Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I vote no.

This past weekend we went to the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival. Its a festival to see the famous Japanese Cherry Blossoms. Japanese people pick a fortune and tie it to a branch of the tree. I don't know if its always been a tradition, but afterwards everyone took a picture of their fortune on the tree. We didn't do it. I didn't see the fortune bucket to pick from anywhere and I couldn't ask anyone about it. So, we passed on this part of the journey. I suppose it was a good thing, it meant we left a little sooner. The trees were pretty, but I don't think it was worth the adventure that ensued.

600 steps to the top. 2 familes. Two 1 year olds and 2 strollers. We were on our way to the top.



On our way up we saw the photographer that did Colton and Levi's 1 year pictures. The photographer's wife was pregnant and she said there was an easier way than taking the stairs. Just take this road around and you'll end up at the top. There's a really cool park up there, she said. Sweet! Onto the paved road we go! We found a map and decided we were looking for letter "D." It looked like it was at the top of the mountain. We walked... and walked... and found this along the way.




We continued walking. We see signs for "A" "F" "E," but not "D." It starts misting. Its not bad. The forecast did say there was an 80% chance of rain, so we were expecting a little rain. It was supposed to be light and spotty rain. We continued walking. The rain is the reason there is no more photos. We didn't want to get the camera all wet. We finally got to the end of the road. It was  "D." It was a parking lot and a croquette course. We decided to go back down. We get to point where the road forks. There is some confusion about which way we came from and which way we should go. I said we should go a certain way, but the men believed we should go a different way. Of course, we followed the men. We get to about the half way mark and find another map. It is still misting at this point. We are sitting down and looking at the map trying to decide whether to continue onward and upward or to just call it a day and head down to get some food from the street vendors. This is where we discovered that I was correct about the directions earlier when we decided to go with the mens' navigation instead of my own. HA HA!!! I thought we should get street food and call it a day. Let the boys run around a little. I tried to persuade Taylor's vote to a no, but she was not going to pick a side. Colton and I were the only "nos." So, onward we went. We crossed a bridge, saw the "really cool park" that was aforementioned and continued on our way. We could see "D" from the bridge. Way up on a hill there was a large grouping of trees in full bloom. It started down pouring! I mean, seriously down pouring. Cold, big drops of rain. I know its nothing compared to the cold, snow and wind chill that my family and friends are dealing with, but at least you're dressed for the occasion. I was wearing sandals. Walking down hills. It was not fun. The men were running around with the boys in the strollers. Jason was trying to find "D" and Ben was trying to find a better tree to wait it out under. Taylor and I and the boys were just standing in the rain getting soaked to the bone. It was decided that there were no better trees and the rain was not letting up. The men made a break for it with the boys. The babies were loving the crazy ride by the way. Both were squealing and giggling the entire time.

Taylor and I were walking behind, getting soaked. At one point I asked her, "Why didn't you just vote no?!" She said she thought there was more festival at the top! No, silly girl! There is only trees at the top! No wonder there is no one else coming this way. We got back to the car, got the boys changed and dried out. We ate some curry to warm our souls and headed home. If anyone asks me again if I want to hike up a steep mountain with a stroller in the pouring rain, I'll just tell them Colton and I are gonna sit this one out.

Pineapples and Sea Shells... Whatever!

Again, in Nago one of the things they grow is pineapples. Delicious ones, I must say. There is a place you can go to visit to see how they do it. I'm sure they are explaining how they do it and the ins-and-outs of pineapple growing while you're in the little car, but who knows. They could be saying anything as far as we are concerned. It was a pretty cool place. When you first get there you get a ride through the farms on the pineapple car. Pretty sweet ride!!!

 
Obviously, this isn't us. I couldn't get out of a self driving, gps guided vehicle to take a picture of us, now could I? But you get the drift from how cool these people look cruising around in their pineapple mobile!
 
 
There were baby pineapples everywhere. They were so cute!
 




Not nearly as cute as our driver, though. Seriously? Could he be any cuter?!



There were also other plants inside the covered greenhouses. There were bromiliads and wisteria and all sorts of cool things. Look at this little place covered in flowers. Ooooo, they smelled soooo good!


After our little cruise we let off inside a building. There was about 4 rooms just randomly filled with sea shells... I don't know how or why pineapples and seashells go together, but apparently in japan - anything goes. It was unexpected and I like that in my schedule ridden life ;)

After the sea shells there were a few tables set up with different types of pineapples to taste. All you can eat. We ate. It was delicious and juicy. Yum. Sorta like any pineapple you've had anywhere. Nothing too note worthy. A pineapple is a pineapple. There is one thing that I've never seen anywhere but here, though. Pineapple Wine. Yum! There were also tasting of this. Pineapple wine, pineapple champagne, pineapple mixed with other fruit wine. ALL sorts of things. As some you know, Jason is not allowed to drink out in town unless it is between the hours of  6-10pm during dinner. So, needless to say I did the tasting. Yum! So many to choose from. Also, there were so many other things. Cakes made out of pineapple, doughnuts made out of pineapple. T-shirts with pineapples printed on them. Just basically everything pineapple. And then that room filled with sea shells... hm...

As you can imagine we bought quite a few bottles of wine as this is one of the only places on island to buy it. We wanted to buy some for all of you people too, but they said they can't ship it to the states. I guess its just one more reason to come and visit us! Pineapple Wine (and a ride on the Pineapple Mobile). They were also selling Pineapple cream puffs. Jason loves cream puffs. So does Colton.



