Kaitlyn Mah – Page 8 – Where to, Gumshoe?

Taipei/Singapore (Day 66): Heading South

May 5, 2016

Our three nights in Taipei went by really quickly. We were flying out later in the afternoon and going to Singapore. We woke up pretty late and took our time packing up. Mom went to get us breakfast and made us some milk tea (which was really yummy). She had to go out for lunch with some old friends, so Tim and I were on our own.

Before we knew it, it was already 1pm! Originally we thought we’d go for beef noodle, but the places we had in mind weren’t that close to the apartment. We decided to go back to Tonghua Street to go for a quick lunch at Formosa Chang’s and grab bubble tea for later. We headed out without checking the weather, a jacket, or an umbrella (Tim: foreshadowing). While we were walking we felt a couple of heavy rain drops and knew it was going to be a huge down pour. We quickly got undercover and into Formosa Chang’s for lunch.

We walked really quickly back to the apartment to try to stay as dry as possible. Luckily we were both wearing clothes that would dry quickly since everything else was packed. We got back to the apartment and did the final pack up and waited for Mom to get back from lunch before heading down to meet Uncle Albert.

As mentioned in my last post, I’m a sentimental person so it was sad leaving Taipei. It has become the closest place we had to a home this trip. We have had a lot of good memories here with family and friends, so when we said bye, I obviously cried (but tried to hide it as best as possible…). Tim is touched that I showed so much emotion to his Motherland.

The drive out to Taoyuan Airport is around an hour from the city. It’s extremely kind of Uncle Albert to drive us back and forth from the airport so many times this trip. They are building an airport train line out from Taipei Main Station to the airport, but it’s completion has been delayed quite a bit. Hopefully the next time we visit it will be done.

We were flying Singapore Airlines (both for the first time) and we left out of Terminal 2 of the International Terminal. This was the first time we have been to this terminal and it’s really nice. They had a good selection of luxury brands, Taiwanese souvenirs, and duty free shops. Comparing the prices of Longchamps back at Taoyuan and Incheon, they are about the same. If the USD was stronger (like it was a few months back), than Taoyuan would be cheaper since their prices are in NT.

I was looking forward to flying with Singapore Airlines since I’ve always heard good things about it and it’s consistently ranked one of the best airlines in the world. After my first flight with them, I would have to agree, it’s probably the best airline I’ve flown. The flight attendants were all very friendly (and pretty), they gave you a hot towel when you sat down to wipe your hands/face (and we were in economy), they came around with drinks (great drink selection) more than 5 times on a 4 hour flight and their meals were good (you get Haagen Daaz ice cream).

The movie selection was also great – they had over 150 movies (those are just the Hollywood movies) to watch, including some really recent releases. I ended up watching “The Intern” with Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro (I liked it!), 3 episodes of the “New Girl”, and Anthony Bourdain in Tanzania. There was no turbulence on this flight so it was more enjoyable than the flight a few days ago.

We finally landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport after what felt like a long flight. It was 10:20pm when we landed, we went through customs and headed for the SMRT to get us into the city. We packed an overnight day pack so we didn’t have to pick up our backpacks (they’re going straight to Melbourne) (Tim: fingers crossed).

We booked a hotel near the Chinatown SMRT stop through Expedia. It was $139 CAD a night and is in a relatively good location – about an 8 minute walk to a couple of the hawker food markets I wanted to go to. After a couple of transfers, it took us about 35 minutes to get to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel just before midnight. We checked in, washed up and relaxed. The hotel room is quite nice – clean, rainfall shower head, and a large bed.

Tomorrow we’ll have until about 7pm until we have to go back to Changi for our flight to Melbourne at 9:30pm.

Steps today: 8,000

Taipei (Day 65): Comfort Food

May 4, 2016

We spent a good chunk of the morning organizing our backpacks and giving items for Mom to bring back home for us. What a load off! My luggage feels like it’s 10 pounds lighter (Tim: probably because it is 10 pounds lighter). I caught up on my blog entries while Tim went to Yong He (our regular breakfast place) to get breakfast for everyone.

We didn’t end up leaving the apartment until just before 2pm. It was nice to be able to just hang around and fully relax and not feel like we had to see something or go somewhere. We didn’t have anything on our agenda since Mom was busy with her own plans. Since we’ve been in Taipei with her, she’s been non-stop busy meeting up with people who want to see her. The one thing that I wanted to have before leaving Taipei was bubble tea (a few times) and the gua bao (pork belly hamburger) we had in March.

Tim and I walked to Gongguan and cut diagonally through the National Taiwan University (NTU) campus along the way. It’s very hot here, about 32 degrees celsius with humidity. My back was sweaty the entire day since I was wearing a backpack and a cotton dress (it wasn’t pleasant). This is preparing us for hot weather to come during our SE Asia part of our trip in June.The pearl milk drink and the gua bao stand in Gongguan was highly recommended to us by Tim’s cousin, Karen. Unfortunately, when my sister and Noel were in town, we didn’t hear about it until the day they were closed. We’ll have to come back with them another time. I feel bad, the gua bao was on my sister’s top eats for Taiwan.

When we arrived in Gongguan, the pearl milk stand had a line up but surprisingly, the gua bao stand didn’t have a line up (Tim: maybe because it was not really lunch time). The pearl milk line wasn’t too long but by the time we got to the front of the line up (5-10 minutes) the line up had curled around 3 times! We just beat the crowd of students. We took our lunch to the NTU entrance benches and sat and enjoyed our cheap and delicious lunch. As I was eating the gua bao and biting into the best pearls I’ve ever had (super soft, warm and chewy), I kept thinking, “this is amazing”. I’m really savouring the good and cheap food in Taiwan because I know when we get to Australia, everything is going to be more the double the price and probably not as delicious.

After we finished our lunch, we decided to walk to the Roots Canada Lodge store and an Eslite Bookstore. We had noticed that Taiwanese people love Roots clothing when we first arrived in March. Even when we were in Korea and Japan, when we saw people with “Roots Canada” t-shirts, we knew they weren’t Canadian, they were Taiwanese. Coincidentally, Mom brought a brochure back from Roots back home that says “Roots loves Taiwan”. There’s a campaign by Roots Canada and Tourism Taiwan that shows pictures around Taipei as well as suggestions on where to go (it’s a pretty nice pamphlet). The store on Robson just had a grand re-opening on May 3rd and Mom was asked to look for Taiwanese dancers for their event. Pretty cool!

Any how, we were both interested in going to a Roots store in Taipei and the one we saw the other day while in the car had a Roots Canada Lodge restaurant. They served Canadian food – like Nanaimo bars, bacon cheeseburgers and poutine. We went into the store to see if they had any t-shirts that said Taipei on it because one time we saw someone who had one on. Tim asked the sales associate and she said those t-shirts only come out once a year and it’s usually in September. Roots clothing isn’t cheap and it’s definitely not cheap in Taiwan. A plain zip up hoodie is around $140 CAD (almost double what it would be back home).

