Okinawa: Zakimi-Jo Castle

When travelling to Okinawa there are a lot of opportunities to visit a wide range of historical sites. The main collection of sites are called the Okinawan World Heritage sites. Most of these sites are old or remodeled castles but there are a few stranger ones like Sefa-Utaki, a pair of boulders leaning together said to be a door to the spirit realm. Today I would like to share about our small journey to Zakimi-Jo.

It was a small walk up some stairs and through a path to get to the main entrance of the castle. Now when I say castle I mean more of a castle wall. Most of whats left of the castle are some interestingly built stone walls and barriers. The actual insides of the castle are gone now and this is all that remains. If you would like to visit a beautiful in tack castle in Okinawa head down to Shuri Castle. It has a massive grounds and in the inside is an amazing red remodeled castle. I'll be posting about it in the near future.

Here is the front side of Zakimi-Jo and the small path that leads up the hill to it. You can see from this view most of whats left. It loops around the center courtyard and has several outer walls and paths that you can see once inside. However for the most part this is what you're going to see. Once inside you can climb up some beautiful stone staircases and walk along the top of the wall. From there you get a pretty nice view of the surrounding area and ocean.

An overview of the castle and an explanation.

And thats that. We got some wonderful footage of the surrounding neighborhood with the GoPro from the top of the wall and had fun relaxing in the breeze. This location is definitely geared towards the easy going traveler looking to appreciate the culture.

Okinawa: Cape Zanpa Lighthouse

If you ever visit Okinawa and aren't familiar with its local cuisine, I highly recommend you seek out a few places to try some of the most popular dishes. These include but aren't limited to Goya Champuru (a bittermelon dish) and Okinawan Soba which happens to be my absolute favorite! Go to a few different places because there are always slight differences between what you get. Today we started off lunch at one of the famous locations in Ginowan called GON soba. From what I understand there might be a few other locations as well.

GON soba sign by the road.

Me by the front door. I didn't take pictures inside and of the food because it was a very local oriented restaurant and I wanted to be respectful. That being said, don't feel shy to take pictures! Just be mindful that Japanese people don't often want to be captured in other peoples photos.

The food inside was absolutely amazing! It was a great way to start my Okinawan Soba binge and I would definitely go back if I ever have the chance. After lunch we headed to today's post's main attraction, Cape Zanpa Lighthouse.

Being that Okinawa is a string of hundreds of islands off the main island of Japan, it has a lot of ocean and cliff side oriented locations to visit. Cape Zanpa is definitely one of the more popular ones but not over crowded. It should be noted that we did make it there later in the day when most people had already left and the ticket booth to walk up to the top of the light house was already closed. We could still see everything just couldn't enter the lighthouse. I believe tickets were 200 yen which is around $2 right now. Regardless of whether or not you buy the ticket, the location is worth the drive by itself.

Blue Seal is arguably Okinawa's most famous Ice Cream and can be found all throughout the island. Here was a food truck selling out by the lighthouse.

As you can see the location was stunning and also claims a beautiful spot to watch the sunset if you are willing to stay till then. The lighthouse sat on a cliff side where you could look out over the ocean and nearby tide pools. We even saw someone surfing out in the waves but I'm not sure if its recommended as it seemed like a rather dangerous place to be swimming. 

The cliff side view from right under the light house.

Another attraction nearby to note was the cute little goat pen right next to the free parking lot and bathroom. People were paying the stand in charge of it for a small cup of carrots and the goats were loving it. They looked happy and well fed. There were even some small "kids" in the pen frolicking around and climbing the rocks.

Overall it was a great thing to see and was time well spent. Add this to your list if you want to see the ocean, lighthouse, have some blue seal while you watch the waves, and feed some cute goats.

Okinawa: Paris Bread Shop Bonjour

After landing in Okinawa and heading to bed, we were able to wake up early and take a walk around the neighborhood of Ginowan. The air was crisp and refreshing which made the walk a great way to ease in to the trip. We grabbed a few drinks at one of the many available vending machines and took a walk through Morikawa park and past a naval base.
An hour or so into the short adventure we came across a very small bakery hidden away in between large apartment buildings (as most interesting places in Japan are), and stopped for some fresh bread and coffee. Something that I always look forward to when in Japan is the delicious and well crafted bakery treats such as melon pan (pronounced pawn) and Japanese red bean paste buns or an pan.

