Diving at Tengan Pier

What a great way to end our long "tourist" weekend---it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon to take a dive!!

 The last views before going under... 

A few shots of the underwater world...

There's a lion fish in the center of the picture on the side of the rock. 

 Now that's an interesting sea creature.......Oh, wait--that's Rodney!! ;-} 

 Me :)

  And back to shore....

Wonder if they'd let us borrow those sea-dos?? Or, do they call them ocean-dos here??

Agena Castle Site

On our way home from the aquarium, we stopped off to explore our neighborhood castle remains.

These steep stairs must have been the original stair stepper :)

This part of the wall is still quite intact! 

This part, not so much!

 The stairs continue up...

 ...and lead to this doorway through the wall.

 In one area there is a nice view of our little village of Uruma.

 And a good view of our tower.

The tower on the left veiled in blue is being renovated. Ours is two to the right.

 I was impressed with all the Mother-in-laws Tongue growing wild!

Then, as the saying goes, "what goes up, must come down," so back down those steep steps we went.

The Agena Castle Site is right next to the Agena Bull Ring! 

These bullfights are evidently not like most of us picture with the bullfighter and the red cape, these bullfights actually are two bulls locking horns until one of them "drops out." I think I'll have to see one to truly understand :) One thing about having a bullring (and some little farms) so close to us, we get that "fresh country air" smell occasionally to make us not miss home quite so much :-)

Churaumi Aquarium Sea Life

Upon entry into the aquarium is the chance to get all touchy-feely with some sea creatures!

Then, as you work your way through the aquarium, you descend through deeper levels of sea life... 

  

Then you enter the large viewing room looking into the 7500 cubic meter tank. 

 To the far end of that is the shark museum

 There's a nice little picture platform on the second level next to the tank.

On the bottom level there is a cafe where you can sit right beside the tank!! It was a nice little spot to catch a bite of lunch :)

Looks like that guy was hungry, too!!

(Yes, he has the other fish's tail in his mouth!!)

A manta ray and a couple of sting rays

This ray was being escorted by these two fish....I don't know how many times we saw them swimming by!!

From there, you exit the building and can head to all the other areas of the park!

Churaumi Aquarium

Following our day of playing the tourist at Okinawa World, we played tourist at Churaumi Aquarium which is one piece of Ocean Expo Park. SUCH a beautiful place!! We took so many pictures it'll take two posts :-)

The entrance plaza with the ocean in the background

LOVED all these fun flower-full topiaries!!

The aquarium building entrance

Behind the aquarium is a manatee pool, a sea turtle pool, and a dolphin lagoon and theater.

You can walk down to the beach, too!

So many fun picture spots :-)

Another part of Ocean Expo Park right next to the aquarium is a Native Okinawan Village. Read carefully the list of no-nos posted in front of the houses!!

Rest assured, we refrained from "scribbling" on the houses!!

Next up..... pictures from inside this fantastic aquarium......