This Castle was rebuilt 4 times through out history of Okinawa. The stone work is amazing! The gardens are immaculately kept.
All of the castle attendant were dressed in traditional Japanese robes.
The woodwork in the throne room was intricately laid. To show respect to the building we were asked to remove our shoes and were given little plastic bags to carry them in and then when we exited the building, they collected the bags to be used again. Nothing wasted in Okinawa. I found that everywhere we went through out the Island was organized and very clean.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ocean Expo
The Ocean Expo and Churami Aquarium is located in the Northen end of Okinawa. It is the 2nd largest aquarium in the world and the 1st largest of its kind.
The entire park is free to the public, this includes seeing sea creatures like manatees and sea turtles, as well as an amazing dolphin show! Also the park grounds are filled with giant chia pets! And I mean GIANT. They are in the shapes of whales, sharks, lobsters (stevie thought it was a cockroach) fishes, you name it! What you do have to pay for is the main aquarium. This is HUGE!!! It not only has a whale shark in it, it has THREE and is filled with angel sharks and stingrays and many many other fish! You can tell just how large they are compared to the people below them standing next to the massive tank.
This is only one part of the Aquarium, there are many other exhibits throughout showing tons of different species of fish and underwater life. An absolute Must-See!!!
The entire park is free to the public, this includes seeing sea creatures like manatees and sea turtles, as well as an amazing dolphin show! Also the park grounds are filled with giant chia pets! And I mean GIANT. They are in the shapes of whales, sharks, lobsters (stevie thought it was a cockroach) fishes, you name it! What you do have to pay for is the main aquarium. This is HUGE!!! It not only has a whale shark in it, it has THREE and is filled with angel sharks and stingrays and many many other fish! You can tell just how large they are compared to the people below them standing next to the massive tank.
This is only one part of the Aquarium, there are many other exhibits throughout showing tons of different species of fish and underwater life. An absolute Must-See!!!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Butterfly Park
Well, here we are on our 2nd day in Okinawa!
We decided to live Karri's nightmare and enter into the realm of the butterflies! (or as Janara would put it, the 'flutterbies') This again, was a beautifully landscaped park. It was bursting with tropical plant life and flowers. In the middle of this paradisaical jungle was the house of the butterflies! Enter at your own risk! (warning for Karri)
My first observation was how BIG these butterflies were! They were the size of our palms! They were attracted to anything red or brightly colored! and Stevie's Victoria's Secret glitter lotion! Who would have known?
In the butterfly house there were stands with fake flowers that the butterflies just couldn't resist not to mention the red baseball caps. Which is irresistible to any American, so these butterflies must have had a little American in them.....just kidding. The butterflies took no mind when someone put on one of these caps, so this made for great pictures!
Another great part of the butterflies' house was their golden cocoons! The pictures I took didn't do them justice at all and turned out to show them as yellow, although, really they were perfectly golden.
This park had a great standee to pose as a butterfly faerie, as well as a wonderful view of the ocean. It was a wonderful place to spend the early afternoon.
We decided to live Karri's nightmare and enter into the realm of the butterflies! (or as Janara would put it, the 'flutterbies') This again, was a beautifully landscaped park. It was bursting with tropical plant life and flowers. In the middle of this paradisaical jungle was the house of the butterflies! Enter at your own risk! (warning for Karri)
My first observation was how BIG these butterflies were! They were the size of our palms! They were attracted to anything red or brightly colored! and Stevie's Victoria's Secret glitter lotion! Who would have known?
In the butterfly house there were stands with fake flowers that the butterflies just couldn't resist not to mention the red baseball caps. Which is irresistible to any American, so these butterflies must have had a little American in them.....just kidding. The butterflies took no mind when someone put on one of these caps, so this made for great pictures!
Another great part of the butterflies' house was their golden cocoons! The pictures I took didn't do them justice at all and turned out to show them as yellow, although, really they were perfectly golden.
This park had a great standee to pose as a butterfly faerie, as well as a wonderful view of the ocean. It was a wonderful place to spend the early afternoon.
Okinawa
My first day in Okinawa Stevie, Jason, and Bryton took me to the Southeast Botanical Gardens. I never thought that after traveling half way across the world I would get to see such a beautiful Japanese garden. It amazed me how tranquil it was to walk through it and the design of the gardens were extravagant. It was fun to walk along the finely groomed paths, through the flowered covered walkways, up over the hand carved bridges and across the blooming waterlily ponds with its yellow, pink and white flowers. I could have spent the whole time here just in these gardens and come back completely satisfied. One thing that I learned was that in Okinawa they have no trash on the streets or in their parks or at any exhibit. It is so clean. A they also have vending machines every 50 feet! Really, every 50 feet though out the whole island. One for every seven people!
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