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......

Okinawa World ~ Kingdom Village

It was a perfect day to enjoy a little Blue Seal ice cream.... I had beni-imo (purple sweet potato) and Rodney had Sugar Cane. Both tasty, yet not as sweet as you'd think!

When we came off the escalator out of the cave, we meandered through an orchard and fruit stand, pottery house and glass blowing pavilion both with gift shops. You can even pay extra to do your own pottery and blow your own glass! We decided to save those for future visits. 

As expected we found more put-your-face-in picture spots :-)  

Then we entered the village....

It was made of traditional Japanese homes and each housed different traditional crafts, which were demonstrated and were available, for a price, to try your own hand....

We gave weaving a whirl!

My 'teacher' 

Rodney's 'teacher' 

  We wove coasters! 

 In this house.....

 ...you can get your picture taken in traditional Japanese kimonos!

 A cultural center

 There's a brewery onsite that brews Habu Sake!! Yep, those are very poisonous snakes soaking in the sake! 

Then we got to see some Eisa Dancers and Taiko Drummers, but, sadly, no pictures allowed :-( 

As you work your way through Kingdom Village, it returns you back to the front of the park and the exit.

Yes, let's meet in Okinawa world again!!

Okinawa World ~ Gyokusendo Cave

The cave was a nice 21C/70F degrees, but was quite balmy at 91% humidity!! So, we got dripped on all the way through!

This shisa was guarding the entrance

Sorry for the blurriness, but I enjoyed the pictured demonstration of how a stalactite and stalagmite form a pillar.

"Bell of the Rising Dragon" 

 "Golden Cup"

Each of us with the "Gathered Drapes" 

The Japanese love their little put-your-face-in picture spots!! 

It was neat the way the fish's eyes showed up so blue :) 

After walking through the cave, you ride the escalator which brings you up at the back of Kingdom Village. 

Okinawa World ~ Habu Museum

Rodney got a surprise long weekend, so we took a couple of days to play tourist!! Our first day's visit was to Okinawa World. It has three parts: Habu Museum, Gyokusendo Cave, and the Kingdom Village.

 We entered the park just in time to catch the 10:30 Habu show!

On the way into the show, we went through the Habu Museum.

See them hanging in the trees??

 Can you believe they are even more dangerous than they are mean-looking??

 The signage may be in Japanese, but the pictures usually speak loud and clear :)

 The Habu Show was all in Japanese, but it seemed they were explaining about habus and how to avoid getting bitten!! They also brought out a cobra! Afterwards, visitors could get their picture taken with the python :)

After this fun, we headed on over to go through the cave....