03/18 Naha Okinawa

The first thing we needed to do today was get a car. After gettingsomeone to call we were able to get a car which was a small Mitsubishicolt. It took Dima some time to get used to driving on the left sideof the road, and especially the switching of the blinker/wiper. Wequickly made a stop at the ferry terminal to get tickets and were onour way.
Our first stop was the former japanese navy headquarters shelter. Itwas a series of underground tunnels and chambers. After a quick stopfor lunch (rice balls, fried potato and ninja popcorn) we drove to ournext stop, Okinawa world cave park. At this point it was raining veryhard but we headed underground so it was ok. The cave system was veryinteresting with the highlight being this massive stalagmite. Also inOkinawa world was a glass blowing demonstration, rock sugar making,rattlesnake awamori and druming. We also got fakes drivers licencesfor kids. The next stop was the peace memorial park and cornerstone ofpeace. The was memorial to the war dead with soldier's names inscribedin walls. Talking to the japanese travellers later we asked if theyhad negative feelings towards americans due to the war and the a-bombsand thought their response was very interesting. They admitted thattheir government at that time was bad and admitted fault. I thoughtthis was interesting and much different then in Germany where you gotmore of a sense that the people were not open to talking about it andin a way tried to hide it.

On our way back we saw on our gps a beach so we went to check it out.What we found was an abandoned restuarent and beach. It was prettyspooky. We found a supermarket which we went to buy food for the ferrytrip and picked up stuff to eat for dinner. I got a sashimi platterfor ¥680. The grocery store had 1song on loop which got prettyannoying. Along the drive we came across the himeyuri monument whichseemed to be deticated to someone and was very popular as many peoplebought flowers. We wanted to go to Mihama American village for thesunset but it was too late so we went back to the hostel to put awayour food. At night we went for a drive and ended up in the americanvillage which contained some American stores and brands. We went tothe sega arcade there which was neat.