Naminoue & Kokusai Street

Brandon with his fortune for this year and his lucky charm for his SM-X.

Monday was our last day with Kristin and Lee.  We spent it wandering around Naha, visiting the area Lee remembered from the time he was stationed here. 

We stopped at Naminoue Shrine and Brandon and I took this opportunity to take part in some of the traditional Japanese New Year activities.  We got our fortunes for this year and our good luck charms for our cars.  Both of us received good fortunes that you can read in our photo gallery.  Gee, now that I think about it, I hope our fortunes aren't supposed to be kept as a secret!  :) 

We wandered around the Naminoue area of Naha and found a great little place for lunch!  We ate at Steak House 88 (a chain here), which in this area, was a small diner that had been there since the 60s.  They played a lot of Elvis and other oldies that would have been played when that area was wall-to-wall with GIs.  The grandma-aged waitress was so peached with us being a family, Lee having been to Naminoue many years ago, and my understanding of a little Japanese.  We all had wonderful lunch sets and they even gave us free iced tea!  Our waitress came over to try out some of her English and put my Japanese to the test several times during our meal.  After we were finished, she brought us over some "Okinawa Tempura" to try from her lunch she brought from home.  It was more of a bread than what I'm used to "tempura" being and I'm wondering if I got the translation a bit off.  We'll look around the area for it again and see if I can find a sign.  It was delicious, and she was peached that we liked it!  We'll definitely go back to that diner!

After lunch we headed over to Kokusai Street, a very popular tourist area in Naha.  Okinawa souvenir shop after shop (and plenty of beni-imo ice cream parlors, too) line the street on both sides, but my favorite part was the side street markets.  Similar to the market we found in Tokyo, they have literally covered the alleys in between rows of buildings to make a marketplace.  I didn't take any photos this trip, but I promise to next time!  We found all sorts of wonderful deals on t-shirts, jewelry, fresh fruits and breads, and just about any Okinawa souvenir you could want.  We we definitely take future visitors here, as long as we can find parking!  Brandon got me a beautiful Okinawa bingata-print apron that I can't wait to put to good cookie-baking use soon!

All-in-all, a wonderful trip to Naha and a wonderful time with Kristin and Lee!  We look forward to seeing them again!

---Arielle