In real life, we don't go out to breakfast very often. My Saturday morning routine is to make chocolate chip pancakes for the minions, and John and I eat cereal as usual. But this is not real life. So most weekends, we went out for pancakes, and our absolute favorite place to go was in Yomitan at a place called Jakkepoes. Because of course there was a Dutch pancake house in Okinawa.
This is a place we only knew about because of Okinawa Hai. It is not a place you would drive by since it is on a dead-end road in a village. And as you can see in the photo below, parking was pretty limited!
After filling up on pancakes (I highly recommend the banana and chocolate chip pancakes!), we ventured out to Comprehensive Park. This park came highly recommended as one of the best parks in Okinawa for the sheer expanse of the place. The first time we went, the air was suffocating and we managed to park as far as possible from the playground area. Let's just say it wasn't a huge success. But there was enough there to motivate us to get back there when the temperatures were more reasonable.
One of the main motivations for going back was the opportunity to rent bikes. For some reasonable price, we could all rent bikes and explore the park. We ran into some rain, found shelter, got soaked anyway, and enjoyed the day!
John was a good sport and carried the floral, child-sized backpack because I am not a strong biker. With any added item to balance, it was probably not going to end well for me.
The girls loved the bikes, and with more time on the island, we probably would have gone back. We discovered the zip lines that day too which kept Maddox greatly entertained. Zoe was entertained by the zip line until she zipped right through a mud puddle during a low point. She was not amused, and I have the video to prove it. In the interest of her future self-esteem, I won't post it here.
After drying off the girls' wet clothes using the car heater, we headed to the sushi-go-round place near American Village again. The girls ate chicken nuggets and edamame. Just like home!
It's funny to think about our days in Okinawa, and then think about a day in Durham. We never would drive 30 minutes to a pancake house, another 30+ minutes to a park, another 30 minutes to a restaurant, and then an hour home. We don't need to do that in Durham where everything is less than 20 minutes from our home base, and where spending that much time in the car would never be a great option for a typical weekend. But this kind of day was the norm for us in Okinawa. I'd like to think we will bring some of that spirit of exploration back with us to Durham, but maybe with a little less driving. After all, I am pretty sure we saw more of Okinawa than we have of our adopted hometown.
Stay tuned for the upcoming adventures on the blog: Mainland Japan!
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