She says: Day...7. Yeah. Day 7.

Kyoto is glorious, but Bob is right, it thrives in its back alleys and hidden places that we and the tour books don't necessarily know about. We walked around yesterday evening and saw a ton of very cute small shops, mostly closed by the time we hit the are around 7. I am on some levels a bit sad we only really have 3.5 days for this city, as I know we could spend much, much longer. It is surprisingly like the sensation I got when we were leaving Okinawa yesterday.
Okinawa is a fascinating island. We are told that it is considered the rural backyard of Japan. We were both asked how long we were on the "mainland" and "in Japan" before arriving there and were surprised by both terms. To us it was all just a string of islands and hadn't occurred to us there was a distinction.
Mainland, it would seem, makes the distinction and Okinawa follows.
Other sources told us over beer that in spite of being a part of Japan, traditionally the Ryukyu empire had more to do with China. And it makes sense because there are Shisha dogs everywhere marking the entrances to markets, restaurants and tombs, even bottles of tea, something we hadn't encountered until we stepped off the plane there.
I should have a picture of them for you. I really should. But you know what? I seriously failed in that endeavor and I apologize. We're blaming it on the whole having fun thing. I'll just ~draw~ some if anybody's really that curious or unwilling to go to Google.
We are a light-hearted bunch in this blog, but I'm going to wax serious for a moment because it deserves to be a serious thing. Tokyo as a city was gray. Its inhabitants were gray, the buildings were gray, the train systems and streets and even the weather was gray. we walked around in a land of muted colors and tired workers who stared at their feet and felt culturally and humanly alone in that place the way only an extreme outsider fording the river of culture shock can. They were polite to us and smiled, but in a nervous and reserved way like meeting your boyfriend's parents for the first time. We got along with Tokyo because it didn't mind us there, for the most part. Just so long as we were aware that it was going to continue to do its own thing and we were on our own as gaijin, for the most part. We ate our food by ourselves, and only conversed with people if we needed information or talked with each other. There was no warmth in the place. And yes, that is their society. But even the teenagers seemed reticent to interact with us on the street. After hearing stories about how people might run up to us to test their English prowess on us, this was a surprise.
Okinawa has a million colors and a bright sun with white clouds in a blue sky. The seas are the kind of turquoise they color-adjust for in photoshop before sending out brochures for resorts in the bahamas. There are flowers and insects and birdsong, and children laughing and running around in the streets. Palm trees waft in the breeze and twenty million miniature cars race by each other on the highways skirting pimped out scooters and motorcycles alike. It was wonderfully alive, and in the middle of it Deya and Chris opened up their home (their totally awesome home, I might add) and let us stay there and observe it.
We spent breakfast at Starbucks, a wholly different experience than in the states. In Okinawa they greet you enthusiastically, grin at you, and do their best to figure out if you meant to say "short" or not when ordering your coffee size. I hadn't been in one in the states in almost a year because of the cold, bored baristas behind the counter. They didn't give a damn if you wanted cheesecake, they just wanted to get you through so they could make a paycheck and afford whatever. If, however, I were to walk in and be greeted in that fashion upon arrival home in Thorndale, I would happily drop $5 on a drink with sprinkles and whipcream whenever I could.
We then took a beautiful and scenic drive to what Chris termed "the other side of the island", where we saw an arboretum and the Okinawa Chiraumi Aqaurium. On the way there it was notable that Okinawa has a tone of tombs to it, granite or cement or cinderblock structures marked with places to leave offerings, and the Shisha dogs gaurding out front. Some were just sloped, some had a "turtle back", which was like a flattened dome raised at an angle over it. And they were utterly ubiquitous. We even saw them next to baseball diamonds. And always they seemed to mostly point outwards towards the sea, their little doors blackened. When I die, I want to have an ocean-view from my gravesite!
The aquarium was a blast, loaded with turtles and manatees and all sorts of sealife. We got to see the famous whalesharks swimming in their giant aquarium, having lunch beneath their shadows as they glided by. Seeing them and the beautiful assortment of rays made the oddly dubbed "taco sandwich" a little better and I forgave them calling it that when it was just ground beef and chopped tomatoes on a roll.
We took a lot of photos, and I'm going to spare you all and just say that if you wanna see, you should click here. It's worth it.
We found ourselves with some extra time on our hands before the dolphin show, so we did what anybody would do in that situation and walked down to the open beach. We saw in the tidepools there all sorts of spiny starfish, sea cucumbers and clam syphons. Some of them even shot water at us. There was a lovely waterfall splashing it's way down to the bay there, and lots of algae and seaweed-strewn rocks to walk on. I couldn't tell if the others were enjoying themselves, but I had a great time of it.
The dolphin show consisted of what looked like 3 harbor porpoises, 4 common dolphins and one spinner dolphin. They performed various tricks such as "singing", waving, shaking hands, leaping very high, and all the other wonderful things they're known for. The whole thing was in Japanese, though, so as Deya mentioned at one point, you had to listen for when the crowd went "OOOOooo!" to learn when to pay attention.
In the middle of the show they had one of the harbor porpoises up on the deck and put one of the well known Okinawan folk-hats on its head. I'm fairly sure we have a picture. I've since decided that I need one of those for when I'm in the middle of housework. I can stop, put it on, pose, and receive thunderous applause for my work up until that point. Then someone will give me fish and I go back to vacuuming.
We then purchased drinks made from young coconuts hacked open with a machete (I can really get behind the violence necessary to extract the useful drinkable part) and made our merry way back out to the car.
For some reason both coming and going the mist fountain shut off as we crossed, but didn't to anybody before or after us. I joked about a "gaijin alarm" on that thing but... you know, seriously? I think they wanted us to sweat a little.
After arriving home the boys opted to chill while us ladies ran down to JusCo to see the Hello Kitty store there.
I am a fiend for Hello Kitty, so you know I dropped quite a few yen there. They really do put her on ~everything~, and had a great kimono there as well. Deya was a sweetheart and even snagged a few surprises while I wasn't looking, including the charm I was pondering putting on my DS since the other two snapped off on the trip. It was one of those weird-yet-cool psychic moments.
We then acquired freshly made onigiri, grabbed another volley of caramel lattes, and headed back to their place.
Later that evening they introduced us to a fine group of people in the Air Force persuasion as they are and we all headed to Yoshi's sushi. We got to sit on tatami mats, drink Orion beer, and have a damned good time. Leilani, Vanessa and Andrew were good company and really funny to boot, and we were happy to finish off the evening at the Starbuck's in AmericanVillage.
Morning was spent having a fabulous breakfast and watching Ghost Hunters episodes on video. Then with our last bit of time Deya showed us the seawall, covered in very colorful graffiti and artwork, and her favorite cafe down by it. I enjoyed a piece of chocolate cake, another caramel latte, and we were off to the airport once more.
A mostly uneventful flight brought us to the mainland where we grabbed lunch at a McDonald's and confirmed it was pretty much the same stuff as in the US. It just tasted as if there was less fat overall, and they used less salt. But for the record, it's not off the wall and there isn't squid in the burgers or anything.
We hopped a train here, and the rest has been blogged.