We then made our way across the street to Eslite (the 24 hour bookstore). We hadn’t been to this location before, only the one near Taipei 101. Tim was looking for the Marie Kondo book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” in Chinese. He has been recommending this book to a lot of people and wants his parents to read it as well. I haven’t finished it yet, and I’m recommending it to others (Tim’s not happy that I haven’t finished reading it since it’s so short). We wandered around Eslite and browsed around at all the floors – besides books they have a lot of neat shops to look at.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at a CoCo bubble tea and ordered a passion fruit tea. This was one of our favourite drinks here as it’s super refreshing. With the heat, I wouldn’t have minded if it were all slushy. I know they opened a CoCo in Vancouver and I probably won’t go there this summer since it’s going to cost 4 x the price for what we had and I would have had enough bubble tea in the past 3 months to last a year.

We came back to the apartment to rest up and cool off before dinner. Tim and I had been going to a hot pot place a lot in March and we had a stamp card that only needed one more meal before we got one free (yes, we went that much). Hot pot isn’t something you crave during hot humid weather, but since they blast the AC so high in Asia, it’s always perfect.

As soon as we walked into the restaurant, the waitress recognized us. For the most part, the restaurant isn’t a tourist destination or even on most people’s radar (we couldn’t find any information on it in English at all). I guess she hadn’t see us in a month so when she saw us she asked us where we’re from etc. It’s basically Tim answering for both of us explaining that he’s Taiwanese and his parents were born here and then they look at me and ask what I am. Then he says, her family is from “Tai San” then they say, “you should teach her some Mandarin” and we all smile and laugh.

We ordered two types of beef as usual and enjoyed our last meal there. We both put a lot of fresh garlic in our sauce, so now today we both have severe garlic breath. When we were done, Tim showed her our stamp card and she said usually you are supposed to use the free one during your next visit (which is what Mom told us would probably happen) but Tim said this is our last day in Taiwan so she let us have the free one. Our meal was 270 NT = $10.71 CAD for the both of us.

After dinner, we walked back towards the apartment and went to the Linjiang Tonghua Night Market (this is like our neighbourhood market since it’s so close). I wanted to buy some more dried guava for my family, fresh cut guava (for me to eat tomorrow), and a phone case (since mine was in horrible and dirty shape). We didn’t eat any food at the night market since we just had dinner. I bought a new phone case, which wasn’t that cheap but cheaper than home ($9 CAD). I know how cheap these phone cases could be, so anything sold in Taiwan isn’t cheap compared to China. My former co-worker asked me if I wanted phone cases before she went to China one year and I said I wanted one that you could put cards in. She told me it’s buy 1 get 9 free and showed me the Chinese website. I said I only wanted one and she’s like, it’s okay you can have them in 9 colours. So when she came back she gave me a box with 10 cases in it, and they’re the exact same ones in the night markets here.

We headed back to the apartment and packed up and went through all the items Mom is bringing back for us. It’s such a big help that she’s here to bring a lot of things home for us. I have a bunch of clothes that I didn’t end up wearing much and I know won’t be good for Australia and SE Asia. You really don’t need much clothing while traveling (Tim: which is pretty common advice, yet lots of people don’t adhere to) and especially in the humid heat, Lululemon or any dri-fit type of items are the best.

I’m a pretty sentimental person so whenever it’s the last day or last of anything, I do get a bit sad and reminiscent of all the good memories. During our time in Taipei, we became very familiar with the Daan area. Even as someone who isn’t great with directions, I got to know Daan very well. I’m happy that we got to see so many people while we were here and were able to spend 2 weeks with my sister, Noel, and Nate. Even passing by the apartment we stayed at or going around to sites we visited together, I think about them.

Steps today: 24,000

Taipei (Day 64): IMAX, Thai Food and Tea

May 3, 2016

We had an another early morning today… not because of a flight, but because Tim wanted to watch “Captain America: Civil War”. The movie was released last week in Asia and will be out in North America on Friday. Tim wanted to watch it at Miramar (which is about 5 stops away on the brown line from us), which has the largest IMAX screen in Taiwan (I think at one point it was the largest in Asia). We woke up around 7:45am, got ready and headed out.

We got to Miramar Entertainment Park at 9:15am, bought our tickets for the IMAX 3D (480 NT = $18.89 CAD), and looked for breakfast. The mall was closed so we went to Carrefour, which was across the street. We grabbed some Asian buns and a carton of guava juice and headed to the theatre. We arrived just in time for the previews, it’s nice to have reserved seating in Asia. We both enjoyed the movie, that’s all I’ll say (don’t want to spoil anything). (Tim: The IMAX theatre used the latest IMAX with Laser projection technology, and all I can say is it was frickin’ phenomenal. Head and shoulders the best digital projection system I’ve experienced and the 3D was particularly good.)

After the movie, we rushed back to the apartment to meet Tim’s Mom and family friends for lunch. Tim’s family friend picked us up from the apartment and drove us to a Thai restaurant in the area. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by his wife who was already at the restaurant waiting for us. She brought us into the restaurant and there was a beautiful spread of food already waiting. Tim and I both really like Thai food, so this was a definite treat. Tim and his family spent a lot of time with this couple while living here in 1994 and they also spent a good amount of time in BC, so it was a very happy reunion.

After a very delicious lunch (I think it was one of my favourite Thai meals), they took us to their friend’s store on Yong Kang Street. Their friend, who is also an artist, runs a store called, Chang-Yi-Fang Taiwan Puppet Creations. Their friend makes an assortment of merchandise with classic Taiwanese fabrics and prints and her husband makes costumes for puppet theatre. They were very generous and kind and told us to pick something for our wedding as well as something to bring to Tim’s sister and husband in Australia. Tim chose a canvas messenger bag and I got a canvas tote. Hopefully we will see them soon in Vancouver if they visit or when we come back to Taiwan. They offered to take us around Taiwan when we’re back!

Uncle Albert met us outside the store and was there to pick us up to go to a teahouse for a traditional Taiwanese tea ceremony. In about 30 minutes, we were out of the city centre and going up the lush green mountains north of Taipei. We stopped by Xin Mt. Meng Lake in the mountains and took some pictures.

After about an 8 minute drive, we made it to Shi-Yang Tea House. The tea house is beautiful and has a Zen feel to it. We were also meeting two of Mom’s friends for tea and dinner. One of them lives in Taipei and the other is visiting from Vancouver. Shi-Yang is located in the mountains and surrounded by a forest. We were welcomed and brought to a meditation room to mediate and relax before the tea ceremony. After about 10 minutes of meditation, we were lead to another room and began the tea service. The tea master served two types of tea, brewing each about 4-5 times so we could taste the difference. He was very methodical while pouring each cup of tea, it was very calming. He was very careful in feeling the temperature of the water and making sure it was the right temperature each time to pour on the tea leaves. He said that after you finish brewing the tea, the leaves should be intact and not broken. If they are broken, then that means the water was too hot, and the tea would probably be bitter. Tim and I looked at each other and were reminded of our wedding tea ceremony. The nice tea was very bitter, probably because we just poured boiling water on it.

