Ocean Expo Park-Okinawa Aquarium

The Okinawa Commemorative National Government Park is a national government park that was built in August 1976 to commemorate the 1975 Okinawa International Ocean Expo.

Currently, it acts as one of the main centers of tourism in Okinawa, especially for the northern region of the main island.

Within the three areas of the park, the history and culture area features facilities such as the Oceanic Culture Museum, which displays approximately 1000 artifacts of tools used in daily life and for fishing by the maritime people living within the South East Asia region, the Native Okinawan Village, which recreates the traditional group housing and private gardens from the Ryukyu era, and the Omoro Arboretum which houses 22 of the most renown plants introduced in the Okinawa traditional "Omorosaushi" song collection.

The ocean area features facilities such as the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world and home to enormous sharks and rays such as the whale shark and manta ray, the Oki-chan Theater, where our dolphin show has been running since the Ocean Expo days, the Manatee Pool, home to manatees that were a gift from the Mexican government, the Sea Turtle Pool, where visitors can watch sea turtles develop from laying eggs to maturation, the Dolphin Lagoon, where visitors can watch and understand the various skills and abilities of dolphins as well as our artificial finned dolphin, and the Emerald Beach, where visitors can swim (April-Oct) and enjoy the man-made 6-hectare white sand beach, which was selected as one of the 88 best beaches in Japan.

The flower and greenery area features facilities such as the Tropical Dream Center, where we have created one of the world's largest green-houses, allowing flowers to bloom throughout the year and housing numerous tropical plants, such as orchids, tropical fruit, and flowering trees, the Sunset Square, where visitors can watch the beautiful sunset into the East China Sea, and the Tropical & Subtropical Arboretum of the City Greenery Project (Greenery Kingdom), a favorite attraction with our overseas visitors.
























There was so much to see and do we only made it to the aquarium. If you read what I pulled off their website above there is still plenty more for us to see. We bought season passes and will be up there quite a bit. Sorry for the picture overload.

Pizza In the Sky

We ventured out on Sunday and went to a restaurant I had read about. We were given rough directions, and when I say rough we were somewhat guessing. We ended up in someones driveway and Joe had to help me back out as it was up a hill and there was a drop off I didn't want to back up on. Even though the van is smaller than American ones it's still a beast around here.

We did find it by taking roads that could only fit one car on at a time. You had to watch for on coming cars and take turns using the road. When we got there and walked up the drive way the smell was amazing. I can imagine how the pizza place was probably once someones home. I wish I would have taken some photos once we got inside but I was holding Chase and trying to keep him good while we ate.

What kind of Pizza did we have? Well, this is one for the books. The only make one type of pizza for the day. Ours so happened to be a garlic, corn, bell pepper and hot dog pizza. Let me tell you it was awesome. I didn't eat my hot dogs, they were given to Carter because he didn't want the pizza just the dogs but I would have never imagined a hot dog and corn pizza would actually taste great. The restaurant was packed and we actually had to wait about 20 minutes to get a seat. People come from all over the island to eat there. Two thumbs up!

The Japanese women love Chase. The lady in red came right up to Joe speaking Japanese and scooped him right up and away she went. She probably held him most of those 20 minutes. Also Carter has a fascination with Chasers feet. They just happen to be at the right height for his mouth when Joe is holding him.

I am sure we will go back and I will take photos of the inside and of the pizza.

The Van

So here is my new ride. I never thought I would be a mini-van mom but around here it's either a tiny car or a van. Yes there are a few SUV's they are called Toyota Surfs. In the States you would refer to them as Toyota 4-Runners. The thing is they are way over priced here and really not all that big, not when we are use to our big Tahoe. So...mini-van it is.

The boys do think it's pretty cool because the seats can turn around and face each other and there is a huge sunroof that opens up over their seats. There is a sunroof over the driver and passenger seat as well. The van is pretty cool I do have to admit and its got some great get up and go power that the little car just didn't have.

Don't worry, Chasers seat isn't turned around forward I just didn't take it out for the pictures. When his big boy car seat gets here next month I will be able to flip all the seats around and he will be facing backwards but still get to see Bryson and Carter. He will probably be the only kid that actually faces backwards all the way to a year. I was bad with the older boys. I flipped Bryson forward at 5 months and Carter at 4 months. They were both in their big boy car seats at that time and hated being backwards. This time Chase will actually be entertained by his big brothers. They are going to have a blast back there.

All I want for Christmas....

The Tooth Fairy has gone broke here in Okinawa. Bryson has lost his two front teeth. He lost one on Saturday August 1, and then the second one he lost on Thursday August 6. Did you know that the Tooth Fairy pays in Yen? We were totally shocked and so was Bryson. We weren't sure how she was going to pay Bryson, so I guess we have a Japanese tooth fairy here.

The Beach

We went to the Beach on Saturday after car shopping. We didn't stay long because it was so hot and we didn't have our big beach umbrella for Chase. Thankfully I put it in our express shipment and it will be here Thursday.

This beach is very popular because it's netted to keep the jelly fish and larger fish out and it has a huge Pirate ship on the beach. Here are a few photos.

Car

This is a car that we have been lucky enough to borrow. Its a cute little car but let me tell you it has no power to it. Most of the roads here are between 25 and 60 kilometers. Which isn't very fast and people pass me left and right. I can only get the car up to 60 kilometers if I am going down a hill. It I am driving up a hill which there are lots here I can go in between 20 and 30 kilometers. As the cars are passing us by we all just laugh because it feels like the Flintstones that we could pick up the car and run it faster. Though I am not sure what we would do without it. We are very thankful that we have are Fred Flintstone car. We bought a van on Saturday and it should be ready for pick up tomorrow after four. If not it will be ready on Wednesday. Our borrowed furniture gets delivered to our house on Wednesday and we get to move in on Thursday. Yeah!! We are so ready to be out of our hotel.

By the way we are now no longer driving illegally as Joe and I both passed our tests. He made 100 and I made a 95. Joe says I must have marked the wrong answer because they were right next to each other and I was holding Chase so he was my handicap. He is so sweet not to rub it in because had it been the other way around he would not be hearing the end of it for the next few years.

I will take pictures of the new car when we pick it up tomorrow/Wednesday.