Boat Races and Makishi Public Market

Last weekend Colton, Jason and I were enjoying our relaxing Sunday morning when a firework went off over the ocean relatively close to our apartment. I figured since the 4th of July was approaching that some punk kid had gotten his hands on some fireworks and had let one off in the middle day for no reason at all. A few minutes later there was a voice being projected over the entire neighborhood (this is not an unusual occurrence by the way since 3 times a week a man's voice is projected throughout the area). Of course we have no idea what anyone is saying so Jason figured as long as no one is running in one main direction - we should be safe. After listening to the man make announcement after announcement I realized this wasn't the same old boring speech we hear every day at 6pm. There was something happening over there where that firework went off. Let's go see what it is. We packed up Colton (we forgot sunscreen, yikes) and headed in that direction.

Oh.... Boat Races!! They were giving awards on the stage and making announcements about what schools they were from and their names... I assume. As you can see there were stands for food and little trinkets, the normal festival stuff. As we were about to leave I decided I wanted a snow cone. Jason went up to the stand to order where a man pointed at another man who pointed at another man who pointed at a woman... we figured we were being pointed to someone who spoke English so we just went with it. We asked if we could buy a snow cone. No. We couldn't buy a snow cone. The lady could not explain to us why we couldn't because her English wasn't so good and we can't ask because our Japanese is non-existent. So, we turned to go home with no Snow Cone. It just made me hungrier for one.

Makishi Public Market was another adventure we had this weekend. We decided Colton is napping better these days and we can probably get out to see what Okinawa has to offer. Jason got on the computer and found the kanji so we could search what we were looking for (you never know for sure if you've gotten the right place because who knows what that kanji really says).  Just so you can get an idea of what we have to deal with. We end up counting stop lights and completely guessing whether or not this is the street to turn on.

It was supposed to be a 45 minute drive. 2 hours later we decided to park and walk down a busy "shopping district" street so we didn't completely waste our time. We knew it was somewhere near there and maybe we could find someone to ask who was walking down the street. So we turn down a street (in actuality these streets are like alleys) and find a slew of parking areas. There is a sign that says 100 yen per hour so we know we have to pay. There is no parking attendant just a machine. Oh boy.

 

The Silver buttons are numbers. We were parked in number 18 (as you can see we had that entered in the top left corner). In America there are some parking lots where you have to pay ahead of time and some where you have to pay when you leave. Well, we couldn't read the sign here saying which this was. A group of Japanese people parked shortly after us so we began trying to ask them whether we paid now or later. After much charades and a lot of laughing and puzzled looks, we figured out we pay when we leave based on the time we had spent there. Also here there is a metal thing that when you pull into your parking spot it moves from flat to vertical. Once it is vertical you cannot move your car (unless you had a Jeep or big truck or something). Jason and I were very nervous we wouldn't be able to figure out how to get it to go down. We went on our way thinking that was a hurdle we would have to jump later. By now it was lunch time and we decided we wanted to find something to eat. We spotted a restaurant and were headed there when we noticed a white guy all by himself, figuring he spoke English we asked him if he knew where the market was. He did! He said (in an Australian accent) that it was about 300 meters up and there are a few different entrances and that we wouldn't miss it. Sure enough, 300 meters up and we couldn't have missed it. We drove past it 3 times (I don't know how this happens to us).

 

 

That's me in the purple dress with the bad tan lines. This was exactly what we were looking for. People selling everything from dry salted fish to fancy kimonos. There were fresh donuts and fresh steak. I just want to mention that it was 115 degrees that day and the woman in the forefront of this picture is wearing a sweater. What the heck?! We came across a lady that for 150 yen ($1.50) would squeeze out a chunk of sugar cane into juice and people were drinking it. Jason wanted to try it.

 

 

It was disgusting. So sweet. Jason said it felt like his teeth were going to fall out just from one sip. I tried it too. Not only was it too sweet, but it was also warm, really warm. Pass. She was a nice lady though (those mangos on the right of the picture were 1000 yen ($10.00)). Wowsers!

 

We ended up only buying a few items this time because it had taken us 2 hours to get there, Colton needed a nap and some chow and we needed to get home.

 

 

A fresh pineapple and an Okinawan cake. They make it to look like the rings of a tree. It was so good. It tasted mostly like butter. Who can complain about that?

And of course we encountered more ladies who loved Colton.

Sometimes I think they are going to unbuckle him and try to hold him. I wouldn't let them, but I don't now how to say it without being rude. I guess I'll have to look that one up with the million other phrases I needed to learn.