scenic view of the jungle/forest as viewed from the expressway

today i woke up and showered later than usual at 8am--i really am on island time now! my mom and aunt said they hardly slept at all because they were giddy like school girls, talking late into the night. they were just so excited because they both haven't been in okinawa together for over 30 years. my uncle said that he would pick us up at 9:30am to take us to the aquarium but he's such an impatient early bird that he got there before all of us had even showered. we had to rush so as to not make him wait too long. he took my aunt earlier with his family and now just he is taking the core four of us today. he's doing this split thing because we don't all fit in the car. i don't understand why we couldn't have rented a car or something but this just makes it very easy so i won't bitch. we stopped at a convenience store on the way for drinks/snacks and took the toll expressway to nago. when we arrived in nago, my uncle wanted us to have an early lunch at the a&w there or else it will be a long time before we get to eat. there isn't exactly an abundance of veggie burgers in japan so twiddle thumbs and i had to eat a bunch of side things. we had a side salad, corn soup, fries, and a drink. crappy, i know. we'll have to eat a proper dinner.

whale shark at okinawa churaumi aquarium

we arrived at ocean expo park and went to churaumi aquarium. churaumi means "beautiful ocean" in the okinawan dialect. it's really fucking expensive but worth it because it's the second largest aquarium in the world and i think the only one with multiple whale sharks on exhibit. they were 2 whale sharks but they had a baby so now there are 3 whale sharks in the giant tank that also houses various rays and fishes. (i think fishes is a strange word because i was taught fish is both singular and plural but i have read that when one is talking about multiple species, then fishes is the correct term.) besides the main tank (did i mention it's HUGE?), there are several smaller tanks and even a petting tank for starfish and sea urchin. no bat ray petting tank so i'll still be visiting the monterey bay aquarium if i ever feel like petting rays again.

at the gift shop i picked up some okinawan flavored candies in little gift bags for myself. they are in goya and shikwasa flavor. i figured i could share them with twiddle thumbs and each of us could kep a bag. there was also a free ink stamp station so i stamped my book. this is something i have failed to mention so far during this trip. in japan, you can often find a free stamp station at tourist places. the stamps depict where you are visiting in some fashion and you can stamp the booklet for the place, your own souvenir book, or your forehead. hey, it's up to you. (i'm just kidding about the forehead! i've never seen anyone stamp their forehead!) before the trip, twiddle thumbs and i went to a bookstore and bought some blank travel journals so we could write about our trip. we gave one to twiddle thumbs's sister too. i made sure we picked books with blank pages for collecting stamps. ours also have pockets which are great for storing papers you pick up along the way, like business cards. so far though, i'm the only one really utilizing the travel journal. the sisters are not carrying their journals with them and instead have asked me to stamp my book for them and give them the sheets later! suffice it to say, i'm running out of blank pages now because i've been stamping for three people at the temples! i've also gotten stared at for stamping my book 3 times. japanese must think i'm so weird.

dolphin show at okichan theater

after the aquarium, we watched the free dolphin show right next to the aquarium. i guarantee you that this is the only dolphin show in the world set to okinawan music. we got to see the dolphins 'clap' and 'dance' along to the song "haisai ojisan". the dolphins were not the usual grey dolphins but black because it's so hot in okinawa that even the dolphins are tan, heheehe. now's a good time to introduce a little okinawan joke. when you tan in okinawa, if you get too dark, people call you a black pig or you refer yourself as being dark like a black pig. okinawans love (to eat) pigs and they have black pigs on the island. that's where it comes from. by the way, everything in the complex is part of the ocean expo park, left over from the world expo in 1975 and built up since then. (for example, the aquarium is new.) the park is free but you have to pay for the various exhibits. there is even a beach you can swim at.

after the show, we walked right through the dolphin studio. it's really just a place you could sit down indoors and watch dolphins swim in a tank through a glass window. not very exciting but we could have possibly spent a few minutes in there? we've been rushed the whole day by my uncle. he wants to just whizz through everything. it would have been nice to spend more time in the aquarium since we came from so far away and have never been there. oh well, like i said, this is the intro trip! twiddle thumbs is really loving it in japan and is about to cry everytime she thinks about leaving. twiddle thumbs's sister is counting the days until our return flight. i am glad twiddle thumbs is enjoying herself. i was worried that she would have such high expectations that there would only be room for disappointment. now that i see she likes it so much, perhaps it is possible to convince her to move to japan awhile for one of those teaching english jobs.