After about an hour, we were lead down to the restaurant for dinner. For dinner we were treated to an amazing tasting menu. Everything was wonderfully prepared and presented beautifully. Tim’s Mom treated us all to such a wonderful afternoon here, it was very relaxing. I never knew Taipei had tea houses like this so I’m really happy we got to experience one with her during this trip.

It was a pretty long day for us, so we were ready to get ready for bed and sleep as soon as we got back to the apartment.

Steps today: 9,000

Sapporo/Incheon/Taipei (Day 63): 3 Countries in 12 hours

May 2, 2016

This morning we woke up early to catch our flight to Seoul-Incheon en route to Taipei. Our flight time on our e-ticket said 8:55am so we woke up at 6am and left the hotel around 6:45am. We took the JR train to Chitose Airport, which took about 40 minutes (we also had to wait 15 minutes for the train). Luckily, Tim checked the flight time while we were at the train station and it showed that the flight time actually changed to 9:40am. I guess we didn’t get a flight time change notification. Any how, that actually worked out a lot better for us because by the time we arrived at our check in counter, it was already 7:50am.

Chitose International Terminal is about a 8-10 minute walk from the JR train (it’s a lot closer for the Domestic Terminal). The international flights that leave Sapporo are only to a few cities – 5 to Taipei, 4 to Seoul, 3 to Bangkok and 1 to Kuala Lumpur on a daily basis. One thing that I’ve noticed in Sapporo that I didn’t see anywhere else in Japan was that tourist signs always include Russian. We’re pretty far north and this is probably the closest I’ve ever been to Russia.

The International Terminal at Chitose has a few duty free stores. The store with food souvenirs was a bit of a gong show. There were a few Thai flights leaving so people were stocking up (I think I’ll be the same in July). A LeTAO representative was there dishing out huge spoon fulls of their cheesecake. (Yum!).

We were flying Korean Air so we had a 3 hour layover in Incheon before flying to Taipei at 4pm. Incheon iss a really good airport to have a layover in, so I don’t mind being there for 3 hours. There are a lot of stores, restaurants, and their Wi-Fi is extremely fast.

Our flight to Seoul from Sapporo was only half full (if even), so we got a row to ourselves. There are some really nice views of the mountains as you leave Sapporo. Tim likes to take aerial shots from the plane while we’re flying. The food on Korean Air has been very good. We both had a chicken dish and it had a shrimp salad and a plate of assorted fruits. (I didn’t take a picture of the meal).

When we arrived at Incheon, we walked around for a bit and browsed some of the duty free stores. If you like Longchamps bags (Tim: and who doesn’t?), Incheon’s Longchamps store is about about 25%-30% cheaper than at home or online. I can’t say the same for the other luxury brands, since those are the only bags I looked at in detail. Also, if you want to buy face masks while in Seoul, you can buy packs of 50 of them at the cosmetic stores for slightly cheaper than what you would pay in the stores in Seoul (they have Nature Republic, Tony Moly, Innisfree, and the Face Shop). Another interesting thing to note is that Incheon retail store prices are all in USD and are charged in USD, which doesn’t really make sense to me. But all the food and restaurant prices are in Korean Won. I don’t get it.

Tim and I didn’t eat anything at the airport since we got meals on both the flights on Korean Air. While walking around the airport, I was reminded why I wasn’t a big fan of Korean food and/or snacks. There was definitely not as big of a draw to buy any snacks and treats like there is in Japan (unless you want to buy Red Ginseng). I just bought a Chilsing Cider (which is their version of 7up) to tie us over until our flight.

Our flight to Taipei was a full flight and it was a fairly large plane (777). Apparently there was a long weekend for Labour Day in Taiwan this weekend, so that’s why so many people were traveling. The flight was one of the scariest flights I’ve been on to date. There was a lot of turbulence that made the plane go up and down a lot. I’m “okay” with turbulence when it just shifts the plane side to side but when it starts to dip up and down, that’s when I start to freak out. The flight attendants had to sit down quite a few times during the flight because the turbulence was so bad. When I’m scared on flights, I grab Tim’s hand and squeeze it pretty tight. He’s really calm when there’s turbulence. He told me after we landed that I looked like I was going to cry. To be honest, I did have that urge to start crying (which has never happened before on a plane). Other than the turbulence, I watched the Steve Jobs movie (which was pretty good) and the meal they served was also quite good (I had Korean beef bulgogi).

We landed at Taoyuan Airport about 15 minutes late and as soon as we got off the plane, we felt a sudden wall of humidity. Apparently it was 37 degrees Celsius today, a stark difference from our 5 degrees temperatures in Sapporo. A bunch of flights from Japan landed at the same time and we were caught behind the crowds and had to wait at customs for about 35 minutes. We finally got through and got our bags, which were very lonely on the baggage carousel by the time we got downstairs. Uncle Albert came to pick us up and we dropped off our bags and headed straight for dinner with Tim’s Mom, and Tim’s Dua-yi Diu (whose apartment we are staying at).

We went to G-Woo, a restaurant close by to the apartment and one that we had gone to in March with Tim’s other relatives. They are known for their chicken soup, but since we got there fairly late, around 8pm, they said they were sold out. Everything Tim’s Mom and Uncle ordered was really good. I didn’t realize how much I missed the taste of Taiwanese/Chinese style food.

Before leaving Japan, we found out that some good friends were in Taipei visiting from Toronto and we would have a 12 hour overlap with them here. Unfortunately they were leaving tomorrow morning at 6am for Hong Kong so the only time we could meet was tonight. We planned on meeting at Ice Monster (shaved ice restaurant) after dinner. We don’t get to see them very often since they live in Toronto so we were both really happy to see them here. We shared two shaved ice and chatted for a couple of hours before saying bye. It felt like we were at home. They had to be up in a few hours to go to the airport and we were pretty beat from our long day of travel.

We walked back to the apartment, washed up and crashed. Tomorrow we planned on watching Captain America Civil War (which came out in Asia last week, and doesn’t come out in North America until Friday) at 9:30am. Tim has been waiting to come back to Taipei to watch it, since most movies here aren’t dubbed like in Japan.

It feels nice to be back in Taipei. It feels like our second home since we’re most familiar with it and there is family here. We only have 3 nights before heading off again. I kind of wish we had a bit more time here before leaving. Tim’s Mom is here visiting, so it’s nice to be able to see Taipei with her and meet more family friends.

Steps today: 13,000

Sapporo (Day 62): Otaru

May 1, 2016

It was our last full day in Sapporo and in Japan. We decided to take the train out of Sapporo and go to a city called Otaru. Otaru is located on the water on the north shore of Hokkaido. It’s a small quaint town with a lot of neat shops and museums. The streets downtown used to be the “Wall Street of the North”.

The train ride from Sapporo Station is about 30 minutes and costs 640 JPY each way. Too bad we didn’t have our JR passes any more. The train to Otaru is the last stop on the same line that takes you to the Chitose Airport (Sapporo Station is in the middle of the two). The train ride to Otaru was very scenic. About half way to Otaru from Sapporo, the train runs right along the coast and you can see views of the snow capped mountains on the other side of the train. The sun was shining and the ocean was a deep blue. It was beautiful.

