We stopped at a service area first. Since we didn’t understand English, we were not sure why we stopped here until I went to the top story of the building, where an observation deck provided unobscured view of the Kadena Air Base.
The fighter jets of the Kadena Air Base.
Our next stop was the Ryukyu Mura (Ryukyu Village) open air museum that has many old Ryukyu houses on display.
The village also provided many live demonstrations of all aspects of traditional living of people, such as woman weaving...
... and the ox powered sugarcane mill.
Our third stop was Cape Manza of Okinawa Kaigan Quasi-National Park. The cliff formation and clear sea water at Cape Manza offered a spectacular view.
This was still the close season for water activities at Okinawa, so we could have a clear view of the white sand beaches at the other side of the bay.
We stopped at a Japanese sweet store for lunch. To be honest, we were surprised by the quality of the food offered.
The automatic sweet factory producing the local specialty made from purple sweet potato.
We arrived the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium at around 2 PM and we were given two hours to visit the aquarium and the surrounding park.
The aquarium was a four story building with the entrance set at the fourth floor.
Tropic fishes swimming between reefs in the Coral Sea.
From another window, people could also see the fishes living at caves below the reefs.
The main attraction of the aquarium was the Black Tide, where one side of the tank was made into an enormous window and people looking at the whale sharks in front of it appeared tiny.
During the feeding demonstration, the narrator spoke with the staffs above the tank to describe how they fed the shark whales.
There were also giant mobula in Black Tide tank.
The model of shark cross-sections attracted many children.
Our last stop was the Nago Pineapple Park. We were only offered to visit the souvenir store of the park, which did offered limitless pineapples for tasting.
The winery of the Pineapple Park.
And their colorful pineapple wines.
Our dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel.
The Next Day
