Happy 1st Birthday Carter!

Coryn helped decorate the cupcakes.

Carter (and Coryn) loved his present even if he couldn't quite unwrap himself.

No, don't touch... blow!

Mmm... messy joy.

After thouroughly eating the frosting off and mashing the cake to make sure he hadn't missed any, Carter wanted more.

International Orchid Festival 2

You may have hear that the world of orchids is very intense, and its true, whether it be coaxing the flowers to grow and bloom perfectly or the search for rare finds in the wild, the fact that there is a black market for orchids is proof alone that many love this sport perhaps a little too much. I couldn't pay full attention to what I was looking at while entertaining the kids, so I didn't get to see all they had displayed nor did I know until I got home what I accidentally captured. Competition extends beyond showing a potted plant or cut flowers to include commercial and themed displays (commercial I'm assuming to be what you would see in a store window). That being said... here are a few winners.

One of the placed displays... couldn't tell you what place, but it has a ribbon.

First place cut flowers.

First place potted.

Grand Champion I believe.

Not sure about this one.... might have been top of the 'hanging' flowers... note how its hung from the ceiling.

International Orchid Festival

Eeeeeee!!!! I had to go this year since it will likely be my last opportunity. It was spectacular! Held annually at the Tropical Dream Center located within the Ocean Expo Park near the Churaumi Aquarium, this festival is an orchid lover's dream. Not only do they have the orchids displayed from competitors in three divisions but also orchids to buy, orchids for decoration, and well... more orchids! (This explains why they have orchids in the air terminal) I took many pictures before we even went into the building... here are a few.

And Coryn on the Japanese payphone. He did really well while we spent 2+ hours looking at flowers. Often taking pictures... some of which actually turned out.

Another Aquarium Visit

Here we are about to go in, Coryn got his hat from a Japanese "Jellybean Man" (aka clown), we chose to go on a Japanese holiday... not sure which one, whichever happens Feb 11th.

Kids loved the touch pool of course.

This is Carter's first real experience here... 4 days and 4 months don't really count as memory building experiences, as you can see he enjoyed it, he pointed a lot and didn't cry the whole time we were in there.

Trying to get those last couple of figures for Dad. We scored! Got a great white shark, now there's just the sting ray and big turtle left.

Fighting over treats at the dolphin show.

Seifa-Utaki

Halfway up the walk to the shrine is the place where the men stay, they are not allowed to continue where the priestesses go.

The road splits and to the left is the 'kitchen' where meals were prepared after the rituals. Look at that brave little Japanese boy holding up that stalactite.
Continuing to the right we come to a couple of pots placed below a couple of exposed stalactites, the pots collect rainwater used in telling the fortunes for the highest ranked priestess and the king's son. The pots would also indicate whether they would be having drought (based on how much rain they got throughout the year from typhoons and such).

Then we continue on the road through the giant triangle created when a giant slab of the limestone slid off the top sometime in the distant past, and we find ourselves at the main worship site.

Its a bad picture, but at the bottom you see the altar where they made the offerings and said prayers. The view is a straight shot of Kudaka island, which has been called the Okinawan Garden of Eden, where life on the island is supposed to have originated from. There is a room in Shuri-jo castle which points this way as well for the same reason, and it is in an area that was restricted to allow only priestesses as well.

More Shrines

Third stop I forgot my camera in the bus, we weren't there long because everyone was hungry (went to huge Naha Jusco that felt like an American mall with a really cool entryway into the second floor restaurant area, all Okinawan oldschool). There were two sites right next to eachother, first had a shrine for praying for unborn babies (originally built to pray for babies they had to abort because they wouldn't be able to feed the child). This is the second half where there are three separate shrines in the one location, a confucious shrine, a shrine to the ocean goddess, and one to another god of fortune I think.

This is the drive down the road we took to get to the last stop on the tour. Romantic view.

It was a bit of a hike to this location, but it beats the hike that royalty took once a year to this shrine back in the day (10 days), and this is the original road, 600+ years old.

More road.

More road... at one point while walking this road there is a divot in the ground on the side of the road where the area received its only bomb from the war.

Tamaudun Royal Mausoleum

Second stop on our sacred places tour was the Tamaudun Royal Mausoleum. I missed most of the information our tour guide gave because we stroller-bound had to take an elevator down and then up from viewing some of the 'coffins', during which was the info. For more info visit...

http://www.ocvb.or.jp/card/en/0600005838.html

There were three rooms (we entered none) after two barren large areas, on top of the left building on either side were two large shisa (guardians).

Along the 'patio' were carved wooden railings... here are a dragon and phoenix
The bone holders were a variety... fancy...

Or relatively plain.

I thought this was picturesque.

Futenma Shrine 2

At one end of the cave is a gate they open annually June 30th. During WWII this cave sheltered hundreds of Okinawans, all of which survived, bringing extra luck to the cave. It is one of the nicer caves to have hidden in as well, it had a breeze and the floor was dry.

The shrine's 'backyard' was a rock garden.

'Romantic' view (as the Japanese translate it, any beautiful view or flower is romantic)

Before everyone had clocks the time was told by the bells from the shrines. Shinto is a nature worship religion, and is quite possibly the oldest religion in history. Okinawan Shinto transformed when they were invaded by Japan and a lot of the shrines gained the characteristic torii (bird resting spot) with a shift to the emporer being a direct line to the heavens.

Inside one of the buildings we find 24k gold, lots of lotus, and on the pillow on the floor cushions a drum in the shape of a fish so that the eyes will remind the drummer to stay awake during the ceremony.

Futenma shrine

I don't remember which computer the pictures we took the first time we went are on, I thought we posted before about it too... but I can't find it. We went on a tour this week to several sacred sites and the first stop was Futenma Shinto shrine. Its a prayer site complete with priests, priestesses, good luck talismans for sale, fortunes, walls to write good luck wishes, and an area to tie bad fortunes. All of this is in the other pictures we took. Several of the things I talk of can be seen here...


http://www.okinawa.usmc.mil/public%20affairs%20info/archive%20news%20pages/2006/060505-shrine.html


This particular location for a Shinto 'temple' was chosen because of a story about a woman, some 1000 years ago, who was very beautiful and received too much attention for her likes, her sister tried to let a man view her in secret, but she saw and fled. She ran a long way, finally running into the cave and she never came out again. Here is a drum offering with a painting of the woman as a goddess.

You need permission to unlock the gates to the caves.

Here is one of the 'lucky' rock formations to pray at, I'm not sure what this particular one is for, but at the entrance to the cave on either side are two that compliment eachother which people pray at for fertility.


Here is the main shrine inside the cave.

Tidbits

The boys and the blossoms. They're all gone now, but they were pretty while they lasted.

Carter likes Coryn's ears. A lot.
... and his shoes.

Coryn started taking a yoga class, which is mostly not yoga, but all good.

We went to a party of sorts with a super hero theme, got a facepaint mask and immediately asked to have it washed off.