Steak & Ice Cream

Once again I have fallen off the blogging band wagon and will start another frantic attempt to catch up. Inability to do so will result in retaliation from certain individuals, you know who you are. On the weekend of July 18-21 we decided to go to Okinawa. The 21st was a holiday and I took the 18th off. The plan was to grab the nightbus out of Shinjuku with Keith and meet up with Steph in Kansai to fly to Okinawa. Thomas fits in somewhere there. Skipping all the details, me and Keith did our usual Kansai night busing ritual

-meet at Shinjuku
-Get on bus
-bus on bus
-get off bus at Osaka
-eat at VIE DE FRANCE
-wait for Steph

Between eating at Vie De France and waiting for Steph, a whole lotta nothing was done. Checked out stores, and ate more food. Once we met Steph, we ate more food. Then we went to Kansai airport, where we ate food as we waited for the airplane to Okinawa.



Before we boarded the plane, we got black seasame ice cream. Thus began the weekend of Steaks and Ice cream.

The plane ride was a good one. I stoked up Steph to listen to some Led Zeppelin before we took off. (Achillies Last Stand, Zeppelin fans knows this song is wicked on the flight)



Unfortunatly my batteries went out, and all the hype was in vain. Other events included me snapping Steph with a spoon. It left a mark. Steph`s blog has a better retelling of the incident. Some time later, we got to Naha Airport.



Keith and Tom rocking the non-walking.

After looking for a non existant bus to our hostel, we decided to grab a taxi instead.





Once at our hostel, the Legendary Ojisan (he is truly of legend status), showed us to our rooms and got all our paper work done. Since we hadn`t eaten in like 5 minutes, I was starving, so we decided to get some dinner. Our first meal in Okinawa consisted of Steak and Rice.



So just to keep count that`s Steak: 1 Ice Cream: 1. I`ll keep the counter going throughout the post. After a full day of commuting, we were all super beat and decided to crash in our comfortably airconditioned rooms.

The next day, we had planned to Snorkel. The breakfast consisted of no steak. While looking for the bus, we were intercepted by a taxi driver who offered us rides for 1000 yen each. Pretty solid deal, for a regular taxi cab ride. But an amazing deal for a ride with this driver. Just a brief summary of the amazing feat of this taxi cab driver will be enough to convince you:

-has 8 liscences
-has 145 family members
-mother and father are both over 100
-owns a Skyline
-owns a Harley

I probably missed a couple things, but I was impressed. How true any of those statements are I cannot validate. His english was broken but he still chatted up a storm.



Once at our destination, we were early, so we walked around looking for Steak, but we didn`t find any, so we went back to go snorkelling. We were given instructions in Japanese, which I didn`t understand, and then we were off to the ocean. Being in wetsuits at 30+ weather is really uncomfortable. Especially when you`re in a van, with people you want to suplex or don`t know. Especially if the van isn`t moving. After cooking in this van for a bit, we arrived and snorkeled. The experience was rad. We fed ocean fish and explored caves.









masu to Keith for the pics.

Watching all the fish eat fish food got me hungry, so after snorkeling, it was time to hunt steaks. The expedition was successful. We found a steak house that was movie poster themed. The following meal was served



Steak: 2 Ice Cream: 1

The entire table had steak. Keith had the exact same thing. Tom had just the tenderloin, and Steph had the chopped steak. Engineers are smart.







When we were all full, we decided it was beach time. So with no apparent destination in mind we just walked to somewhere that looked like it would be a beach. On the way we got an ice cream. It was a weird coconut sorbet kinda deal. The ice cream fell off of mine after two bites. Not to cause a fuss, I just ate the cone.

Steak: 2 Ice Cream: 2...kinda

We decided to go to a beach, that wasn`t really a beach. There were sharp rocks and barnacles everywhere. but I still braved through it. There was sand for a bit, then the terrain just turned into this weird rock/coral deal. But once we got to the water, the bottom was scattered with sea urchin and sea cucumber. The choice was to step on something sharp or oozy. I decided to carefully navigate this minefield. Eventually I found a pretty solid spot that was sandy and the water was at neck level.



After getting our fill of Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumber, and lost flip flops, we decided to head back. On the way to the bus stop, we bought another ice cream.

Steak: 2 Ice Cream: 3

At this stop, another taxi driver offered a ride, this one, however, was boring, and lacked 8 liscences. Needless to say, we were highly disappointed. Back at the hostel, we showered up, and took a small breather before we headed to Kokusaidori. I played some guitar and Steph pulled a Sea Urchin barb out of her foot, then it we were off. At Kokusaidori, we saw some pretty interesting items. We stumbled across a store that sold hand made clay sculptures of Shisa. This is a Shisa.



There are usually two. One with its mouth close and one with its mouth open. They flank each side of an entrance and in Okinawa, it is believed they ward off evil.

On Kokusaidori, I found a guitar shop, where I shredded for like 30 minutes while everyone waited. I have decided I will buy a guitar in Japan and become an Pop Sensation. We shopped a bit more, and ate some non-steak dinner. Me and Steph grabbed some colorful looking fruit.



To finish off the night, we went to Rehab, a bar run by Canadians. We had brews and Okinawin Snake Wine.



Tasty.

After a couple more drinks, we headed back to our hostel and caught some sleep. We had big plans tommorow, but that will wait till the next post.

Oh yea, and I realize the pictures are kinda screwey, I don`t know how to resize them in HTML. I`ll fix it later.