We arrived at Otaru Station and headed straight for the fish market. Sankaku Fish Market is located directly to the left of the station (Tim: when exiting). Hokkaido is known for their seafood, particularly their scallops, crab (king, snow, hairy), salmon roe, and uni (sea urchin). The market is a small strip of a few vendors as well as restaurants (some a lot busier than others). The restaurants mostly served seafood rice bowls of all sorts, sashimi, and grilled seafood. We put our name down at one that looked most appealing to us and waited about 10 minutes before getting called in.

The restaurant was called Takeda, and after looking at their promotional brochures, it looked like the Takeda group has multiple seafood shops within the fish market. We ordered a plate of fatty salmon sashimi (600 JPY for 8 pieces) to share and I ordered a salmon and scallop don (it was a special order because I’m not a huge fan of uni or ikura/fish roe) and Tim ordered salmon with fish roe (both for 1,200 JPY = $14.30 CAD). Each don was served with a bowl of miso soup. The fish was laid out so nicely and everything was fresh and tasty. The scallops were my favourite as they were plump and sweet. Hokkaido uni is very popular and many people were ordering plates of it. The guy beside us ordered the chef special chirashi (deluxe assorted, for 3,000 JPY = $35 CAD). It looked really pretty. I was tempted (but I resisted) to ask him if I could take a picture of it before he ate.

After lunch, we walked into town and went to the Otaru Canal, which is one of their major attractions. The sightseeing part of Otaru is all within walking distance from the train station, which makes it really easy to come for a day trip from Sapporo. While walking around Otaru and seeing their old buildings, the architecture and style of the buildings were all very western.

There were a couple of museums that we wanted to check out: the Finance Museum at the former Bank of Japan building, and the Music Box Museum. All the museums in town (Tim: that we went to) are free to go in, which is great.

The Bank of Japan building, which is located on the former “Wall Street of the north”, is now Otaru’s Finance Museum. They show the history of Japan’s currency and how it has evolved to what it is today. I thought the best part of this museum was going into the vault and being able to pick up a stack of 100 million Yen (I’ve never held so much money in my life and probably never will). All of the signage is in Japanese with no other translation, but when you get into the museum they give you an English pamphlet with information of what you’ll see when you go in. On our way out we watched a (Tim: English dubbed) video about how the Bank of Japan works and the role that the central bank plays. While watching it, I felt like I was in school learning about basic economics and inflation.

We walked down one of the main streets in Otaru that was filled with shops that sold mostly Otaru sweet and snacks. The most popular store in Otaru is LeTAO bakery. They have multiple locations in Otaru (you’ll also see their merchandise at stores in Sapporo and probably around Japan) and are famous for their dairy based merchandise – cheesecake, cheese crackers, cheese and chocolate cookies, chocolate, and ice cream. Walking down this street and going into the multiple LeTAO locations, Tim and I tried everything they sold. They give samples of everything (and big ones at that). They have a sale associate standing outside their stores with either a tray of chocolates or a whole cheesecake to scoop samples for you. Their merchandise was very good. I really enjoyed their cheesecakes and chocolate. If they have LeTAO merchandise at Haneda, I’ll probably buy some to bring back home in the summer.

After our little food tour, we ended up at the famous steam clock in Otaru. It reminded us of Gastown and as we got closer to it, we saw plaques all around the steam clock’s base that said “Gastown, Vancouver, BC, Canada”. Being away from home for 2 months, I was really excited to see something from home in any shape or form. It turns out that the steam clock maker from Vancouver also made this one in Otaru, the cast of the Gastown clock was used in this one. The steam clock is located right in front of a music box store and museum. When you go in, the whole ground floor is full of tiny music boxes and as you go up to different levels the music boxes get more expensive and fancy.

We walked through town some more and eventually made our way back to the train station. Otaru is a very small, charming, and beautiful city with a lot of character. I’m glad we spent our last day here as it was different from other cities in Japan that we had visited. We had planned to have dinner in Otaru but we didn’t see anything that caught our eye. Most of the restaurants served seafood dons, similar to what we had for lunch so we decided to head back to Sapporo for our last dinner in Japan.

When we got back to Sapporo, we were actually both still full from the LeTAO samples and the ice cream we had. We decided to do a bit of last last minute shopping at the ESTA mall beside Sapporo Station. A lot of stores were having sales because of Golden Week. Muji had signs all over showing discounts, but since I couldn’t read the signs and only saw the percentage off, I didn’t know what the conditions of the sales were. What I thought was discounted was still regular price despite all the signs saying 20% and I wasn’t able to communicate with the sales associate showing her the sign. Oh well, it wasn’t meant to be. Sorry Nate, no bear T-shirt for you.

For our last dinner in Sapporo, we ended up having CoCo Curry (Tim’s pick). It was between that or yakitori (my pick). But since we had yakitori the night before and the smoking was a bit annoying, we went to CoCo. This is truly Tim’s comfort food restaurant. I like Japanese curry too but not as much as Tim does. But since he’s always so happy when he eats it, I compromised.

We stopped by Lawsons (convenience store) on the way back to the hotel. This seemed like a very regular occurrence for us before going back to any hotel/apartment we were staying in while in Japan. We would usually get a beverage of some sort (water or cool Japanese drinks we haven’t seen before), a snack for later (usually ice cream or a Japanese pudding) or breakfast for the next morning (either yogurt or an egg salad sandwich). I’ll definitely miss Lawsons, Family Mart, Sunkus, etc.

Packing up each time we move around is always a tasks in itself. Given the small quarters of our room, it was a little difficult. I had everything from my bag sprawled out on the bed. I can’t wait to go back to Taipei and unload some things. My bag has gained 10kg since leaving Vancouver (yikes!).

It’s crazy how fast April has flown by. I’ve really enjoyed Japan, which doesn’t really surprise me. I love Japanese food, snacks and products so I knew I would like it here. I’ll really miss how pleasant and nice everyone is, how clean the washrooms are (they all have heated seats!), and how good (reasonably priced) the food is. I know we’ll be back in the future to explore more, or even to just go back to Tokyo. We spent 26 days in Japan, but we could have easily spent our full 4.5 months here and not been bored. Everyone says how expensive Japan is to visit, but in actuality Japan can be as expensive as you want it to be (Tim: or as cheap as you want it to be… which could probably be said of most places). If you want to eat “the best” of everything, then obviously Japan is super pricey, but if you eat modestly like how probably 80% of the population eats, it’s very reasonable and cheaper than back home for something similar.

We’ll be heading back to Taipei for a few days before going to Australia. I’m most looking forward to seeing family and friends while there. I am not really looking forward to how we’ll be eating. Australia is notoriously expensive, so I think Tim and I won’t be eating as bountifully as we have been in Asia. Maybe we’ll start to actually lose weight.

