Cookies and Crumbs

Friday, October 5, 2012

Churaumi Aquarium

We read about the Churaumi Aquarium before we even arrived in Okinawa so it has been on our "To-Do List" for the past month. The aquarium is on the far north-west of the island, and while the island is small, the roads are windy so it takes about an hour to get there from our house.

It beats strip malls and billboards for "Motel 6"

Chris managed to secure a four day weekend this weekend so yesterday we decided to venture up to the aquarium to check it out. The views were quite amazing the whole way up - if we weren't looking at beautiful beaches and water we were looking at mountains and jungle.

Not a McDonalds in sight (even though, sadly, it is present on the island)

The aquarium is spectacular. Not only is the location beautiful but the actual aquarium is amazing. It is the third largest aquarium in the world, and home to three whale sharks and giant manta rays. These creatures are just magnificent and it is amazing to see them in a tank big enough to comfortably house them.

View from the entrance to the aquarium

The front of the aquarium

Natalie sported an 80's afro for the occasion

Taking a break from the heat in a nice shady spot

The dolphin arena

Touch tank. Sea cucumbers feel really weird, like feather boas.

Stinking man...

In front of the whale shark tank.

Herroh rittle feesh.

That beauty is a whale shark.

Whale shark with symbiotic parasites

Manta ray...into the blue...

Amazing tank

I wish my iPhone could capture the beautiful colors of these fish

The black blob on the left is the kids and I

Lunch with a whale shark

Dominic is THE messiest eater, he just shovels food in with his hands.

After looking at all the fish, turtles, dolpins and manatees, we took the kids to the play area where they got to pretend they were fish stuck in a net.

Dominic is an excellent climber

At the top of "Rapunzel's castle".

Dominic was very amused when he pressed a button and mist sprayed out of this device.

For once Dominic is coming out of somethings mouth instead of shoving something in his...

We got an annual membership to the aquarium, which was only Y3600 ($45) per adult, kids under 4 are free, so we will definitely be back there on a regular basis. There are a lot of fun places to stop at on the way there including Pineapple Land, Fruits Land and a Butterfly Farm. There is also a botanical garden next to the aquarium.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Parks and Recreation (and Shopping Malls)

I had to go and pick up some curtains I ordered from the other side of the island this week and there just happened to be a shopping mall right next to the curtain shop. Too bad I took a wrong turn and ended up in Mister Donut - life is tough sometimes. We decided to venture out of the donut shop and take a look around the mall. I was impressed - the Japanese really know how to throw a lot of randomness into one space. In the department store there we went from what looked like women's funeral wear, straight into an arcade, then into a section that sold Hawaiian shirts.

A mall is a mall wherever you go...

Interesting Japanese candy store

Outside of the department store we found some great shops like Uniqlo, a great coffee shop, a 100 yen store, a Best Buy equivalent, some overpriced baby clothes stores...and arcade after arcade. They have photo booths on steroids here - you can have glamour photos taken in these photo booths - choose your level of tan, eye color, skin softness. I didn't actually try the photo booths out because Dominic would never allow such frivolities, but I do plan to have a go soon. We did, however, get to try out this little play area. You pay Y300 per child for 20 minutes of play and they provide massage chairs for the adults in the waiting area (for a fee of course). The kids loved it.

Soft-play area

A pink ball, of course!

This is his super excited Tasmanian Devil face. Or the "stink eye" as Chris calls it.

Aaaaah balls

Aaaah my balls...

Baby is SOOO funny

Playtime is over, so they get a Japanese candy bar as a treat. What a life - rewarded with candy for playing. Funny thing is the Japanese are mostly skinny, all the fat asses are American.

We had to try out a few arcade rides too.

While we were out and about we decided to check out a nearby park that had a huge rollerslide. The kids liked it, but I found it a little dirty and it had a lot of random men just lying around on the benches. The men were nice enough and very respectful it was just a little awkward. I guess I am just tainted by the ways of the west, where nothing good ever comes from old men watching kids play at a park - sad to be that way.

Dominic eats a bag of grapes every day, he absolutely loves grapes.

She certainly has no issues with balance, even with an ear infection and in clunky crocs.

That's a big slide

We love rollerslides.

I'm glad I got us new purpose built rollerslide trays. We go so fast on them.

Mini Trip to Minimini Zoo

On Tuesday we made a trip to a petting zoo called the "Mini-Mini Zoo". All in all it was a bleak trip, aside from the fact that I got to meet and hang out with some pretty cool mommas. I was immediately saddened when I saw a Llama just hanging out, alone, in a concrete enclosure in the parking lot. It didn't get much better inside.

The animals' enclosures were just tiny - enormous frogs were in buckets where they couldn't even turn around, rabbits were in hamster cages...it was just not a place I would feel inspired to visit again because the animals were not, in my opinion, appropriately housed. It was free, which might be part of the problem. They may be better off charging a couple hundred yen to get in and using that money to care for the animals. The petting zoo is actually an egg farm, that also specializes in cream puffs. I had heard that their cream puffs are incredible and I was excited to try one. Anyway, we were only there about an hour when Dominic decided to explore outside a typhoon door. He was on his way back in when the heavy steel door got caught by the wind and slammed into his leg. That was it for us - off to the ER we went. Luckily it turns out his leg is just badly bruised and not broken, but even the radiology tech was surprised it wasn't broken. Little Dominic, always up to nonsense and always finding new ways to injure himself.