Okinawa and Taipei - Day 5: Naha Day 2 - Kokusai (Mashiki Market) and Shuri Castle

With the wedding all behind us, now is the time for tourist me and date time :).  We first went to the Kokusai market and started picking things to eat.

We had the Conch Sashimi (Tsubugai), the 'real' Irubaja, grilled shrimp and also the Sea Snake Ramen.  That was lunch :).

Then we headed towards Shuri Castle by train.  We had tea time there too!

For dinner, we went to shabu shabu.  Pork is pretty famous in Okinawa, so we thought we try it out.

They did cash only so we couldn't order much since we didn't have too much cash on hand.  We dug deep and was able to afford beer though by combining our coins :).  This meal was pretty $$$ - the going rate was about $5 a slice of pork.  I guess high class pork is just lost on me.

After that, since I was still pretty hungry, we walked around and found an izakaya.  Upon seeing they take credit card, we went in and sat down.  Even though we were in the more tourist portion of Naha, it turned out we had found a local izakaya, as the menu was all Japanese and the waiters only spoke Japanese.  The menu had no pictures this time. So we ended up getting the server to read out what the things were (especially the fishes - and we knew what they were!).. Lol.  At one point, the guy even pulled out their iPhone to show us what the menu item was by pulling up a dictionary.

So we ended up ordering a bunch of stuff, including a $3 sirloin steak on a sizzling plate :D.  Yuuuummmm.

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 4: Aquarium Day and Naha Day 1

First Stop: Aquarium

After breakfast, we headed up to the Aquarium, where I saw all the fish that I wanted to eat :).  There was also a big tank that had a bunch of fishes.  Taking picture through the glass yielded somewhat decent results.  In some ways, it was even nicer than scuba diving!

Also saw a dolphin show, which was pretty cool.  Can't think of when I last saw such a show.

Next stop: The UNESCO Rubble site

This was a site where there used to be a fortress and shrine of some sort.  Walked around - turned out to be a pretty quick walk.

On the way back, finally had my juicebox sake in the van!  It was surprisingly good.  Law and me felt like such delinquents, trying to hide it from the driver (even though I think he blatantly knew what we were doing).  I wonder if such a thing is legal in Okinawa to do?

3rd Stop: Naha

By the evening, we made it to Naha.  We first started off by eating some Okinawan noodle near our hotel.  The place was pretty dive-y, but the noodle and price was excellent.  After that, we went towards Kokusai street to track down BJ + company.  Taking a pit stop along the way, I got a chance to try the famous goat sashimi - another Okinawan specialty (and of course, a bunch of other food :P)

Note to self: always have goat sashimi with sake - it's a whole different level with it.

Joined BJ + folks later and pints of beer later, back at hotel.

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 3: HHH's Wedding

HHH wedding day.  Missed the actual walk down the aisle cause I was stupid.. Lol - but did get to the reception on time, and made the after party. 

The after party was at a place where the entire floor was booked out.  So baller. 

Fun times of drinking and chatting.  The food was pretty good there.  Had a lot of awamori's throughout.

Congrats HHH!

(Had a snack between the reception and afterparty.. hee hee hee)

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 2: Whale Shark Diving

Woke up this morning to do one of the most anticipated things while I was here - Scuba diving and swimming with a Whale Shark!  The scuba diving was pretty nice.  Got to see stingrays swim around from a far and also played with an octopus :).  Saw some of the fishes I ate from the night before too … kee kee kee.

[Details in Dive Log...]

Because we were certified divers, we were able to go inside the net to be up close and personal with the two whale sharks.  The other group of people could only snorkel from outside the net to see the whale shark.  The dive masters/tour guide did bring the whale shark close to the net at times so the snorkelers get the experience too!

But inside is just that much more exciting.  At one point, one of the dive masters let me wave the bag of plankton in front of me, so the whale shark came by and ate it.  Gobble gobble - its mouth was huggge!  Needless to say I got really close to it.  I should also mention that we were in there for about 20 to 25 minutes.  During the dive I thought It was pretty short because based on the tables, at 30ft max depth we should be able to be in the water for 40 or so minutes - so I felt cheated.  On returning to the surface, I started reading some of the pamphlets and what not and realized it wasn't 30ft, but 30 meters… lol.  So that explains why the dive masters told us to stay in the middle and not the bottom of the net, and also why we were only in there for 25 minutes or so.

After scuba, we went to have some lunch at a local Okinawan supermarket like place by the pier.  I am really liking the different types of seafood and variety to choose from.  It is sooo fresh!  We ended up at the table with these Taiwanese girls who was here for a bachelorette party (they were the snorkelers people).  We needed up sharing the food that we got and so got to try quite a lot of stuff!  Yummmmy.

For dinner, we ate at the hotel (it required a reservation, and I can see why).  Very cute presentation of food.  Though I was still hungry after it all.

The menu:

With that, I am now officially in the future!

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 1: En route to Asia Day 2

For breakfast, I had my first set of lil dragon dumplings before flight in the Taipei airport.  It was pretty yummy!

Mmmmmm….

Arriving at the hotel, we ate a quick snack and then planned what we would eat next!

After talking to the receptionist, for dinner, we ended up a little bit off the hotel to a local restaurant, where the menu were all in Japanese and the servers didn't speak English at all.  So we ended up randomly ordering off the menu - we first pointed to all the ones that had pictures, then got adventurous and started picking random things off the menu.  Pretty good outcome though :).

Editor's Note: The Irubaja would become my favorite sashimi for this trip.

Okinawa and Taipei - Day 0: En route to Asia

First time flying back since I left in '92!  Though not reaching my birthplace, this is getting pretty close to it.

The airplane food wasn't that great, but at Narita, did sneak in some sashimi

Landed in Taiwan, stayed nearby the airport before heading out in the morning to continue towards Okinawa. Grabbed a quick bit at the hotel.  We have arrived in Asia!

Valentine's Day

Surprised with a restaurant she couldn't guess right away.  Wuhahahaha.  Success!

Sore This Morning...

Woke up with my arms feeling pretty sore this morning.  Thought about for a whole day then it hit me.  It must have been the indoor skydiving.

…Pushing air is hard work!

Indoor skydiving!

Today we had a team morale event today (yes, our team is probably getting too much morale :)).  All in all, it was pretty fun and a pretty neat experience. 

Some tips and notes:

• It was pretty hard to smile gracefully as when you open your mouth, the air would start forcing you to drool… but then if you didn't smile, the camera pictures doesn't turn out as nice
• You can watch their videos and think it is simple… but it is not
• The experience is totally different from 'real' tandem skydiving (ie. Those where you fall out of a plane)

Team Lunch of Meat Meat Meat!

Today we had a team lunch at a Brazilian Grill.  Mmmmm… Yummy times.

The good: Delicious.  Team liked it a lot.  We were all lethargic after because of food coma hitting.

The bad: The bill came out a tad more expensive than I thought it would.  When you have a big team I guess the numbers add up.  Not to mention those $6 lemonades!  The mandatory gratuity really puts a dent when you have a big team.