Guess what???!!! We finally had a chance to spend a day with Oki!!! Although we have seen Oki a few times since we arrived on island, we had not yet had the chance to spend time together. When we first met Oki, much to our surprise, Oki was a girl! Ooops. I guess the language barrier got the best of us. Good thing I'm taking Japanese classes, so mistakes like that will happen less often ;) Anyways, Oki recently took us to the northern part of the island, which we had yet to explore. It's one of the major cities here in Okinawa, called Nago.
When Mike and I first arrived to Okinawa, one of the places that was most talked about was this supposedly amazing pizza place called Pizza in the Sky. Since Oki wanted to take us to Nago area, we thought this would be the perfect time to try this famous pizza place. And, our friends Eddie and Michelle were able to come along too - we had a full car! So we headed out on the hour and a half drive. When we arrived we put our name on the list. Using our hour and a half wait time wisely, we walked around the property and took some photos.
The restaurant is partly inside and partly outside
The view (hence the name…in the Sky)
For some reason, that I still must figure out, Oki loves taking photos with all the Shisa (lion dogs used to protect against evil spirits) around Okinawa. Here she is with one of the Shisas at the restaurant. She particularly liked the ocean view in the photo.
The menu is written on a fan. How cute is that? Your options are small pizza or large. One kind of pizza, complete with corn. And, if you want a salad…again, only one kind.
Our juice drinks - Mike went for the mango and I went with the acerola (wild berry, similar to a cherry)
We ordered the salad
And the large pizza
In case you didn't know…When in Japan, you must use chopsticks, even for pizza (not really, but everyone else was, so why not?!). It was actually quite convenient, especially since this pizza was loaded with cheese that kept sliding all over :)
After lunch, we headed down one of the main roads north of Nago - the 84. We decided to stop at the sweet potato shop. Sweet potato shops can randomly be found all around Okinawa. This happened to be the first one we saw, so we popped in! Okinawan sweet potatoes, or Beni-imo, are purple in color and delicious. They are a little less sweet than the sweet potato that us Americans are used to, but that seems to be the theme in Okinawa in general. Everything is less sweet, but still really good. Actually, my favorite ice cream flavor in Okinawa is Beni-imo.
Not sure what the birds are for, but they were featured at the front.
Inside the shop - definitely great for tourists! There are samples everywhere too :)
Continuing down the road back toward Nago, Oki took us to the famous Nago Pineapple Park! The pineapple park is considered a small amusement park, featuring, well, pineapples ;) They take you on a golf cart "ride" through the park, where you can witness the different types of pineapple and how they grow. Then by foot you make your way through to the pineapple wine tasting and, of course, samples of the pineapple! Just like any ride in any amusement park, they had a shop where tourists thrived on buying all sorts of fun pineapple products - juice, wine, cake, other desserts, little souvenirs with the characters, and pineapple.
Nago Pineapple Park
Eddie, Michelle, me, and Mike
Map of the park.
I love the Japanese characters!
Little signs like this were all over, telling you which variety of pineapple you will be viewing next.
If you look closely, you will see the tiny pineapples (about 3 inches).
They are growing and they were so cute!
Entering another variety of pineapple in the park
A view of the pineapple fields
Oki likes to be sneaky. I didn't know where she was, until I saw her sitting on this sign! She was trying to tell us to hurry up and get to the pineapple wine tasting!
Oki with a pineapple. She loves the pineapple park!
And so our day trip to Nago and beyond comes to an end. We make the trek back home. Check out the car we saw on the expressway.
Convertible smart car!
I'm glad Oki is finally free to show us around. She likes to go on lots of adventures, even beyond Okinawa. So, I'm sure Oki will be able to take us to other parts of Asia. Our first trip is actually booked!! Oki suggested we do a few days in Taiwan over American Thanksgiving break. So…we booked our flights. Stay tuned for adventures with Oki…beyond Okinawa :)
