January 17 - Pineapple Factory & Nakijin Castle

This weekend was a bright and sunny weekend. A little bit chilly but all in all fantastic weather for exploring. We headed north again on 58, a long drive since we've already explored a lot up there. Our first stop was the Pineapple Factory. We had never been and had heard mixed reviews, but it was only 400 yen per adult, so we decided to give it a shot. There wasn't too much going on in the Pineapple factory, but it was still cool. First thing, you buy your ticket and get on this golf cart thing, but it's got a pineapple on top! It's yellow, of course and it drives itself! We didn't get any pictures of it because they take one for you that you have to buy (For 1200 yen?? YAH RIGHT) and won't take one for you with your personal camera. But it was cool. It wasn't on a track or anything, it just... drove itself! CRAAZY! We got to see how pineapples grow, it was interesting... and then you drive into this little tropical garden type room that's full of flowers and plants. Nothing we hadn't seen before but it was still beautiful. There was a waterfall (which you can see in the 4th photo on the left ) and a little pond with a huge pineapple dude in it taking pictures of passing carts. Then you get to walk through their store, where everything is made of pineapple! You get a little tiny glass so that you can taste everything they have. They have pineapple wine (it wasn't good.) and pineapple juice (SO GOOD, the best kind I've ever tasted. We bought a bottle of it. YUM). They have pineapple cakes and cookies, pineapple chocolate (YUM) pineapple jello-looking stuff, pineapple gummies, pineapple candy, pineapple pie, you name it, they have it in pineapple. They were also selling pickle juice, and me being curious tasted it and i nearly threw up. I had to get some more pineapple juice to get rid of the taste in my mouth.

Then we drove again. We looked all over to find a Japanese Historical Landmark or something like that but the signs were obviously misleading because we drove for like 30 minutes trying to find it. So we decided to move on. We ended up near the Ocean Expo Park and found Naki-jin Castle Ruins. It was cool, again another 400 yen per adult. We stopped in front for lunch, Danny had some pork soba and I had pork Chow Mein. The only kind of meat they had there was... you guessed it... pork. It made me wonder if there was something significant about pork to that specific castle but I really have no idea and could have totally pulled that out of nothing. My food tasted like ginger, so I didn't eat much of it (not a big fan of ginger unless it's used in gingersnaps or teriyaki sauce).

We headed up to the castle. There were a million stairs, or so it seemed, but lots of cherry blossoms along the way making the sight prettier than it would be at any other time of year. Unfortunately it's only the beginning of sakura season, so there weren't a whole lot of blossoms... but the ones that were there were little pink masterpieces. On we headed, there were quite a few people running around, so we weren't able to set up our tripod just anywhere we wanted to because people like to walk in front of it. I got tired and a little dizzy, so we sat on a little hill looking at the castle walls and beyond those, the ocean. It was a beautiful day. Unfortunately it was getting close to 5pm so the sun was already beginning to go down. If we had stayed longer we probably would have gotten to see the sunset over the ocean, but I was hungry and ready to head home. Plus there were some annoying high school girls playing on the hill ahead of us making crazy noises and laughing like they were high. They started taking pictures of themselves jumping off of the castle walls and so we decided to leave.

On the drive home we saw the sunset. The skies and sunsets are two things I will miss most about Okinawa. They are so clear and so beautiful. We didn't make it to the beach we wanted to sit on in time to watch the sunset due to traffic, so we watched it from the car.. but at least we were together. The sky is so vividly orange and the water so blue... it's an amazing contrast I wish I could have caught better on camera. All in all we had a wonderful day, and ended it by eating at a Hawaiian restaurant called Ono Kau Kau near base. One day I'll get pictures of that, too.

I think after finally having some time to spend with my husband and actually going out to see the island, I may be starting to like it here a little more. It isn't enough for me to want to stay here, because I'm still so far away from family, but it will make my time left here more enjoyable and a little easier to bear. I just wish my sisters and my mom and dad could see this too. I'm so glad that the Sanojas made it out last year to see some of the island with us.. and hope with all my heart that more of them visit us in our last year here.