Today being a free day, I bought a 1-day pass on the monorail and decided to play “Next Stop, Discovery”, the TV show where Japanese celebrities ride the rails around Tokyo and get off to explore the neighborhoods around each stop. I’m a celebrity (at least in my own mind) so I fit the part perfectly.
First stop was Naha Airport to watch the planes and scope out the pretty flight attendants. When that got stale I rode to Furujima station to check out a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi restaurant. That was a bust as the whole area is under redevelopment and consists of high rise apartments.
I walked into the restaurant at 12:30 and I was the only one there for a while. So of course the selections on the conveyor belt were very limited. The chef suggested I order from the menu. I ordered hamachi. They didn’t have any. But they did have a really neat way of counting your dishes. They use a gun to scan them, then it registers on a magnetic card and you give the card to the cashier who collects your money.
So I left there disappointed and walked back to San-A Main Place Shopping Center.
After cooling down in Main Place, I hoofed it over to the DFS store and went to check out their selection of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Would you believe a single layer box of Haisai Okinawa goes for 1365 yen or about $12 at the current exchange rate? No wonder my friends are so appreciative when I bring them some from Hawaii!
I’ve come to the conclusion that running in and out of air conditioned stores only intensifies the heat when you come back out. So instead of going back to my hotel, I rode the monorail all the way to Shuri to enjoy the train’s air conditioning.
On the way back, we stopped at Omoromachi and about a half dozen elderly women got on. I was going to stand up but I noticed all the young people near me glancing around, then they all spontaneously stood up and gave their seats to the women. I was so impressed I was nearly moved to tears. But then I remembered that I’m elderly too…so I wasn’t moved to give up my seat. But I promise that if another old lady had gotten on I would have offered my seat to her. Honto!
I got back to my hotel just in time to miss the closing number of an eisa (taiko) group across the street at the Prefecture building. I guess they’re getting warmed up for the matsuri. The tents are also going up at Onoyama Park for the carnival that’s another part of the matsuri. We’re gonna be partying this weekend!