September... yeah, I know

Lots of things happened in September, and now I'm getting around to telling you all about it... Carter discovered puddles

It was the last night of Obon in Okinawa which meant the last night to experience late night Eisa performances... which for the Okinawans is basically a party to wish the visiting spirits of their ancestors a safe journey back to the land of the dead.

We went to the aquarium, we'll miss it when we leave...

everyone always enjoys the touching pool...

There's always something new there too... like volunteer scuba divers cleaning the tank and posing for pictures :)

Tropical Dream Center

So, we continued our trip to the Expo Park with the Tropical Dream Center... here is the entrance, yes, thats Coryn running ahead

The walking path towards the first greenhouse gives a nice view if the dream center itself. There are five different greenhouses, the first three of which are dedicated to orchids.

Though they aren't exclusively orchids, I think... I haven't looked up this cobra plant yet, it might be.

orchids with such finely bisected petals to look fuzzy....

and well, lots of orchids. I was unfortunately too late to see the vanilla in bloom, but there was plenty to keep me occupied even without an international orchid festival going on. and, it was very much so not busy... I highly recommend walking through when visiting the aquarium.

More Aquarium

Carter can only be bothered to look at the camera if he's pointing out the fish to me... he really loved the aquarium

except the shark mouth, I think it scared him a little

Carter was running all along the biggest exhibit, here he's even sitting to watch the fish, I think he could have sat there all day.


Carter really enjoys sitting on things, and these steps are just the right height to entertain him while we waited for the dolphin show.

Coryn on the otherhand entertained the schoolgirls... he scooted up to them, said konnichiwa, and they couldn't stop giggling at everything he did.

End of May

Went to a birthday party, and the kids were happiest with the balloon and a plastic disc shooter...

it was a windy day and the loss of the balloon was staggering.

Went to the aquarium the Saturday after our anniversary, it was a great day, got there about 10 minutes after it opened so it wasn't busy yet. This was pretty much the only time Carter was in the stroller while we were there.

Nonchalance, check...

giggly wariness, check...

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.

ChuraUmi Aquarium

Coryn gazes with wonder at the beautiful and sometimes quite large fish in the three story aquarium, the second largest in the world. Churaumi means 'beautiful ocean' in a combination of chura - okinawan for beautiful and umi - japanese for ocean.
They have a 'petting zoo' of starfish and sea cucumbers, Coryn mostly likes to play with the water.
They have quite the collection of interesting specimen including these garden snakes, wall climbing-air breathing-jumping fish, and others.
The aquarium is so large it is the only one to contain not just one but three whale sharks, many manta rays, and a variety of other fish, as well as three scuba divers who were working on a section of the tank while we were there.

They have other smaller sites too, a manatee house, sea turtle pools, and free dolphin show areas. All around a fun place to visit on this little island.