Steps today: 18,000

Sapporo (Day 61): Snow in April

April 30, 2016

We woke up this morning, looked out the window, and it was snowing! Not the magical white fluffy snow, but more of the wet icy type of snow. Tim checked the forecast yesterday and saw it was going to snow a bit today, and he was excited. I think he thinks it’s really magical (and romantic) when it snows.

We bundled up even more today and headed out. For lunch, we planned on going to a yakitori (grilled skewers) place we saw on our first night that looked good. We didn’t eat there that night because the wait was too long so we passed. When we got to the restaurant, they had a lunch menu displayed and it was all tonkatsu lunch sets. We then realized that yakitori isn’t lunch food, and thought to come back for dinner (third time’s a charm, right?).

Since it was cold out we decided to check out “ramen alley” in Susukino. We had watched Anthony Bourdain’s Hokkaido episode on our first night here and wanted to check it out. Instead of walking outside today, we headed straight for the underground (like the rest of Sapporo). When we got to Susukino and found “ramen alley”, half of the restaurants were closed. It’s Golden Week in Japan right now, so a lot of people are on vacation. The restaurants that were opened were not very busy, some were even empty (it was 12:30pm). We did pass by the restaurant that Anthony Bourdain went to, it was also pretty empty. We didn’t see anything that seemed too interesting and since we had ramen yesterday we decided to find something else (Tim: I should note here that while some of Kaitlyn’s posts might give the impression that I love ramen, I actually don’t like it all that much. There’s a very small subset of ramen I really enjoy (Tonkatsu broth, thin noodles, no bamboo shoots), otherwise most bowls of ramen fall way down on the noodle-soup rankings for me).

We walked around the block from ramen alley and found a tonkatsu restaurant that looked interesting. It is part of the Matsunoya chain, which serves mostly donburis, but this restaurant just specialized in tonkatsu. The prices advertised were extremely reasonable so we decided to give it a try.

Everything at Matsunoya was very good. It’s quite easy to find good quality cheap food in Japan. That’s something that we’re going to really miss when we leave Asia for Australia. After that filling lunch, we headed back to the underground and did a bit of browsing and last minute shopping at Muji, Uniqlo and Don Quijote, as our time in Japan is winding down.

While walking through Pole Town, we noticed a line up outside a bakery that made cheese tarts (similar to the ones we had at Pablo) and they also served Hokkaido ice cream. Before coming to Sapporo, everyone told us we had to have Hokkaido ice cream, as Hokkaido produces high quality dairy products. We got in line at Kinotoya Bake and ordered one cheese tart and an ice cream cone to share.

The ice cream cone was huge! The soft serve is different than what we’re used to. It’s a lot creamier and not as sweet (if you’re comparing it to Dairy Queen). The cheese tart was like a warm cheesecake except a bit more gooey. It was good, but we both thought the cheese tart from Pablo was better.

We came up from the underground and saw it was sunny and there were blue skies. It was the first time we’ve seen blue skies in Sapporo. I guess being underground for most of the day, you don’t get to see what’s going on outside. We went to the Former Hokkaido Government Office and walked around inside. It’s free to visit and there are rooms filled with Sapporo memorabilia – like letters from world leaders who attended the G8 Summit in Sapporo in 2008. The building is a beautiful red brick building and looked very western inside.

We went back underground and went to Sapporo Station to browse around at the stores. The Uniqlo at Sapporo Station is one of the better ones I’ve been to this trip. Since it’s Golden Week, there are a lot of sales going on. After trying on a lot of items, I restricted myself after thinking about my bulging backpack.

From our shopping today, here are some snacks that were interesting but we didn’t/couldn’t buy. Too bad all the specialty Glico Pockys are always in such big boxes. I knew that Hokkaido was known for its dairy products but I didn’t know they also specialized in cantaloupe/melon flavoured treats.

It was time for dinner so we walked back towards the yakitori restaurant, Kushidori. There were two other groups ahead of us and had to wait about 15 minutes. We got seated at the counter and ordered 15 skewers, edamame, and two drinks (ginger ale and a beer) for 28,000 JPY = $33 CAD. Everything was really good, I think yakitori is one of my favourite types of Japanese food. Grilled meat is so simple but it tastes so good. My favourites from tonight were the bacon wrapped mochi and the classic chicken and leek skewer. Most of the skewers we ordered were 130-140 JPY = $1.50 – $$1.65 CAD.

The restaurant is a block away from our hotel, so it was a short walk back. My favourite meals in Japan have been izakayas or yakitori restaurants. I guess I like bars in Japan even though I don’t drink. The only downside to eating at these places is that smoking is allowed, which is not something we’re used to.

It’s our last day in Japan tomorrow. I’m a bit sad to be leaving. There’s so much more to see and eat!

Steps today: 16,000

Sapporo (Day 60): Ramen, Sapporo Beer, and Sushi

April 29, 2016

We’ve been away from home for 2 months now. Time sure does fly! It was our first full day in Sapporo and we were ready to head out and explore the city. The forecast for today was rainy, cold, and windy. It made for a perfect ramen day.

Tim did a bit of ramen research before we left the hotel and there was a ramen restaurant called, Aji No Tokedai, that was fairly close to us and in the direction we planned on spending part of the day. It’s a Hokkaido ramen chain that has locations all around Sapporo. We ordered gyozas, miso ramen with corn, and a Hokkaido special ramen (with butter, corn and scallops). The ramen with butter started off pretty tasty but soon became a bit too rich for me. I wasn’t able to finish my bowl (which was a lot larger than I thought it would be).

Feeling pretty bloated and lethargic after lunch, we continued our walk around Sapporo. It was raining quite hard outside and we didn’t see too many people walking around. We initially thought it was just because it was rainy out and that Sapporo is a smaller city, so naturally there’s less people out. But then, we went down to Sapporo’s underground walkway and discovered that’s where all the people were.

We exited the underground to find Sapporo TV Tower, and walked briefly down Odori Park. Odori Park is a long park that extends 1.5km down the middle of the city running east to west. We came across a block that appeared to be a fish market. There were a couple of streets of vendors that sold Hokkaido crab (a lot of king crab and hairy crabs) and other various seafood. We later learned that this fish market is mainly for tourists, while the actual Sapporo Fish Market is not as central.

We made our way towards the shopping area of Odori and went to a department store called, PARCO. While in Tokyo, I was looking at Issey Miyake’s line of bags and purses called, BaoBao (I think the name sounds cute). Issey Miyake items are around 30-40% cheaper in Japan than they are in the States (you also save 8% on tax-free shopping). I couldn’t really decide on one in Tokyo and I saw that Sapporo had a location so I waited until we got here to possibly buy something. Since I hadn’t bought much of anything on this trip, I wanted a souvenir from Japan that wouldn’t be consumed within a few months (like the snacks and sunscreen). After staring at the different options for a while and messaging my sister asking her for her advice, I ended up getting a black clutch (converts into a cross body bag). I didn’t know much about Issey Miyake and then I read about him on Wikipedia and found out that apparently he was friends with Steve Jobs and produced his favourite black turtlenecks.