this is what i think of when i think of the tropical dream center but we didn't actually go into this building since everyone seemed too tired

the ocean expo park complex is spread out and there are tiny electric shuttle buses (think long cab golf carts) one can take to get around. we took that to go to the nearby tropical dream center because it really is just too hot to be in the sun. it used to be that you paid per ride but now you pay once and your ticket is good all day. my uncle paid for all of us. the tropical dream center is an arboretum. they have plants from various hot regions of the world. they even have some dangerous animals from the amazon on exhibit. i hated the tropical dream center as a kid because plants are so boring and all i wanted to do was ride roller coasters. i was glad to go after so many years and especially to be able to show the place to twiddle thumbs. after the tropical dream center, my uncle was done with the park and we had to leave.

one the way home we stopped at a glass studio and shop to see ryukyu glass objects for sale. this is something twiddle thumbs really wanted to do. again, we were rushed through it by my uncle. twiddle thumbs didn't get to browse as much as she would like to but that's a good thing actually because glass is fragile and she'd probably go broke buying everything she liked. we took the expressway back again and i tried to get a picture of the sign warning about wild boar but i just couldn't snap a shot of it! argh! i really wanted that for my photo collection of road signs. next time i go to okinawa, i will have to rent a car and drive around myself. my uncle said that all the rental cars have gps in them these days.

when we made it back, we stayed at my uncle's house for awhile. as my cousin stripped bare my grandmother's house, my mom was worried about her personal things as we could only find 1 of her paintings that they had used to cover a hole in the ceiling?!?!! (she was a little pissed at that and is taking it home.) my mom was most concerned about all the family photos. my uncle has been storing them at his house and they brought them out so my mom could go through them and take back with her pictures of herself growing up. my uncle then dropped us off at navel kadena, a shopping complex. now we get to do things at our pace!

hello kitty toys at mcdonald's

there is a mcdonald's in the complex and i took a picture of the display of toys that come with the happy meals since i had not taken a picture of a japanese mcdonald's yet. the toys this month were hello kitty so i snapped a picture of it for all of my hello kitty loving friends. i haven't really talked about hello kitty because i was never a big fan but mostly because i don't want to ruin the surprise--i bought some hello kitty gifts for my hello kitty loving friends. this picture is for them!

we had dinner at shakey's and ordering a vegan pizza was hilarious! i asked if it was possible to make a pizza without cheese and the girl who took our order said it was possible but she had to double check with the chef. the chef then came out and personally asked us about it. "you don't even want cheese on the crust?" no! he made it for us. thank you! we then went to the cd shop and book shop in the complex. that cd store is crap. i went there during my last trip. they had the same cd i bought last time and again no other cds i was interested in so i didn't buy anything. i didn't buy anything at the bookstore either. twiddle thumbs really like the children's magazines. she wanted to buy one. i kept trying to explain that the one she liked is for second graders!

we then went to the supermarket there (kanehide) and got some snacks for later. there is also a big carries everything type of store there called kanehide home center. it sells all sorts of goods, much like target, kmart, or wal-mart. twiddle thumbs loves japanese stationary and i was hoping we could find some good ones over there but we mostly just bought lined notebooks for practicing japanese. she can learn the basic alphabet and i have to work on my kanji skills. she also bought many pens/pencils because japanese sell ultra thin points that are hard to find in america.

after all that, it was time to go home and rest. the bus seemed to be taking awhile and we weren't far away so my mom said we should just take a cab back and we did. the cabs in okinawa have a cheaper starting price than in mainland japan so our ride was only ¥450 (starting price, it never went up, so close) instead of what would've probably been ¥670 in tokyo. at home i paid my mom finally for all the cab rides we have been taking. we also tried to figure out the present situation. we have bought souvenirs for various people and sisters need to figure out who they still haven't bought a present for. i also tried to catch up on filling out postcards since i have barely written to anyone so far. at the end of the day, twiddle thumbs removed the band aid on her foot that she put there to help prevent blisters and it tore off a good chunk of her skin! it was such a hot day that i guess the band aid fused with her body. it was freaky and i felt sorry for her bad luck.

today's expenses in yen:
¥150? drink
¥800? lunch
¥1800 aquarium entrance fee
¥650 candy
(¥200 shuttle)
¥670 tropical dream center entrance fee
¥2233 dinner
¥710 snacks
¥922 stationary
¥5000 total cab fare during trip paid to mom
plus a couple drinks from vending machines throughout the day to hydrate