The Street for Shopping

Kokusai Street is known throughout the island as the place to go shopping. A few months ago (yeah, I am behind on this post!) Matt and I decided to check it out. We drove down to Naha, the capital and largest city of Okinawa, and found public parking. There is the main street with stores and restaurants, but there are also several streets that branch off. They slope downward and are covered from the elements by a glass roof. These side streets are filled with small booths that are stuffed with local goods. There was a whole store with painted chopsticks, another with pink coral jewelry, and others with candy. That is where we bought purple sweet potato kit-kats! 

The most interesting sight was the famous habu sake. The habu snake is a venomous local snake that lives in tall grass. All of the grass is kept very short on base, so don't worry! Sake is the Japanese alcohol of choice. The habu sake has a real snake preserved inside the bottle. A small amount of venom permeates into the alcohol. It is very expensive and not something I want to taste. 

The stores only take cash in yen, and we ended up spending most of the yen we had with us. I walked away with two shirts, candy, and coral earrings, and Matt purchased a shirt and some very old coins to add to his collection. Unfortunately, the local ATMs do not recognize our cards and we both got really hungry for dinner! While Kokusai Street has many restaurants, the only option for us was McDonalds. We were able to gather enough change in yen to buy two combo meals. I ordered the teriyaki burger (not available in the states), and it was so tasty after walking all day. We will definitely be going back to Kokusai Street for some serious Christmas shopping.