After shopping, we walked about 15 minutes towards the Sapporo Beer Museum. The museum is in a nice red-brick building and had free admission. The museum wasn’t that extensive but it’s set up very nicely inside. At the end of the museum, you can pay for samples of different types of Sapporo Beer. Tim had a 3 glass sampler (600 JPY = $7 CAD) and I had Sapporo’s Ribbon brand’s grapefruit juice (100 JPY = $1.13 CAD). The grounds of the Sapporo Beer Museum are quite nice. They have a restaurant, store, and beer garden as well.

We quickly walked back to the hotel because my parent’s friends, Auntie Mary and Uncle Reg, were picking us up for dinner. They had moved to Sapporo temporarily to work as missionaries while running a guest house. We got in touch with them when we got to Japan and had planned to meet while we were here. For dinner we ate closer to their neighbourhood, about 6km from the city centre. They took us for sushi at a restaurant (I think it was called Torimon) that had about a 20 minute wait at 5:30pm. It was clearly a popular restaurant with the locals. It was nice to get out of the city core and see where the locals lived and ate.

We had a great meal with good conversation about our travel stories. They have been to so many places in Asia and were telling us their favourite and least favourite places they’ve visited. After dinner, they brought us to the house that they are living in and showed us the B&B rooms. It was all really nice and spacious and all the pictures and knick-knacks felt like a real home. We sat and chatted a bit longer while eating some freshly cut fruit (we missed having fresh fruit while being in Japan, so this was the perfect end to the night). They drove us back to our hotel and we said our goodbyes. I think I’ve stressed before how nice it is to meet with family and friends while traveling and tonight just reaffirmed my feelings.

Steps today: 13,000

Okinawa/Sapporo (Day 59): From Summer to Winter

April 28, 2016

Our last morning in Okinawa was just packing everything up before the check out time at 11am. The sun was shining and it was about 28°C. We checked the forecast for Sapporo and it was a high of 11°C and a low of 3°C. We basically picked the two most extremely opposite parts of Japan (climate wise) to visit back to back.

Before checking out we went downstairs to the Family Mart and grabbed a few things for lunch – an egg salad sandwich, a fried chicken drumstick, and inari. We checked out and made our way to Asahibashi Monorail Station to take the train to Naha Airport. The train ride to get to the airport was 260 JPY = $3 CAD each. We arrived at the airport dripping in sweat, it was not a pretty sight.

When we arrived, we checked in and noticed that Tim’s boarding pass said Star Alliance Gold. He didn’t think he still had status this year but apparently he still does? Or maybe this is because he had gold status when we booked these flights. Anyway, we went to the ANA lounge and they scanned his boarding pass and we were allowed in. The lounge was very business oriented and quite small. They had some fresh juice, fountain drinks, Suntory Whiskey, Orion Beer, and some Japanese cracker snacks. Their Orion Beer pouring machine was really cool. Tim took a good video of it.

While sitting in the lounge, there were a bunch of fighter jets taking off from the airport. Except this time, these fighter jets were part of the Japanese Self-Defense Force. (Tim: We saw two jets take off in tandem and banked left together immediately after taking off… which was pretty cool). We had some drinks in the lounge before heading to our gate.

Our flight was delayed by 10 minutes, but still ended up getting to Sapporo on time. The flight was about 2 hours and 45 minutes. ANA domestic flights don’t offer much in terms of food or drinks (they only have coffee, apple juice, green tea, or consomme), which is a bit disappointing for an Asian airline. The best airline we’ve flown has been Bangkok Airways. For a domestic flight in Thailand (that was only an hour long), they served us drinks and a meal.

When we arrived in Sapporo and stepped out of the plane, we could immediately feel the cold crisp air, a stark difference from the warm humid air we were in a few hours ago. After we got our bags we headed for the JR New Chitose Airport Station where we caught a train to Sapporo Station. The train ride was about 35 minutes and cost us 1,070 JPY = $12.45 CAD each.

Our hotel, Nest Hotel, is about a 6 minute walk straight up the street from Sapporo Station. On our walk there, my sweatshirt was not cutting it. It was so cold! I don’t think we’ve been this cold since some time in February when we left Vancouver. Tim’s going to say it wasn’t that cold, but it was (Tim: it wasn’t that cold). We got to the hotel and checked into our room. The room was similar to other typical Japanese hotel rooms – small, double bed, with minimal space to put your luggage. But as always, everything is very clean so there’s not much more you can ask for. We got a pretty good deal on this hotel room, we’re paying $245 CAD for 4 nights here. We booked on Expedia and had a promo code for $100 off from TD Rewards.

We settled in and layered up. I wore my Heattech shirt from Uniqlo, brought out my scarf and my toque (I basically brought my toque just for Sapporo). We did a bit of research on what restaurants were close by since our plan for tonight was just to grab dinner and plan our next few days here. Since it was so cold out, I was actually craving ramen (which rarely happens). Sapporo is known for having good ramen, Hokkaido ramen, which is more of a miso based broth (vs. tonkotsu broth from Fukuoka/Hakata). My favourite ramen in Vancouver is Santouka on Robson, which is originally from Hokkaido. There’s actually a ramen area in Sapporo but it was too far of a walk for tonight, so we continued looking. Tim found a yakitori place one street over that sounded really good so we headed there.

When we got to the yakitori place, it did look really good but the wait for dinner was 45 minutes so we passed. We’ll try to go back again another day. We walked down the street and found an izakaya whose menu looked good so we went there. The izakaya was filled with smoking businessmen and women. We were seated at the counter since all the tables were full. Unfortunately, everyone to my left was smoking and blowing it my direction (I used my scarf to cover my nose when it got bad). We ordered a salad, yakitori, chicken karaage, fried squid, pork belly fried rice and edamame (which we thought was free but I think it’s free if you order drinks). Our bill came out to be 4,049 JPY = $47 CAD. Everything was tasty (we have yet to have a bad meal in Japan. *knock on wood*), but towards the end we wanted to leave as soon as possible since even more smoke was blowing our way.

The Sapporo Clock Tower was close to the hotel so we decided to take a quick look. We took a picture and then walked back quickly. It was too cold!

Looking forward to exploring another part of Japan in the next few days. It’s our last Japanese city we’ll visit before heading back to Taipei on Tuesday. April went by so quickly, I can’t believe it’s almost May. We’ll be more prepared with layering up even more tomorrow.

Steps today: 7,000

Okinawa (Day 58): Peace Memorial Park

April 27, 2016

Today was our last day in Okinawa and we had originally planned on going to the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park in Itoman and visit the Shuri Castle in Naha. But after some research on transportation to Itoman, and the infrequent buses to the Peace Memorial Park, we would only be able to fit in one attraction. We both picked the Peace Memorial Park over Shuri Castle. We’ll have to visit Shuri Castle on our next trip here.

