Peace Prayer Park

Last weekend, we ventured over to the Peace Park. It is located towards the southern point of Okinawa on the Pacific Ocean side. The park is a large area which is built as a memorial for those who died in the Battle of Okinawa aka Typhoon of Steel. The area was very beautiful. When you enter there is a lady selling flowers with incense, which you take the flowers and place them where you like and it is to pray for peace. The memorial walls are inscribed with the names of the many that had died in the battle.

They are positioned in the form of the Japanese style soji screens and arranged in concentric arches that surround the

center fountain. The fountain with a flame in the center represents the eternal flame that burns for a reminder of peace. The park was known as Suicide Cliffs to many, in that during the time of the war the Japanese government told them to not become prisoners to the US and therefore, hid in caves along this area as well as many committed suicide.

The memorial was very beautiful and peaceful. There are

many tombs and granite statues all over the park. We just walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. There was an original area where the park used to be, and as we were walking up to the path a mama-san approached us wanting us to buy some more flowers. We all rejected the offer

except my mom grabbed them so we ended up buying some more flowers.

After we were done at the park we headed to a restaurant my parents had previously been too. It was really eccentric and cute. You could sit up to the

bar at the windows and look out onto the ocean. They also had

pretty good fried rice. I also had my first dragon fruit. The fruit grow on weird cactus like plants and are bright pink. It tasted fairly good.

Working at the hospital is going fairly well. The SCU is for the most part slow and not a lot of patients on most days, but the last couple of days we have been pretty busy. We are also losing a lot of our corpsmen in the next few weeks and with no one

coming to replace them yet. The family practice is getting better, they actually trust me to take

vitals on my own, and do some procedures.

Pineapple Park

The same weekend as the Botanical Gardens we went to the Nago Pineapple park. I was the only one that still wanted to go after we drove by the cheesy looking statues and entry way. But after a few hours of driving up the side of a mountain and around trying to look for the pineapple gardens we ended up at the park. It was fairly cheap which was good. We decided to ride on the pineapple carts and they had a talking tour guide recording, but first you have to get your picture taken with the pineapple mascot.

Then you get on these electric golf carts which were guided on metal tracks, it reminded me of Jurassic Park, which when the tour guide said 'if you look up these are the palm trees that they used in the movie Jurassic Park,' so next i was waiting for the dinosaurs to come down and eat us. After the ride had ended we got herded into the next area which we bought our picture, and headed over to a giant sea shell collection. It was amazing to see all of the different types of shells and sizes. Then when you exit the little gift store you follow along into the pineapple winery where you get to try all the different flavors. I loved it, and so did everyone else so we bought a bottle of each.

Then once you get that you head through a maze of different pineapple cakes, candies, and even vinegar. They offer samples of everything, it seemed hard to say no to the nice sweet ladies that kept pushing their goods on us, so we ended up buying a lot. Finally, once you have had enough you try to find the exit which goes through more tasting and souvenirs. I used my first squatting potty that day, it was horrible, they are definitely meant for shorter people because i could hardly get back up.

Plant Extravaganza

Last weekend was a three day weekend for us so we decided to go out and be touristas. We went to the Southeast Botanical Gardens first. It was amazing! There was so many beautiful flowers blooming, so it made it great for me to try out my camera. There was an area that was called 'Pound of Carp' which I think they meant carp pond. There tends to be lots of signs that will make you chuckle in the way that they try to translate them. However, the pond was interesting, the fish would come up to the edges and put their mouths out of the water wanting food. We did end up feeding them which was also sort of disgusting. All you have to do is add a few pellets and the fish jump out of the water and onto the other fish just for a little piece of food.

They had some interesting flowers there as well as every different type of hibiscus. With being in the jungle there also came a lot of spiders. They pretty much were everywhere, and if you went off the path onto another little path you had to watch very carefully where you put your head because their webs can be stretched out and the spider not anywhere near. They also had an area with giant butterflies in a netted area. I haven't ever seen butterflies this big. They were practically the size of my face.

Anther picture on the right is a banana plant and what they look like when the bananas are growing. I never thought they looked like this, but they have a giant purple pod is the flower and then the bananas grow off of the stalk. They are also considered to be an herb.

Pottery Village

Last weekend we headed up to Yomitan, which is north of where we live. They have an area that is called a Pottery Village, and they have just pottery shops and work stations for the artists. It was quite interesting. We went into a few stores and looked at the detailed pottery. It was all a little different in each of the artists styles. They also have a giant kiln which is what is pictured on the left. It is a long chimney that slants up the hill. In the bottom opening you can see where they place the pottery inside to be fired. There was a lot of different shops and restaurants around the area and we didn't get to all of them, so we have some more to do another time. They also had really pretty landscaping and there where many different types of vegetation all around. It was overall very interesting to see the different take each artist had on the Shi Sha dogs, which I really want a pair.