Castle Spotting

Okinawa is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, islands that have a rich history long before they became a part of Japan. The Ryukyu Kingdom was in a great position for trade, given its proximity to Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. There were many gusukus (castles / fortresses, sometimes holy places) built during the Ryukyu Kingdom's heyday, the ruins of which you can visit all over the island. It seems like there is a sign pointing to a castle site no matter the road you are on. Some are in better shape than others; the only castle that has been rebuilt is Shuri Castle in the city of Naha, a site we plan to see soon!

As part of a Brownie Try-It about the West Pacific (and really Okinawa specifically), we are visiting castle ruins. The first one we visited was Zakimi Castle in Yomitan.

Headed towards the keystone arch

Sense of size and curvature of walls

The Zakimi castle site is one of the many sites in Okinawa that has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was constructed in the early 15th century, with walls made of Ryukuan limestone. Apparently, this is not a deterrent for the Fearless Miss M.

No worries, she did not try to climb the walls. For effect only, people!

After visiting the castle, we went next door to the Yomitan Historical and Folkcraft Museum. There were many archaeological artifacts, displays on weaving and farming, a replica of a "turtle-back" tomb, and another replica of an old house. There were also some World War II artifacts. In fact, the US troops landed on Okinawa not far from Zakimi when the Battle of Okinawa (main island) began. Although most of the displays were in Japanese, it was still worthwhile.  

Examples of the funerary urns.
Once the deceased's remains were only bones, the bones were washed and placed in urns within the tombs.

Our next journey to a castle site was as a family, in between two other stops on an adventurous Saturday. The heat was a bit much that day, but we managed to walk most of the grounds of the Nakijin Castle site in Northern Okinawa on the Motobu Peninsula. There is evidence that construction of this castle begain in the 13th century.

Once again, Zoe is not impressed.

This poem tells about the King who was "advanced in age" being blessed with a child from his Queen. The Queen and the King's concubine had prayed for the King to have an heir. The conception was like an "orange tree bearing fruit out of season ". Nothing like being compared to a presumably dormant tree.

The only existing photographic evidence of King and Queen Hokuzan is shown below:

Although we certainly have ancient ruins in the US, most are probably not on the way to the local convenience store, or situated off every major highway. I am increasingly aware of how the past here is woven into the everyday experience of Okinawans. These sites tell the history of the Okinawan people, not the history of Japan. It is akin, I suppose, to the Native American sites in the US. Those sites do not tell the history of the United States, but rather of the Native culture that thrived long before anyone else arrived. I have never been much of a lover of history, despite my father's influence, but living here is changing that.  Until next time...

Wandering & Wondering at the Okinawa Zoo

A few weekends ago we woke up wondering what the weather was going to do. It was hard to tell if we were going to be in for a rainy day or if we might be able to spend some time outdoors. Hedging our bets, we headed to the Okinawa Zoo & Wonder Museum. This provided options for indoor or outdoor play. Maddox had gone with the afterschool program on a field trip program to the Wonder Museum the previous week, and was excited to show Zoe around.

We started in the zoo portion of the campus. The zoo is old-school, meaning the habitats are not ideal and expansive the way they are in most places in the US. That said, it provided us some up-close looks of the animals . My favorite were the hippos who were enjoying a hose-down. I thought about jumping in the cage and enjoying one myself.

They also had a small petting zoo area, mostly to pick up chicks (no, not like that) and turtles. Zoe is pretty skeptical of most animals in the world, so she just watched while Maddox checked it out.

After lunch at the snack bar, we headed to the Wonder Museum for the air-conditioning and the wonder, of course. This is a hands-on children's museum. Many things either had English explanations or were self-explanatory. The girls bounced around from place to place and enjoyed themselves. Dress-up was of course a popular spot.

This girl still loves to draw ... anytime, anywhere.

 

Butterfly Princesses

I think this costime was made for a toddler. She cracks herself (and us) up.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (ba dum bum)

In her own little imaginary world

One area of ​​the Wonder Museum that I really liked involved a large area to create large patterns or pictures with felt shapes. I am not sure what the girls were creating, but I think it involved a path to stay away from hot lava.  

The best part of this area were the directions for clean-up. There were templates and a request to please place shapes back where they belonged in neat stacks.

 My thoughts were:

1) I want to be BFF with the person who thought of this and

2) I do not think this would work in the US Am I underestimating Americans here?

Later that evening we landed in Yomitan at the Okinawa Brewing Company, a place with great wood-fired pizzas, free popcorn, and good beer on tap. They can not sell their own beer yet, but are working on their licensing. I wondered if John was thinking about picking up a part-time job standing over the outdoor wood-fired pizza ovens just to make it feel more like home.

This particular day marked our one-month anniversary in Okinawa. We have enjoyed so much of the island already and are grateful that we still have a few more months to explore -- and visitors to entertain soon!