Tim and I are both very interested in World War II history so whenever we go somewhere that was involved in the war or has something WWII related, it’s always on our list to visit. We were able to visit the National WWII Museum in New Orleans last year and Pearl Harbor in Oahu in 2014 together. With Japan playing a significant role in WWII, on the axis side, it was interesting to see the country’s perspective on events during that period of time while visiting Hiroshima and now, Okinawa.

Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Park was quite a trek from Naha. We had a late start to the day as we were taking it easy after yesterday’s long trek out to Nago. Tim made the instant noodles that he had bought the other day from Chatan for an early lunch.

We walked to Asahibashi Bus Terminal and took the #89 bus to Itoman Bus Terminal and this took about an hour. Itoman is located on the southern tip of Okinawa island, and is only about 13km away from Naha. Once we got to Itoman Bus Terminal, we asked what time the #82 bus (to the Peace Memorial Park) is set to leave and a man who was sitting outside the bus office said the next one wouldn’t be until 2:50pm (which was more than an hour and a half from then). We looked around the bus terminal area and it was pretty dead and nothing of interest around. Tim looked at Google Maps and it said we were about 10km away from the Memorial Park so we decided to just walk (Tim: I like to think in terms of the Stanley Park Sea Wall, so 10km is around 1 loop around Stanley Park, no problem). It was about 25 degrees Celsius and overcast with a slight breeze, so walking didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Since we were walking, we also decided to visit the Himeyuri Monument, which was about 6km from the bus terminal. The Himeyuri Monument was built to honour a group of over 230 female students and teachers from a Naha high school who, during WWII, were forced to become a nursing unit by the Japanese government. They were performing surgeries and eventually ended up living in dark caves to hide from the Americans along side gravely injured and dead Japanese soldiers. But during the battle of Okinawa, 80% of them died in an attack.

(Tim: We learned at the Peace Museum that the girls, along with a lot of other Okinawan civilians, were in a horrific position during the war. Near the end of the fighting, while in these caves that became makeshift bunkers and field hospitals, the US soldiers would move across the land, find caves, tell those inside to surrender, or they would attack. For Okinawan civilians, if they tried to surrender, the Japanese Soldiers would kill them. If they stayed put, the US Soldiers would attack and most likely kill them. It’s no wonder so many Okinawans died during the Battle of Okinawa.)

The Himeyuri Memorial was small and peaceful. There were a couple of Japanese school tours there as well. There is a museum (310 JPY entrance) there as well, and it is built to replicate the high school building where the girls went to school.

We continued down the road towards the Memorial Peace Park, which was another 4km away. We eventually made it there, all sweaty and sticky. I wore a grey cotton t-shirt today, which was probably the wrong choice for today’s activity.

The Okinawa Memorial Peace Park is beautifully set upon the Mabuni Hill area of Itoman and is the actual spot where the last battle of Okinawa occurred. We headed straight for the museum, which closed at 5pm, so we had about 2 hours to spend there. It was 300 JPY = $3.40 CAD to enter and there were free English audio guides which helped a lot. Although most signage was translated into English, a lot of the smaller details only have Japanese, so I would recommend asking for an audio guide at the ticket counter.

The museum was very informative and really heartbreaking at the same time. I remember learning briefly about WWII events in Okinawa but it was never discussed in detail in Social Studies class. The battle of Okinawa, which is also referred to as the “Typhoon of Steel”, and lasted for 82 days in 1945. More than one third of Okinawa’s population died during those 82 days (~120,000 people). (Tim: They called it the Typhoon of Steel” for how fierce the fighting was, as well as for the insane amount of artillery shells the Allies fired at the island. Apparently over 6.5 million shells were fired at the island over the 82-days of fighting.)

Considering Okinawa is heavily populated with American military and their families, I was interested in learning what the tone of the museum would be. The tone was not anti-American at all, it was actually American sympathetic and seemed almost anti-Japanese (Tim: I would say it felt mostly neutral to me, with more of a slant to the general horrors of war than who was to blame). Even during a testimonial video, a woman who was 16 during 1945, said how the Japanese military gave her and her younger siblings hand grenades to kill themselves if the Americans got close (Tim: she said she pulled the pins because they wanted to die, but they turned out to be duds). She also recalled that other civilians who tried to leave the cave they were hiding in were all shot in the back by Japanese soldiers. When they got so hungry and thirsty and prepared for death, they went to surrender and it was the American soldiers who gave her and her siblings chocolate and hot milk while trying to calm them down. But since they didn’t understand English, they thought the Americans were going to kill them, but in actuality they saved them. This was the general sentiment that I got while reading and listening to the audio guides.

Although Okinawa was technically on the Japanese side, many of the casualties and atrocities during the battle were a result of Japanese military brutality. They suspected anyone who spoke Okinawan (Ryukyuan Languages) of being a spy which could lead to execution. If anyone was caught talking about surrendering, they were killed immediately. The Japanese military also transported thousands of Koreans to Okinawa and other Pacific islands and forced the men into hard labour and the women to become sex slaves (“comfort women”) for the soldiers. Many of the Koreans who were brought to Okinawa for these purposes died during the battle (Tim: The Peace Memorial has a Korean Memorial which states over 10,000 Koreans died in the Battle of Okinawa). For some Okinawans that weren’t heavily indoctrinated in the Japanese war effort, there was a strong sentiment of wanting to surrender early on.

The museum was really well done and I would highly recommend it if you happen to be in Okinawa. The park grounds were extremely peaceful and there were many observation view points which over looked the rocky coast line. While looking over the cliffs, while beautiful, it’s sad to know how many people perished in that very area 61 years ago. They said many Okiniwans and Japanese soldiers committed suicide and jumped over the cliffs when the American attacks became too strong to fight. I feel very sympathetic towards Okiniwans as they had been put in unfortunate situations that the Japanese government placed on them. Okinawa is a very peaceful place, it’s a shame that their history is so tragic.

We walked around the park grounds for about an hour and slowly made our way to the bus stop to catch our bus (that comes every hour). As we were waiting, a taxi driver drove past us and offered to take us back to Naha for 2,000 JPY = $22 CAD, which is cheaper than what the bus would cost us (2,100 JPY). The ride back into Naha was a lot quicker than the bus as he took a very direct route back to the city. That was actually my first taxi ride in Japan. It was cool. The door opens and closes on its own (Tim: well, the driver controls it…) and there’s a TV in the middle of the console in the front that shows the news.

Once we got back to Naha, we looked for a restaurant for dinner. We passed by a couple of places and an Italian restaurant actually caught our eye. It was called Bambino’s and it looked like a very cute and quaint restaurant. When we were looking at the menu, the guy inside came out and greeted us and showed us the menu. We were actually deciding between that restaurant and an izakaya but since he was so friendly, we went inside. I guess you can tell that we’ve both been craving more western food recently from our food choices.

We ordered a pizza margarita, caesar salad, oysters in garlic oil, and a meat sauce pasta. Expecting everything to be “Japafied”, we were pleasantly surprised when everything wasn’t (Tim thought the pasta was a bit but I thought it was “normal”). Everything was freshly made and was delicious. The pizza crust was perfectly made, nice and chewy. This totally hit the spot for us. The waiter asked us where we’re from and we told him it was our last day in Okinawa. He asked us if we tried Okinawan food and we told him we had taco rice and soba noodles. He chuckled a bit and said, so your last day you can have Italian!