Some of the many pastries available all ranging from around 150 to 350 yen.
  They also offered the combo choice to add on the drink bar which provides you with all you can drink coffee, sweet tea, water, and a few juices. For an extra couple dollars, it was well worth it. There was a small indoor seating area where you could enjoy your food while watching the bakers in the back go about their business through a large glass window. 

 Everything we tried was absolutely delicious! The toppings were clearly fresh and everything had been made recently. The crispy flaky dough was to die for. My absolute favorite were the tomato and cream cheese pastries. They were creamy on the inside and had a wonderful sun dried tomato taste on the outside. I am definitely planning on attempting to make these on my own some time with some puff pastry squares. 

For such a small and un-assuming shop, we were very impressed and would plan to visit again next time we are in the area. We loved it so much that we made it a point to go in on our final day as a breakfast date before we took another stroll around town. 

Here's a picture of the two of us the first time we visited, enjoying our pastries. Not very flattering but the pictures were fun to take and that's more important! 

Here's some photos from our second visit to the shop and some different treats that we tried. You can also see our adorable coffee cups that they use. They're essentially coffee cup holders that you place the small white cup into so that you have a handle to use and you can switch drinks such as coffee to juice and use the same cup!

We're also wearing new glasses that we were able to get at a shopping center for only around 50 usd without insurance! They gave us a check up and then laser cut our lenses and within an hour we had a new pair of glasses. In the states it takes about one to two weeks and costs at least 200 usd. 

Apple pie, vegetable bread, and peanut butter bread. 

Once again, Thank-you for reading! If you enjoyed reading and wish to be alerted to new posts please subscribe to email alerts. I will be going through our Okinawa trip photos and locations in more posts in the near future. See you around and feel free to comment. 

Happy Valentines Day

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day this year. When this date comes up, every year I find myself scrolling through dozens of Pinterest posts and ideas as well as recipes through Tumblr. Taylor and I usually go out to eat a day or two before February 14th in order to avoid all the crowds and reservation hassles. However, we decided to keep it simple this year in an effort to save more money for our big move to our first apartment in Seattle this summer! When I came across Cooking Classy's Strawberry Breakfast Pastry recipe, I just had to make it for us to enjoy.

As you can see I wasn't able to go with the sheet puff pastry because it was completely sold out for the occasion! I decided to substitute with the 24 pack mini cup puff pastry box and was pleasantly surprised. My first concern was that they would be too small because the scored hole is only about an inch in diameter. But fear not, they worked wonderfully and turned this recipe into the perfect bite size treat. I'm definitely saving this recipe and so should you!

 The most important thing about any holiday, especially a day so focused on love, is to be with those most important to you. Taylor planned a cute little park picnic for the three of us to have fun, that being me, him and our furbaby Zelda the Corgi. You can always tell that she knows we're going somewhere important just by the look on her face. We picked up some local Hawaiian Poke from Tamura's. Poke is raw Ahi tuna fish mixed with sesame oil, sesame seeds, onions, salt, and other toppings depending on what you get. It's an extremely popular food to eat here in Hawaii and can be found just about anywhere.

Since we were out and about on a Sunday and it was Valentines day we searched for the least crowded park that allowed dogs and settled down in a quiet school park in Kailua. The poke would have been delicious had we remembered that you need to grab a few shoyu or soy sauce packets to douse it in. Since Tamuras weighs your fish without the sauce inorder to give you the most bang for your buck, you need to grab the sauce on your way out and trust me, it takes more than one packet. Mid lunch, a curious chicken came by to see what was going on. Taylor and Zelda just had to check it out but frankly I think she was scared.

After cruising around the park and getting some exercise running around, we checked out the old run down playground. Although it was missing its bridge in the middle, both sides were still usable.

Zelda hunting Taylor like the lions on National Geographic.

Me trying to leave the park but Zelda refuses to walk if someone is lagging behind *Taylor* Even if it's to take pictures.

All in all it was a sweet Valentines Day idea and didn't leave us with empty pockets. I think it actually ended up being one of my favorites and just goes to show that you don't need elaborate gestures and planning, just someone to show you they care. We ended the night with a small grill and some steak that may or may not have been shared with Zelda. She seemed content with the day as well.

Happy Valentines Day! See you next time.