Scouting the Tide Pools

My mom is in a kerchief, probably blue or red, leaning over a tidepool in Portsmouth, NH. She is probably wearing a navy blue top of some kind, but probably not wearing jeans. Khakis instead. Undoubtedly, she is wearing lipstick. She is leading my Girl Scout troop, and she has taken us camping. My memory says 4th or 5th grade, Junior Scouts for certain. I am sure there were other leaders there, maybe Mrs. Crossman or Mrs. Dale (although she was probably doing cookie inventory in her garage) or another sainted mother who willingly gave up a weekend to spend with a group of pre-teen girls, most of whom found the inhabitants of the tidepools rather disgusting. If I had my photo albums from my childhood with me here in Okinawa, I would include an awesome photo of our tidepool excursion, pre-orthodontia for me, my mother looking almost exactly the same as she does now. While I was only in Girl Scouts through 6th grade, I have many fond memories of the excursions and the badge requirements, the overnight camps at Camp Farnsworth and Camp Albany, the bridging up ceremonies, and selling cookies to everyone in the OR. Although I did not last through all the ranks of Girl Scouts, it was a formative experience, and one that I am trying to replicate for Maddox, and eventually Zoe.

Maddox is in her 3rd year of Girl Scouts now, but this year is working independently since we are away from our troop. We are currently working on two badges that were developed by the West Pacific Girl Scouts that are ideal for exploring Okinawa. There is some overlap with the Dolbow School Standards for Science and Social Studies, so the badges provide us with some framework for our studies. And lo and behold, one chosen activity is tidepooling.

Cape Manzamo

Maddox and I headed to Cape Manzamo which is located in our village of Onna. I had checked the tide tables for low tide, packed towels just in case, and put our water bottles in the freezer (which I of course left in the freezer like a rookie). The walk from the parking lot to the path that led to the cool tidepooling area was much longer (and hotter and thirstier) than I expected, so we got off to a slow start.

Okinawan Screw Pine Tree, all along our walk

We eventually found the "path" - some trodden grass - and followed it to a cave that we climbed down into. We walked out of the cave, climbed over some lava rock, and had the beach to ourselves and enough tidepools to entertain us for a while.

The cave along our path

Lava rock in the background

Our tidepools!

Ultimately, we didn't last as long as I would have liked.  I had a plan, but we were too thirsty to implement it.  If I ever become a Girl Scout leader, you can be sure I will never forget water again! But we did see some cool creatures, and hope to go back again sometime when we are prepared and when the heat decides to take a weekend off. And next time, I think we both need kerchiefs.

A type of brittle starfish

Next time I will bring my "real" camera, but hopefully you can see these bright blue fish

Cape Manzamo, Okinawa is a long way from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but the lessons remain the same. Who knows where the next generation of tidepoolers in our family line will end up! 

And a few more shots of our morning:

It's a beautful place. So glad to have an adventurous daughter to share it with!

When Life Hands You Salt Water...

A few weeks ago we went to the village of Yomitan to learn more about two popular food items in Okinawa: beni-imo and sea salt.

First we went to Okashi Goten, a store filled with sweets made from beni-imo. Beni-imo is a local purple sweet potato and is the major crop in Yomitan. Here are the girls posing in front of the store's statue of the beni-imo tart. 

Zoe's face sums up my feelings about the tart. Okay, not great.

The store sells every manner of treat made from this stuff. The color is beautiful, but the treats are not terribly sweet by American standards. They do not really do it for me. But there were lots of free samples, and we could observe the production line. The girls enjoyed watching the tarts go from the large baking trays, to the ovens, to the cooling racks, and then through the wrapping machine. Didn't Mister Rogers take visits to factories to show how things were made? That is what it reminded me of, without the trolley or the cardigan. Maddox was particularly intrigued by the factory process. Maybe she will be an engineer! (Apple, tree, not far.)

Like Willy Wonka, but with purple sweet potato

Ready for baking!

After a few samples and some Okinawan Blue Seal ice cream (oh, the sugar cane ice cream ... ahhhmazing), we headed to Gala Aoiumi  to learn about Okinawan sea salt. The sea salt here is known for its quality, and we figured we should learn how to extract some salt of our own! 

First, you get instructions, and a stone bowl filled with seawater that has already been boiled down some. Then you put the stone bowl on a fire pit that is incredibly hot and dangerously close. No, Dorothy, you aren't in the U.S. anymore!

Then you stir and stir, and warn your unfocused children to be careful with sticks, and stir and stir, and tell Zoe that yes, you will take her to run around the adjacent field, and stir and stir, and ask Maddox not to accidentally flick salt in your face, and remind them again that it is really really really hot, and then you stir, and then a kind man with heat-resistant gloves and a clamp declares that you are ready to move to the table for the final portion of the salt-making, and then you wonder if you have successfully completed this detour and are going to get your next clue on the Amazing Race!

My mission: try to find a photo op in which Zoe looks impressed. Mission not accomplished.

Almost there!  Continue stirring to make sure all water has evaporated.

Finally, your stirring is done, and the same kind man brings you fresh rice crackers so that you can taste-test your salt, and he shows you how to pack up your salt in a lovely pottery piece and tie it with a pretty ribbon.  Maddox also really enjoyed this project.  Maybe a chemist like Poppy rather than an engineer like Daddy? Or maybe she is just preparing for some future gig on a cooking show.

