Okinawa Day 5 Continued......

Monday, May 4th--All of the kids (with the exception of Caitlin, she wanted to be at the beach) had a blast exploring the Nakijin-jo Castle ruins.  Our next stop was to the Native Okinawa Village and the Tropical Dream Center, both of which are a part of the Ocean Expo Park.  The Churaumi Aquarium and all of the outdoor shows that we saw the other day are also a part of the Expo Park.

The Okinawa Native Village is an outdoor museum that reproduces the setting of a village community as it was from the times of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1737-1889).  During the Ryukyu era, there were ordinances restricting what kind of house everyone was allowed to have depending on their place in the community.   These ordinances included the type of materials that your home could be built with and also the size of the home. 

This is a replica of an upper-class home.  Much like the Chinese way of worshipping, most Okinawan upper-class homes had a small shrine built in the main living space so that the family could worship their ancestors.

The wood is quality, there are tatami mats, and musical instruments in the corner.  Most of the exterior walls were washi paper screens that could be opened and closed.

In the back of the upper class home sits this structure, which was used for going to the bathroom.  Not much privacy, but hey, it has a lot of ventilation.

This is a replica of a "Noro's House".  Kiyoko San proudly told us that her great-grandmother was a noro.  A Noro was a priestess who oversaw sacred ceremonies and rituals in the village.  During the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a noro was appointed by the Shuri government and granted some land.  Every village had several such women, each overseeing divine festivals in different sections of the village.  Serving under the noro were male ucchi-gami and female ni-gami who helped her perform her tasks.  This noro home is built in a Japanese style and is similar to other homes of prestigious people in the Ryukyu community.  The only difference between the noro's home is that it contained a dunchi which enshrined the god of fire.

Nathan and Mimi were best friends by this point.  They are the same age, after all.  They held hands as they walked all over the Okinawa Village.

Inside another upper class home.  This picture shows the way that the Japanese and Okinawans would (and many still do!) build their home so that the living space and bedrooms were all in one large room, but it could be divided into smaller rooms with screens. 

This is the kitchen.  Fires would be built in the holes.

Audra climbing up into a hut built on stilts.  They would use these for storage.  The reason they were built like this was to prevent rodents from coming in.  Kiyoko San was a little worried about the kids climbing up the narrow stairs.

This is inside of one of the huts on stilts.

Another hut.  This one was used for storing food, also.

This was a middle-class home.  The walls are made of woven grass and there is a bamboo floor which was uncomfortable to walk on.  (Tayla is in this pic)

 

In the corner, there were beds stacked in a neat pile.  They were made of grass and did not look very comfortable.  The shrine to worship in this type of home would be on a shelf of some kind such as we see here.

This is the kitchen, which was in a lean-to. The pots are as big as Audra.  She loved all of the kitchens in each of the homes.
 
 

 This is a replica of the smallest home allowed under the ordinances.  This would be for the lower-social class.  It was very similar to the middle-class, but much smaller.  This was a farmhouse and according to the ordinances, was to be a total of two buildings.  These would consist of a main building and a kitchen.  Farmers were forbidden from using tiles to roof their homes. 

Inside, they were very similar to the middle class homes, but lacked the nice wood cabinet with the shrine on it.  The only thing in the home was the stack of grass mattresses.

 

This was another bathroom facility.  Nathan so kindly demonstrated how they worked.

Audra got busy in this kitchen as well.  This kitchen did not have as many pots or dishes and just had a place on the ground for the fire with which to cook with.

This is the stable for the animals.  It's a little too close to the farmhouse in our opinion.

All of the housing ordinances of the Ryukyu Kingdom were abolished in 1889.  After many long years of prohibiting their use, red tiles were soon cropped up all over the roofs of the farmhouses.  The red tile roofs are now very common in Okinawa.

After we had seen all of the buildings in the Native Okinawa Village, we headed over to the Tropical Dream Center.

On the way, we saw one more landscape sculpture that we had missed the other day when we were here at the aquarium.

Normally, you have to pay a fee to enter the Tropical Dream Center, and it was too much for our large family to be able to afford it.  However, today was a "free day", so even though our feet were hurting from walking so much, we decided to check it out. 
The center has a walking course that takes you through beautiful and serene gardens. 
There are more than 2,000 orchids in all colors and shapes on display.....

....as well as many other types of foliage.  The gardens were distinct from each other and all of them were breathtakingly beautiful!

Our whole group posing for a picture!  We are kind of a rough looking bunch, but considering we have been walking all day in humidity that we are not used to, I think we are doing just fine.  Kiyoko san and Mimi joined us. 

Walking through what seemed like the Garden of Eden at times....

More orchids.

Found a random and cute shisa dog on a ledge.  Its match was no where to be found.

We found this really cool heart formed out of orchids, which made for a fantastic photo op--but, of course, some of my children were throwing tantrums and refused to participate.  Mom was not happy about that.

Magical and enchanting.  After a while, the landscaping left you feeling a little numb.  It was all just too beautiful to take in all at once. 

One of the areas of the center boasts 32 exotic fruit trees.  In addition to avocado, cacao, and guava trees, we also saw dragon fruit trees, egg fruit trees, and star fruit trees.  Seeing trees and fruit that we have never seen or heard of before made us almost feel like we were on another planet. 

The fruit trees surrounded this beautiful pond.

This is a jack fruit tree.

They had one on display so that we could touch it. 

The last thing we did was take the elevator to the top of the observatory.  It was a round tower made of stone.  From the top, we had an awesome view of the ocean.  Okinawa is such a beautiful place!
Instead of taking the elevator down, we used the stairs that spiraled around the outside of the tower.
The Tropical Dream Center was an overload of beauty and wonder.  With the day coming to a close, we walked back to Kiyoko san's van and headed back to the eastern side of the island.

We asked Kiyoko san if she could take us to a beach where we could enjoy the sunset.  She said that she knew of one a few miles away from her home that she thought we would enjoy.

The kids took off their shoes and played in the waves.

Lil' Miss was content sitting on her towel away from the sand that she despises so much.

The kids ran up and down the beach as we all enjoyed the sunset.  The buildings in the far distance are part of Camp Schwab.  You can't really see it in this picture, but floating in the bay between the beach and Camp Schwab are some floating ropes like what you see at swimming pools.  Kiyoko san told us that they were there as a part of the construction that is going on in that bay.  She told us that the American military are slowly starting to build man-made islands around Okinawa so that they can transfer the U.S. military bases onto them and return the land used for the current bases to the Okinawan people.  We remembered the articles that we had read in the newspaper on Kiyoko san's coffee table regarding many of the Okinawan people's frustrations with the strong U.S. military presence on their island and how they want the island returned to them.  The United States can never leave Okinawa--it has been dubbed the "Keystone of the Pacific".  It is America's military stronghold in Asia.  But, I guess this is America's way of trying to work with Okinawa while still maintaining its crucial presence in this part of the world.  I wonder how much it will all cost to build these man-made islands and then build bases on them?

Just what is Mimi doing here?

There was a full moon over Camp Schwab as we drove back to Kiyoko san's home to rest for the night.  It would be our last night in her home and on the northern part of this enchanting island.