Okinawa World!

Be prepared for a lot of pictures of Dustin. I was in charge of the camera yesterday.

We finally went to Okinawa World! I've been wanting to go there since I first found out about it over 2 months ago. Its similar to Ryukyu Mura which we visited last month. You can see pictures of it on my myspace. They're basically cultural parks with traditional shows, parades and dances. They both have craft villages where there are replicas of old Okinawan houses. In each house is a different craft. Pottery, clothe weaving, and glass blowing are just a few. You can also make some of your own. At Ryukyu Mura they charged extra for that. I don't know about Okinawa World. We just looked around and took pictures.

The one huge difference between the two parks is the ginormous cave underneath Okinawa World. That was the main reason I really wanted to go. I have never been in a cave before so I was really excited. Dustin has been in a few caves so he wasn't jumping outta his seat like I was. But he was still happy to go. I tried taking pictures inside the cave but my camera really sucks and I couldn't get any shots that weren't complete garbage. You can go to http://jasonkimball.org/photos/okinawa/?album=2&gallery=36 to see some pictures of the cave that someone with a good camera took if you're interested. It was really amazing and I dont think any pictures would do it justice.

We also got the chance to see another habu and mongoose show. We saw one in Ryukyu Mura but this one was much better I think. Okinawa World is a lot bigger and has a lot going on. The habu show was in the Habu museum. And in case you didn't know, the habu is an extremely poisonous snake that lives on the island. There is an anti venom if you get bit but it only works once. So if any of us silly Americans get bit, we get the anti venom and then get shipped back to the states. Not cool. And there are apparently a lot of habu here. I've only seen them in museums and such which is fine by me. They freak me out cause the last thing I'd want is to be forced to live in stupid America while Dustin is here.

The mongoose is the habu's main nemesis. The Japanese brought the mongoose here years ago to take care of the habu problem. I guess it helped cause there's a lot less snakes here. But that's not saying much because there's still a crapton.

On to the pictures!

Freaking big hibiscus flowers! They're so pretty though. I love the tropical flowers here even though I'm allergic to all of them. By the way, this is the only picture of me from this trip.
Pretty Dustin. Sometimes he thinks I'm just taking pictures of scenery. He should know by now that his big face is my favourite scenery of all time.

Entrance to Okinawa World

Dustin took this one. He wanted to climb those stairs.

Glass blowing. It was cool to watch all these guys work together to make the pretty Ryukyu glass. The glass here is something they're proud of because of all the gorgeous rainbow colours they make. I will get some one day when I have money. Then I will take pictures and show everyone.

Here's a glass Stitch. Obsession.

Part of the crafts villiage. And a small Okinawan child.

This is where we ate lunch later that day. Here's an example of the pretty colourful glass they make on the island.

See that littl girl behind Dustin? I was actually trying to take a picture of her so I can kidnap her later.

Oh yea. There was a brewery here also. Of course.

Habu sake. I guess this is another way of getting the venom out. And yes, they drink the venom in booze. They come in bottles with the snake still in it and it's super duper expensive. It's like tequila with the worm in it...but on crack.

That's my hand holding the cute little pig toy. Dustin likes it.

For some reason he wasn't happy about any of the stuffed animals I made him pose with.

Giant gift shop area. Dustin's looking at a table of shisa statues while loudly drumming on his legs.

Roar! Shisa made of pretty flowers.

How many pictures do I have of Dustin sticking his head through things like this? Too damn many.

Have you ever seen a snake swim? It's pretty cool.

Dustin was in love with this guy. He kept petting it and telling me to look at it's face and legs and how cute it was. Geez, I thought he was gunna cry cause he wanted to take it home so badly.

Lots of sleeping Habu. I wasn't feeling so comfortable at this point. I'm thinking maybe Sammee shouldn't come to the Habu Museum.

These are bats. At least thats what we say they are. The sign said they were flying foxes. I don't think so. Haha, you can see Dustin's face in the reflection.

My reflection and a nice boa. I'm less scared of the big snakes. Maybe because they won't kill me.

Dustin realized his deep love for turtles on this trip.

He also digs lizards. He was very pleased to be touching all these animals. Me...not so much.

And, in case you were wondering what a mongoose looked like:

We ended the day with mini corndogs and Oswald cartoons at home. Then we fell asleep at about 5:30 because us oldies can't hang for too long.