So now I have a lovely bit of sea salt, and I keep wondering if it would taste good on the rim of a good margarita, or to season a perfect steak from the Big Green Egg.

The day ended with pizza (a surprisingly easy thing to find here) at the adjacent restaurant, on a deck, watching the sunset.  A serious game of hangman ensued.  Perfecto*, as Maddox would say.

*Apparently perfecto is better than perfect; we have some serious homeschooling work to do regarding definitions. Or we'll just start Spanish lessons in Albuquerque.

Let the Field Trips Begin!

As a classroom teacher, I was never a fan of field trips. Permission slips, substitute lesson plans, bus drivers, the lack of learning in most cases : it was just too much effort with too little to show in the end. That said, I am sure my physics students in Atlanta loved the Six Flags Physics Day, especially when they watched Miss Sy take on the roller coasters. 

Luckily, field trips look a little different with a student: teacher ratio of 1:1. Maddox had scoped out the information on an Underwater Observatory  about 30 minutes North of us,  and so we counted our yen, filled our water bottles, and headed out the door.  

This is the observatory at the end of this pier. It goes down about 4 meters.

The location of this observatory is stunning, like much of the coastline of Okinawa. This particular beach area is adjacent to one of the nicest resorts on the island, and is a hot tourist destination. We bought our tickets for the glass-bottom boat ride and the observatory.

First, we took the boat ride. The water was crystal clear and the boat captain and tourists fed the fish to insure that there would be fish to see! We saw so many different varieties of fish swimming in the coral. My favorite was probably the blue starfish. After the boat ride, we headed towards the observatory.

The observatory is at the end of this long pier.

Once inside the observatory, you climb down a few dozen steps, and there are windows to look out from all sides. We spent quite a long time watching the fish. According to Maddox's field notes, we observed Banana Wrasse, Yellowfin Goatfish, Blue Starfish , Needlefish, Blowfish, Emperor Snapper, Yellowbar Parrotfish, Moorish Idol and the Indo-Pacific Sergeant. 

Indo-Pacific Sargeant, my favorite

We also saw someone's eyeglasses at the bottom of the ocean which she found the most interesting. But the coolest thing was seeing the Clownfish (Nemo) and the sea anemone. The observatory has an anemone placed on a sill outside one of the windows with a net holding it there, so everyone can observe the star of the show. It did not look real ; somehow at its most colorful, nature seems impossible.

Finding Nemo!

Sometimes I am worried that she is not learning enough, as if it matters whether she remembers the names of the fish she observed. I know it is important to cultivate her curiosity, so that she does not pass through life as a mere observer. I want her to wonder why the anemone is not lethal to Nemo. But for now, I think it just may be enough to know that these things exist. How amazing to live in a world such as ours, and how grateful I am to share it with her.

Maybe my former physics students do not remember how to calculate the speed of a roller coaster at the bottom of a hill, but maybe they take their kids there now, and say, "I remember coming here on a field trip. It's all physics, kid." And I guess that's worth the hassle of a few permissions slips. And hopefully Maddox will watch Finding Nemo with her ​​kids someday - in her Smart House with Holographic TV - and say, "You know, I saw Nemo once. Maybe I can take you there some day. "

One Month Anniversary!

It is hard to believe, but today marks one month since arriving in Okinawa. We have already seen and tasted a lot, but the list of places to visit and eat continues to grow. The nice thing about being here for a short period of time is that we make the most of our days here. We definitely are trying to fit it all in somehow! Today is also our nephew and cousin Kyle's birthday. Tanjoubi Omedetou, Kyle!

To continue from my last post, you may be shocked to learn that not one week into third grade, Maddox found herself at Captain Kangaroo's. Lucky for her, Captain Kangaroo's is not the imaginary principal's office of my childhood, but a great burger joint in Nago, about 45 minutes north of here. As much as we want to try the local cuisine, sometimes we just want a good burger. 

It was worth the drive for us, and Maddox even chose to do some schoolwork during the meal. Or maybe she did think she was at the principal's office.

The fries must have been good brain food.

I keep thinking that I can get a cute selfie of me with the girls. You know, just to prove that I am actually here. Instead of cute, I will settle for acceptable. 

Why can not I figure out where to look? I look like a robot! Anyway, the burger and beers made me smile.

Later that weekend, we went a little south from our location to the Village of Yomitan to watch a Youth Eisa Festival at the local baseball stadium. Eisa is a traditional Okinawan folk dance that involves singing, drumming, and a sanshin (local 3-stringed instrument ) accompaniment.   

Although this is not video from where we were, you can get the gist from the video below. Although this video just shows men, the performances we saw included women as well, mostly singing and dancing.

I find performances like these so incredible, not only because they highlight the unique qualities of a particular culture, but also because they underscore the common elements across many cultures. The drums, the bright colors, the chant-like singing: there is a heartbeat at the center of it all that touches me.  Of course, for our kids, the heartbeat at the center of it all may just be the next Taylor Swift or global boy band, but I hope some of these cultural experiences make an impression on them, too. At least we can say we tried!