of a mountain in the middle a farm before we realized we may have missed a turn somewhere along the way. We drove back down the mountain, made a left turn we had originally missed, and parked at a building where men were loading ice into a truck. So that's what an ice house looks like!

From the parking lot we could here the rushing water, and all we had to do was walk across a bridge before we could see the falls peeking through the trees. We climbed up some boulders to take a picture, and we discovered the pool at the base of the falls! I would not be brave enough to go swimming on my own, but with the encouragement of my friends I jumped into the freshwater swimming hole as well!

We climbed some more boulders to get even closer to the waterfall. We could even feel the mist on our backs. We simply had to take pictures, the scene was absolutely stunning. We were the only ones there and had the entire view to ourselves. 

After climbing and swimming we were hungry and headed out to a favorite hamburger joint...that was closed on Wednesdays! So we changed courses and headed to a cafe with good reviews online...that was also closed! We were starting to get frustrated and stopped at the first building we saw that had pictures of food on the outside.

It was a huge gift shop, but at least there was a restaurant inside where we ordered taco rice and iced tea. After we ate and could focus a little better, we began to wonder why the gift shop was in the middle of nowhere. As it turns out, we had stumbled onto a tourist attraction. It was a tropical garden in the mountains that you could walk through at your own pace. We purchased tickets and spent a little less than an hour admiring the bright blooms and butterflies. There were other bugs that I did not admire, but I was told I should expect those in nature. I did my best to ignore them and focus on the view.

I cannot wait to see what other activities I find myself doing as I try to keep up with my courageous, active friends!

The Hours of Karaoke

I always thought of karaoke as a late-night activity performed before an entire room of strangers. However, the experience is completely different in Japan! One afternoon some girlfriends and I decided to try Big Box Karaoke without knowing exactly what to expect. We had a little trouble with communication since the man at the counter did not speak any English, and we did not know what we wanted! I finally looked up how to say "first time" in Japanese, and coupled with our blank looks he must have determined he would have to try and explain the process. He pointed to the price sheet. It was 500 yen (around $5) per person for three hours minimum. That was very reasonable, but we knew we couldn't spend three hours singing to each other! That was where we were wrong...

We were each handed a cup that we could fill at the soda machine and a thick book of all the "foreign" song selections. We were then escorted down the hall to our private room. Each room had couches for seating, a small table with a food menu, a phone, and the whole setup for karaoke. We took a good amount of time just getting settled. There was air conditioning in the room, but we had to figure out how to work the remote with only symbols as descriptions. Luckily, the tablet that controlled the audio/visual system had an English option. Phew! The phone was used to call in your food orders, but due to the language barrier we just took the menu to the man outside so we could point when we ordered a snack. It was finally time to pick out some songs and start singing!

That was our next problem. The book of song options was gigantic! It was like reading a phonebook! Even though English options were just part of the book, there were still plenty to choose from. We decided to go alphabetically by artist. We sang 90's hits from Backstreet Boys and Brittany Spears, country classics by Faith Hill, and even *tried* some Jay-Z for fun. We were there for all three hours and we only made it to the the letter J alphabetically. So obviously we will have to go back! I enjoyed singing without having to worry about making a fool of myself in front of strangers. I just made a fool of myself in front of my friends trying to rap, and that was what made it so much fun!