ShiShimai Festival

September 26.  On Sunday night, we took a MCCS tour to the Shishimai Festival.  This is an annual event in which the different villages showcase their martial arts and shisa dances.  It is held at a beautiful waterfront park.  The park is on the north east part of the island on the Pacific ocean side.

All of the parks have beautiful water front walkways that go forever.

The flag represents the name of the village.

Okinawa World and Cafe Ku Ga Fu

September 25.  Last Saturday we grabbed one of Caroline's best friends here and headed to Okinawa World.  The draw is this enormous cave.  It took us about 1/2 hour to walk through it.

Amazing stalagtites and stalagmites everywhere.

The cave is surrounded by a replica of a traditional Okinawan Village.  Caroline and her friend, Liann made leather and Bingata, a traditional cloth dying technique using stamps.  
Did I mention that Liann is 1/2 Okinawan, 1/2 Haitian?  She is fluent in Japanese. This came in very handy.
She is a cute, spunky thing.  Very happy kid.

They had the traditional dancing and the ever popular Shisa.  I never get tired of them!

At Okinawa World cafe.  Bill and his kids meal of curry.

Okinawa is known for its beautiful glass work.  These were for sale at the gift shop.

From Okinawa World, we went to a small, local cafe I read about.  Very peaceful.  They did not speak much English so thanks to Liann, we were able to get some delicious food. (Oichi! in Japanese).

About an hour drive to get home so we let Caroline and Liann run, run, run.

Bollywood Dreams Restaurant at American Village

So last weekend, September 24, we headed to American Village for a new Indian Restaurant.  American Village is right across the street.  It takes about 15 minutes to walk there.  It is loaded with shops, restaurants etc.  It is right on the shore of the East China sea.  It is on "Sunset Beach"  the sunsets there are magnificent.
Bill and I love Indian food and are constantly looking for great indian.  As my NY friends know, I only want Indian when I go to NY.  Well, here there is quite a few Indian restaurants.  Hmmm... with a Japanese twist.  I need to give up on my NY Indian food and accept that it is a little different here.
We love American Village. Every weekend they have street shows, amazing Karaoke on the corner etc.  It is a great time.

From the deck of the restaurant.

American Village

The famous ferris wheel at American Village.

The ferris wheel can be seen from our front yard.  It takes about 15 minutes to go around.  It is on the third floor of the mall and is huge.  It is not so much a ride but a forum to see the view.

We had a full moon that night.  That tiny dot by the ferris wheel is the full moon.  It has cooled down some here and it was a beautiful night.

En Okinawa

I found a terrific restaurant and brought Bill and Caroline.  The tradition is that I find somewhere cool to go and later grab Bill and Caroline.  That is my job.  I try to find a new restaurant about every two weeks or so.
I found a great restaurant called En Okinawa that gives a drum show and traditional shisa (you'll see)

Shisa

Shisa are kind of a cross between a lion and dog.  They are placed on the roofs of houses here to ward off evil spirits. They are ubiquitous.  They are real crowd pleaser when they are shows like this.  It takes two people to be in the the costume and takes a lot of coordination.  The body movements were so life like.

This drum is over 400 hundred years old.