Kokusai Street Lunch

On Saturday I convinced Joe to come with me to Kokusai Street to do some Christmas shopping.  Being the nice guy that he is, he agreed to come along. 

We have been to Kokusai Street before - the main part of the "Street" is filled with restaurants, gift shops, music shops and all things Japanese/Okinawan that you would want to take home after a vacation.  The seasoned Kokusai Street traveler (me!)  knows that there is much beyond the street.  "Behind"  and under the street there is another world....

.... it's where the "real" Okinawans seem to go.  There is everything from produce, meats, glassware, rugs, fish, tapestries, novelties & gifts, restaurants, bakeries, clothing, luggage.... I could go on and on!

Joe chose the restaurant (as you can tell, he was a little reticent to have his picture taken!) and he picked perfectly!  This tiny place opened at 11 am, and had people waiting before 11 for food!  Again, I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was, as there was very little English outside.

Once inside, we were greeted warmly and offered English menus - phew!  I thought we were going to eat soba (since it's one of the few things we can always recognize!).  As usual, Joe ate so fast that I missed being able to take a picture of his lunch.  He had the pork belly set (set means with seaweed soup and rice).  Mine was similar to his (at least in presentation), but I had the ginger pork witth eggplant set.  It was served beautifully with an array of vegetables.  Delicious!

I would have taken more photos on Kokusai Street and in the market, but it was raining pretty hard all morning.  Never fear, I'm sure we'll be returning soon!

Izakaya

I can't believe that it's taken us over a year to go to the Izakaya in Awase.  In Japan, an Izakaya is like a bar and grill.  They have a happy hour, serve "pub food" (Japanese style) and are open late into the night. 

Every day we pass this Izakaya on the way home.  I don't know why it's our favorite, except that maybe it's within walking distance!

200 yen for an Orion Beer before 8 pm

I don't know if we've talked about this before - in many Okinawan restaurants there is a tiny buzzer you use to call your waiter/waitress.

I think this was our second Orion.  Joe was having "a happy time"!

I forgot to take pictures of what we ate (as usual!).  The menu was totally in Japanese, except for a few photos.  We tried: Beef with Miso, some sort of "super fries", warm edamame and sushi rolls.  All were great and went perfectly with the Orion!

We can't wait to go back again!  (Although it will have to be after 11/17..... Joe has his Navy run & weigh-in that day!)

Tsuken-jima

At the beginning of October Joe and I went to Tsuken-jima (island).  We see this little island from our patio every day (just behind the Awase Communications Tower).  We also see it when we go to White Beach - rather, we see the little ferry going out to the island!  So for this Columbus Day, Joe and I decided to have another adventure!  Here we go, from waking up.......

Joe was awake for the entire sunrise!

 

Ferry schedule for Tsuken-jima.  We left at 7:30am.

Our first boat was a small "jet" ferry.

Have you ever seen him happier?

Pulling away from Okinawa!

You can see White Beach from the boat.

White Beach was very busy!  We made a wise choice to go to the tiny island instead.



Awase Communications tower - our home is right behind that!

arriving at Tsuken-jima

When we got to this little island, there wasn't a "cruise director" or customs or any sort of "travel agent".  We had looked at a map before we went, and figured we needed to head west to get to the beach.  There was an Okinawan family who was very kind and made sure we were going in the right direction!  To get to the beach, you have to go through the little town.

Tsuken-jima is known for growing carrots.  It's cute that the happy carrot is even on their sewer covers.

The town wasn't very large.  Soon we were on the open road, getting closer to the beach!!

The beach was great!   At 8 am it was only us and the Okinawan family.  This picture was taken later in the day (we were so excited to make it there, we forgot to take a picture.  We were in the water, napping and chatting.  It was GREAT!

This beach area is a tiny resort.  We had soba and yaki soba for lunch at the restaurant.  It was funny to watch an American baseball game, while on one of the tinier Ryukyu islands!  I think this was a Giants game, but I can't remember who they were playing.......

After lunch, we decided to check out the rest of the island.  It is definately a farm!  I only posted one photo, because we walked all around the island and really just saw fields that were just planted.  Interesting to see a new place, but a farm is  farm.  (I'm sure Joe would disagree with me here!)

Once we finished exploring the island, it was time to head back.  This is the ferry we rode back on -- you can take a car on it, if you like.  It's also the ferry we always see going out to Tsuken.

Pulling away from Tsuken.

Joe caught a great picture of the beach we were at.  The white building to the right is where we had lunch.

It was a fun day!



Symphony in Okinawa

I have recently made friends with some local Okinawa musicians, who have finally connected us to a symphony!  There is a beautiful hall, Tedako Hall in Urasoe.  We have been twice in the month of October.  The first concert was with the Vicanta Orchestra.  This concert featured a bass soloist, soprano (who was heavenly!) and two piano soloists.  Overall, it was a wonderful concert that helped fill a void for Joe and I. 

Tedako Hall

These were the coolest stairs -- a ramp within the stairs!



Entrance

At the end of October, I was offered tickets to another concert at Tedako Hall.  This time it was traditional Okinawan music for the symphony -- a sort of "pops" concert.  This was great fun!  As you can see, I was a little less shy about taking my camera out this time (we were in the last row of the balcony).

These Okinawan songs were for choir and solo sanshin.

After intermission the stage was changed quite drastically.  You can see the choir has been replaced by a "choir" of sanshin players.

The "traditional" Okinawan musicians would play the melody in unison while singing.

Dancers



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To try to capture the unique sounds, I took one tiny (although still inappropriate!) video. You only see the ceiling of Tedako Hall, but you can hear the sanshin "chorus" with the orchestra.

The Eisa drummers were added for the last song.  The were thunderous!

I also wanted to share the sounds of the Eisa drums.  Here's another little sound snippet!



At the end, the maestro invited all of the composers onstage.  All the orchestra music was specially written by these Okinawan composers.



On our way out, we ran into one of the composers in the lobby.  Joe tried to give him a big smile and thumbs up for his great work. I'm not sure why we forgot about "bravo!"  That might have translated!!