sunday lunch @ paanilani

fruits heaven! chatan! and randomness!

japanese pears are delicious. they are sweet and mesmerizingly juicy. every autumn, we recieve a box of nikkori pears from my family. "nikkori" simply means "smile." it is also a word to describe a "smiling face." everyone smiles when they eat something good, right? so here it goes!

nikkori pears are super-size! (usually about the size of your head)

so today we went to american village in chatan for the second time where the entire place was enveloped with a christmas feel.  i felt a bit (more than a bit maybe) strange because it is still so hot.

おもちゃみたい！

after american village, we stopped by onna-no-eki. heard from one of my co-workers that there is a good bakery: pan de paris bonjour.

loooooookk! this one is pumpkin and chestnut! 

warp! now at maccafe in uruma.

then we recieved two boxes of beautiful aomori apples. so merry!

ted x ryukyu

kazuto and i have always been (moderate) fans of TED so we were excited about the TEDxRyukyu event held on campus today. we saw many mind-inspiring speakers. i especially liked takako miyahira who is a young film producer. at one point during her speech, she said, "i want to live as to make a moment worth a full book" (一瞬を１冊の本にできるくらいの生き方をしたい) while drawing connections between "life and film"..... what an inspiring message!

we went to nakamura soba for lunch.

lunch

pasta of the day was beautiful pescatore @ KAITO

mccafe by barista & kadena airbase

kazuto and i are self-claimed nomad workers. we enjoy working or studying outside, away from home. when we were living in tokyo, there were a bunch of cafes we could go to study. sometimes we even did cafe hopping!

in onna-son where we currently live, it's not easy to find a cafe around. however, we found a barnd-new mcdonald w/ 'mccafe by barista' in uruma city's ishikawa district. this could be our new spot!

after a while of studying and working at the mac's, our concentration ran out. we decided to scope around. we traveled to the north yesterday so we should try out the south today. we were driving around and found a michi-no-eki in kadena town, which is about 30 min. away from onna.

there was a small exhibition of the kadena airfield and aircrafts. also, a small theater showing two short movie clips of kadena town. we learned that more than 80% of the land is occupied by the us military base. you can check out the kadena airfield from the observatory on the fourth floor. 　

yanbaru trip: daiseki rinzan & cape hedo

today we headed to the north. the farthest north of the island. we've been told it's lovely up there so we were longing to visit. yup, today was the day. let's go breathe and immerse in the nature!

it was mostly cloudy with showers. like always, the sun came out ooooonce in a while. that's what i like about the okinawan weather. there's always a chance for the blue sky.

michi-no-eki ogimi (大宜味村の道の駅). ogimi village is known for longevity.

yui-yui kunigami (ゆいゆい国頭) in kumigami village, a nice stop-over for tourists for okinawan survenirs and eat-ins. we had lunch there.

okinawa rail (やんばるくいな) doing weight lifting. go!

wow for the deep mountains. the ocean on our left and the mountains on our right.

now at daiseki rinzan（大石林山), which is a hiking trail located in the northernmost area of okinawa island. according to some japanese mythology, the god named 'amamikiyo' first arrived and created the okinawa island starting this site. ever since then, daiseki rinzan has been respected as a holy place with profound and primitive nature still growing strong.

  

 

kazuto receiving the power from the stone!?

the view from the observatory! we could see the northmost point!

 

there were so many rocks and stones inside daiseki rinzan. here i am walking under a "reborn" rock （生まれ変わりの石). this rock is said to make you forget the past if you go under it the first time, then, reset yourself as you go the second time, and finally you are born new the third time.

石のしたをとおって、まわりをぐるぐるまわりまっす↓

生まれ変わったかずとくん、ジャジャーン！！！　・・・・　うん！

also there were many old big banyan trees (がじゅまる) at the site.

 

 

  

and finally, our destination of the day! the farthest north point: hedo misaki (辺戸岬).

ここにも生まれ変わったかずとくん。

the total distance we drive was 150 km!!! 

we took a little break at mister donut @ aeon mall in nago city. been a while since i last came to mister donut.... surprised that their coffee and latte are free refill. ....... ah, yes, ate two doughnuts.

and here is our third doughnut of the day. i got this cute little doughnut made of natural ingredients such as whole grain and brown sugar etc. at the kunigami store. tasted like sata andagi (サーターアンダギー).