Tomorrow, we’re headed to Sapporo. We’re going from a place with a high temperature of 27 degrees Celsius with humidity to a city that has a high of 9 degrees Celsius. It’s time to layer up!

Before coming to Okinawa, I knew it would be different from mainland Japan, but to experience the difference was very interesting. While walking around Itoman today, Okinawa reminded me a lot of the east coast of Taiwan. I guess it does make sense that Okinawa seemed more Taiwanese than it does Japanese in a lot of ways (Tim: because it’s closer to Taiwan than it is to mainland Japan).

While Okinawa is a resort island for most people, I think staying in Naha was a good experience. I enjoyed being able to see all different parts of the island, which was actually not that trivial since the transportation isn’t very good. Before coming here, I was always curious about Okinawa’s relationship with the Americans and the Japanese government. After learning more about the island and it’s rough history, I think I’m only beginning to understand it’s complex relationships.

Steps today: 25,000

Okinawa (Day 57): Churaumi Aquarium

April 26, 2016

Today was our long awaited aquarium day. We booked a tour to go to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, which is on the opposite end of the island from Naha. We left the hotel at around 7:45am to walk to the closest hotel pick up point and waited for the tour bus to arrive.

Tim found this tour online and it was 4,800 JPY per person. It included admission to the aquarium, lunch, admission to a butterfly garden, admission to a pineapple plantation and a stop at a Ryukyu glass shop. It was a good price from where we’re staying since a bus that would take us to the aquarium would be over 4,000 JPY round trip, plus we would have to pay 1,850 JPY admission.

We were at the second hotel pick up point, but as we continued north the bus eventually filled. The tour guide was a middle aged Japanese lady and we later realized that a lot of tour guides here are older ladies. The tour is in Japanese, but on the ride up there would be English commentary on the speakers as we passed by points of interest, which was helpful. The bus ride felt like it took forever. There was a lot of traffic and stopping at multiple hotels made it longer. On the bright side, as we continued on route 58 (the same road as yesterday to Chatan), the scenery was beautiful. The East China Sea was to the left and the lush green forests were to our right. Since we stopped at a bunch of hotels, we saw some really nice resorts. I thought the ANA Intercontinental at Manza Beach looked really nice. Maybe on a future trip to Okinawa.

We eventually arrived at our first destination, Ryugujo Butterfly Gardens at 11:20am (was a 3 hour bus ride from Naha). They served us lunch in the restaurant upstairs, which looked like it was mostly for tours. For lunch they served us Okinawan style soba noodles, which was in a pork broth and had a piece of pork and a fish cake. Lunch was tasty and simple. The noodles reminded me of noodles they use in Taiwanese beef noodle.

Ryugujo Butterfly Gardens is located just down the street from the aquarium in Motobu. The gardens are right on the coastline so the views were quite nice. It was a sunny and hot day today, so being outside was a bit draining. It was probably a good idea that we were going to the aquarium today, where it would be air conditioned.

After lunch and the butterfly garden, it was time for the main event. We had 3 hours at the aquarium, which was just enough time. I think an extra half an hour would have been nice. The aquarium grounds are nice as it backs on to the East China Sea. The aquarium is also part of Ocean Expo Park which has dolphins, sea turtles, and manatees.

The main reason why we wanted to come to the aquarium in Okinawa was because they have three whale sharks. They are the largest known fish species. On our honeymoon, Tim and I took a whale shark excursion hoping to snorkel with them in the Maldives. But unfortunately, there was only one sighting and by the time we all dove into the water the whale shark had dove too deep. After seeing these amazing creatures in captivity, it would’ve been really awesome if we had seen one in the wild. Awesome but kind of scary because they are huge!

We spent about an hour in the Kuroshio tank area just admiring the whale sharks as well as everything else in the tank. It’s the largest aquarium tank I’ve ever seen. We both took so many pictures and videos, it’ll take some time to sort through the good ones.

We had about an hour left before we had to go back to the tour bus. We quickly went to see the turtles outside and got a seat for the dolphin show.

We headed back to the bus on time and made our way to our next stop, the Nago Pineapple Plant. This was like Okinawa’s Dole Plantation in Oahu. We were guided through a short path of Okinawan pineapples and then lead into a store with all sort of pineapple products: wine, juice, vinegar, cosmetics, and cookies. Each product had samples so we got to try everything. Originally, Nago Pineapple Plant is supposed to give people on the tour actual pineapple samples but they had a sign saying that there is a shortage of pineapples this season so help yourself to pineapple juice instead. This was a bit disappointing, but the pineapple juice was really delicious. Tim and I both had 3 (small) cups of it.

Most people on our tour bought a lot of products from the store. They came back with bags except for us. We just had our soft serve. Our last stop on the tour was over was an Okinawan glass shop. This wasn’t that interesting since it was just a store. We did see them make a jar, which was pretty cool. I don’t think anyone bought anything from this stop – everything was quite expensive. Only some glass products were still made in Okinawa, the majority of them are made in a factory in Vietnam.

On the way back into town, the tour guide said a bunch of stuff in Japanese, I’m guessing it was her closing remarks and she started to sing for us (which was nice). It was nice that after the pineapple plantation and the glass store, she gave us all gifts from each. She gave us all cups of pineapple sorbet and a small glass chopstick holder. Most people ended up sleeping on the way back. I passed out and when I woke up half the bus had been dropped off already and it was raining outside. We still had about an hour to go before getting back into Naha.

Tim and I decided to get off the bus at a hotel stop closer to Kokusai Street (International Street) to look for a restaurant for dinner. Kokusai Street is strip that has a lot of souvenir shops and restaurants in one area. It’s nicknamed, International Street, and it sort of reminded me of the International Market area in Waikiki. The streets were mainly filled with Hong Kong tourists as I mainly heard Cantonese.

After walking along Kokusai Street for about 15 minutes, we finally decided on a place to eat. It was called “Jango Jango” and all the menu items were 500 JPY = $5.68 CAD. We were his last customers of the night and got seated at the counter. Tim ordered Okinawan soba (just to compare it with what we had at lunch) and I had taco rice. Both dishes were good. The soba was similar to the soba from lunch except the pork was more of a stewed pork than a single slice. There was also more garnishes. The taco rice was more simple than the one we had yesterday. It was also more similar in taste to what I would make at home. Overall, we were really satisfied with dinner and it only costed 1,000 JPY = $11.36 CAD.

After a fairly long day, we headed back to the hotel. We’re taking it easier tomorrow and just staying around the Naha area. We want to see the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman and the Shuri Castle. It’s our last day in Okinawa tomorrow before heading to Sapporo on Thursday. Our time in Japan is almost over. I’ll definitely miss the food and overall pleasant nature of the country. I know we’ll be back again!

Steps today: 15,000