Ie Island: In Which We Discover Fame

On the girls' bucket list was taking a ferry to the volcano. Although we were headed to Seattle after our time in Okinawa, a place where ferries are easy to come by, they really wanted to take one while in Japan. As for the volcano? Well, it wasn't a volcano, but it was a small mountain on a nearby island -- Ie Island -- that we could usually see clearly from our apartment window. So with just a couple weekends left, and the indispensable help of our friend Erica who made all of our ticket reservations, we headed to the volcano, er, mountain.

After we drove our car onto the ferry and began to walk up to the decks, we found ourselves in the midst of a rather large school group. The teenagers were giggling at our girls and repeatedly saying "kawaii".  I knew that in parts of Asia seeing some cute American girls would generate a buzz, but we hadn't experienced this on Okinawa since there is such a large American presence on the island. But it turns out these teens were from Osaka (not far from Kyoto), and were probably less accustomed to seeing Americans. And so the paparazzi parade began:

The teenagers did ask if they could take photos of the kids, and Maddox was happy to oblige although I could tell she thought it was a bit odd. What was interesting is that they were especially interested in Zoe, even though Maddox is the one with the light hair and blue eyes. Zoe didn't smile for a single photo, but at least she let the teens pose with her. Ah, the woes of the famous.

Notice that we haven't even left port yet!

I learned that "kawaii" means "cute", and if you ever want to learn more about the word, you can catch this classic YouTube video that my friend Meredith shared with me. You're welcome.

Two of my favorite stars!

So all of that was well and good, cute, laughable, great story, yada yada yada. While I was busy chaperoning the girls' photo sessions, I hear John call out, "Alice, turn around. Get a picture of this!" And this is what I see:

I wish I had also snapped photos of the guys who were snapping selfies with John. The whole thing was a riot - did they think he was famous? Tom Cruise visiting Ie Island? Run-of-the-mill American hunk? Who knows, but it was one of the top 5 laughs I had in 2014, for sure. They were completely uninterested in me, a fact that I am sure shocks my loyal readers.

After our eventful ferry ride, we drove to Gusukuyama, or Castle Mountain. Given that the island is only 9 square miles, it was pretty easy to find the big rock in the middle of it.

There were stairs and handrails going up which, although steep, helped us make it to the top fairly easily. The peak is about 575 feet, which is a lot of stairs! Once at the top, we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the island, which is almost completely used for agriculural purposes: sweet potatoes, peanuts, chrysanthemums, lilies, and more.

I did manage to snap a photo of the famous members of the Dolbow clan once at the top.

The teens were also hiking the mountain, and took the opportunity for a few more shots, mostly of Maddox, when we reached the summit.

What goes up, must come down. Thank goodness for the stairs or we would have all had to slide.

After lunch at a local burger establishment, we had some time to drive around a bit before we had a reservation for horseback riding. We stopped at one area called Wajee which had beautiful cliffs and great views of the blues in the ocean here.

The other bucket list item for Maddox was riding horses while on Ie Island. We had made reservations for a ride along the beach for the afternoon.

It turns out that this was quite possibly John's first time on a horse. I can't imagine a more unusual setting for an inaugural horseback ride.

Zoe wasn't interested in being on her own horse, which was fine with me. She did crack a smile for the selfie, but I think she was pretty uncomfortable as two people don't easily fit on a saddle.  The proprietors of the horse barn led the horses the whole way. Maddox had been wishing for, and likely imagining, the opportunity to gallop freely along the beach, but that will have to wait for another day. (Also, she's never galloped.)

Our horseback ride along the beach

It's really too bad that I didn't send out Christmas cards for 2014, because this is the perfect photo! Let's just say it was 2015 and I'll send it out this year, deal? Deal.

Despite Ie Island's small size, there were parts of the Battle of Okinawa fought here as well, and 3,500 people died. One of those who died was the journalist Ernie Pyle, and there is a memorial on Ie that honors him. Although we didn't visit this or any other wartime sites during our day, I was struck again by how devastating the Battle was, and how pervasive the fighting was - it even reached this tiny farming island.

We were ushered back on the ferry by a beautiful evening sky. There is something about looking out over the ocean (or the sea in this case) that brings me great calm. On this night, it even brought some calm and sisterly love to the kawaii-est girls we know.

Although I have a post or two left before I say "sayonara", this was the last major adventure of our time in Okinawa. We couldn't have asked for a better way to wrap up these few months. I mean, it's not every day you discover fame on a ferry.