With the weather finally relatively nice, it was time to get our butts outside to do some sightseeing. I say relatively nice because while the sun was shining, it was also in the high 90s and humid, so it looked beautiful but felt miserable. We started off by catching the bus to Foster, figuring it would save us a little money on cab fare as the exchange rate has been pretty rough lately. From there, we grabbed a cab to take us to our first stop, the Nakamura House, an 18th century farmhouse that is now a museum. We were actually able to actually walk through the house, which required taking off our shoes first. What I found really cool about this was not only how soft the tatami mats are (I’m totally wanting to do a whole room with them once I have my own place again), but also how smooth and soft the wood was in between rooms and on the steps up to the house. Another feature of the house I dug was the wooden pegs that were used to actually hold the house together. Houses really aren’t made like that anymore.

We also saw some examples of shisa, or shishi, dogs, the traditional Ryukyuan guardians that are often placed at the doors or on the rooftops of houses. The shisa consist of a male and a female, one with its mouth open and the other with its mouth closed. According to legend, the male has his mouth open to expel evil from the home while the female has her mouth closed to keep in the happiness. However, there are some who believe that the closed mouth dog is the male, who keeps evil out, while the female’s mouth is open to share happiness.

After we were done at the Nakamura House, we walked up the hill to Nakagusuku Castle, the first stone castle to be built in Japan. It was built in 1450, but at this point it is in ruins. But the really cool things about Nakagusuku Castle is the view because it is so high up on the island. From the first section of the castle ruins, it is possible to see the Pacific Ocean on one side and the East China Sea on the other. I took a video, which can be seen here, but keep in mind it’s very shaky. As impressive as the view from this vantage point was, I think the next thing Andy and I saw ended up being our favorite part of the castle. Stepping down from the first section, we discovered a stone staircase leading to a well. While we were not looking forward to going back up the stairs, our curiosity got the better of us, we made our descent and were immediately rewarded by a temperature drop of at least ten degrees. I probably could’ve sat down there the rest of the day and been completely content.

By this point my trip to Okinawa was about 60 percent complete and I still hadn’t made it to the beach even though all I could see was beautiful clear water and every day was hot. So it was just our luck that the day we planned on going to Kadena Marina for snorkeling would be the day the storm clouds rolled in. Instead, Andy and I, along with his friend Austin, went to Araha Park to spend some time walking around and taking photos. The rain didn’t hold off forever, though, and we waited it out up at Futenma bowling and seeing a movie.

The next day it was time to check out of our hotel room on Futenma and go back to Naha for the last three days of my trip. Since it was a beautiful day and we had time to kill between checking out of one hotel and into the next, Austin picked us up and we went to Kadena Marina to finally go snorkeling. This was my first time snorkeling and as someone who isn’t a strong swimmer I was pretty nervous. While I did give it my best try, it just didn’t work out for me and I wasn’t having fun at all. Luckily, I have the best husband ever because even though he really wanted to go snorkeling he was totally cool with heading over to the beach area and just swimming and hanging out in the water. After, we head out for a bite to eat before Austin drove us to Naha to check into our hotel.

Flickr sets in this post: Japan August 2010