The Sunday Snapshot

Hot pink cherry blossoms along the Tengan River.

The Orchid Show

The flower season continues on our tropical island with an orchid competition. At the Tropical Dream Center for one week only is the Okinawa International Orchid Show with over 10,000 entries! Victoria and I wandered through admiring all of the beautiful submissions, but by greenhouse number three and orchid number 5,000 they all started to look the same!

The ceiling at the Tropical Dream Center

A tunnel of orchids leading to the first greenhouse.

A plant awarded third place...

...and the grand champion! Can you tell a difference? Me neither.

So many pretty flowers!

The Sunday Snapshot

Cherry blossoms over a torii gate, so my toes match the season!

The Seasonal Coffee

My friend Victoria and I set out for a day of adventures. We were traveling up Highway 58, catching up about our lives, and looking for the landmarks that would take us to Fuu Cafe which we had read about on Kassie's blog. Unfortunately, we were having such a good time we missed the road and were way too far north before we realized our mistake and turned around. We still had to drive around the Motobu peninsula and take a bridge to Sesoko Island where the cafe was located. We did not arrive for lunch until three hours after we had left my house! So hungry! Fortunately, we found the hidden cabin on the tiny island so we could eat. I had called ahead to confirm they were open, and when we arrived they inquired if I was the caller. I believe there are very few English speakers that go that far off the beaten track, so we stood out a little bit.

I realize that I was starving when I arrived, but I still maintain that this cafe had the best coffee I have ever tasted. The restaurant is located on a farm, and I believe they roast their own coffee beans. I ordered the seasonal Okinawa brown sugar almond latte served with local brown sugar cubes in handmade pottery. I cannot wait to travel there again (with a drive that will be less than three hours next time) and try their coffee in other seasons.

The Sunday Snapshot

Cafe with a view #2: My favorite, Exit Cafe, made the list!

The Island Cafe

Matt and I have challenged ourselves in our quest to find new cafes around the island. He bought me a tiny book found in a local convenience store that lists, in Japanese, the top 100 cafes on Okinawa based on view. We have decided to locate and taste the food at all 100. This might become difficult, since the book is in Japanese, and all we have to go on is a tiny map the size of a stamp with numbered highways that we can identify. Eating at Okinawan cafes is my favorite new hobby, and we are looking forward to the challenge.

The first cafe with a view is Island Cafe. It is a lime green building with the painting of a mermaid on the sign right off Highway 58. It was hard to miss. Their specialty is whole wheat pancakes. There are a few tables inside, but we elected to sit at their outdoor terrace overlooking the East China Sea. It was definitely worthy as our first stop in our search for incredible views. 

The Trick Art Museum

At the base of the iconic ferris wheel in American Village is a museum: a trick art museum. It was a gallery full of optical illusions. The majority of art was painted on the walls with footprints on the floor for the person posing and another set of footprints for the photographer to capture the correct angle in order to make the two-dimensional art appear three dimensional. We had so much fun taking each other's pictures in front of crazy backgrounds!

Aquapanda's 3D Trick Art under the ferris wheel.

The animated, um, aquapandas I guess, greeted us at the entrance...

and showed us the correct direction... 

And even sold drinks!

Standing in the wrong place, 

and then the correct place.

I rotated the photo to capture this effect.

In a shark cage, accidentally standing on the side bars.

My friend Alex standing correctly on the bottom of the cage and looking terrified.

Attack of the giant octopus!!!