 
Another Japanese Park conquered. Now, let's get home and open up those bottles!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Neo Park

Neo Park is advertised online as if it is a zoo (which I guess it sort of is - you'll see). We asked our friends if they had ever been there before (they went to high school on this island) and they had! From what they remembered it was not very fun and more like a petting zoo. We read the reviews online and they said it had been revamped and decided to try it out. Our friends thought they would like to as well. So, it was a date.

We recently purchased the iPhone on our cellular plan to avoid getting into arguments about, "Where should I go now?" and "YOU told me to turn here, now what should I do?" Best investment ever! We just plugged the address in to the GPS and we were set. Neo Park is in the city of Nago, about 30 minutes on the expressway (with Jason driving) from our house. We had to drive through these amazingly long tunnels that basically went through a mountain side. It was scary under there. Claustrophobic. I wanted to get through them as quickly as possible. They were just digging through mountains all over the place up there. No biggie. This mountain might not collapse on me or anything while I'm operating this large tractor INSIDE a mountain. That is not the job for me, let me tell you!

Anyway - we arrived 15 minutes after they opened and about 10 minutes before our friends arrived so we had some time to check out the grounds before actually going in.

 


This is the entrance way. Who knows what it says in kanji. I'm guessing, "Neo Park." Pretty good, huh?



This was a little bit of the water way that loops inside the zoo. We didn't know it then, but it was foreshadowing of what was to come.

We bought our tickets at the front desk. Jason paid for us first. After Ben and Taylor got their tickets they bought 3 bags of bird food. We thought they were crazy. Taylor informed us that she had done some research and it was worth the investment! So, we bought 3 bags too. Good thing because this happened...

 



By the way, this picture does not do it justice. We were the first ones there I think and these birds were HUNGRY. They followed us everywhere. Good thing we got all that bird food! There were all different kinds of birds. I would name them, but I can't read any of the signs. All I know is there were birds everywhere and it lasted FOREVER!


After the birds there was this weird fish tunnel. It was really murky and gross and only one side of it was filled up. It looked like big, nasty carp to me. Oh and a huge giant catfish. Pretty weird.


Next we were on our way to the petting zoo area. Again, we didn't know what to expect, but I don't think anyone would expect this.



That's right! Dogs. The top picture is of some small dogs that you could actually go into the enclosure. So weird. These dogs didn't seem as pathetic as the larger dogs. I took a picture of the best looking one. There were 4-5 dogs tied up to hitching posts out in the sun. There was a Shiba-Inu that its teeth were so messed up it looked like a weird Halloween mask or a cruel joke. There was a Beagle with weird tumor/skin tags hanging all over its body. It was happy though. I guess it doesn't have a mirror to see its weird growths so why should he care? there was a Dalmation that was pretty normal looking and this guy. He was cute. You could take the dogs for a walk if you wanted. I'm not sure if it cost more money or not, but here's one Asian rocking it out.


I wonder if it poops while you're walking it, if you have to pick it up.

There were all sorts of things to pet here. Rabbits, turtles, a Shetland Pony. Llamas, capybara, goats, etc. Here is a picture of the jerk goat who head-butted my baby!

 
 
Colton got to sit on a turtle and feed a capybara. Capybaras are these huge rodent like creatures. I don't know if I've ever seen one before. Jason was obsessed with this thing. For those of you who don't know, Jason REALLY wants to get a pet out here for Colton. Colton does love animals, but he has a dog. His name is Chump and we love him soooo much! Love you Chumpy! Needless to say, we will not be getting any pets. Jason wanted to know if people keep these as pets. He thought they seemed pretty calm and when we were leaving we noticed one was doing his business in a litter box. Capybara 1, me 0.
 
 


 
Next we were off to another enclosure. This one was pretty cool. It had peacocks and Emu. All the normal birds we had been seeing all over this land, but this enclosure also had these cool little wallaby guys. The peacocks were being mean to him whenever we tried to toss him some food. Jason handled that.
 



He was doing the Cesar Milan move. You know the one. Where you push your tongue up against the back of your top teeth and hiss like a snake. Yep, this is my big brave Marine, scaring peacocks.

We saw some wild boars too. This is funny because of the expressway there are signs like we have in Wisconsin with a picture of  a deer jumping, only here they are pictures of cartoonish looking boar with the bold phrase "ANIMAL" written beneath it. They were pretty cute. Look at this little noses!



This is the sign outside the Lemur area. Funny translations. I'm just glad they attempt it. Then I have some idea of what is going on. Sometimes the translation is so bad, you still don't know.

There was monkey island in the middle of the lake. It was sort of sad. There was just this one little house and a bunch of monkeys. Seemed sort of like Alcatraz. The boys liked the monkeys. Colton loves his plastic bottles by the way.


I don't know if you can tell in this picture but on the far left hand side there is a separate tank. On our way out of the "gift shop" to get on the train there was  a lady. I'm not sure how it came about, but all of a sudden we were all out on the balcony looking into the tank and she was banging incessantly on the metal railings. I thought she was crazy. She was doing it for quite some time and pointing into the water. There was nothing there that I could see. Nevertheless she continued banging on the rails. Sure enough, a HUGE black and red fish surfaced for a few seconds and then plunged again to the bottom.
Some rare fish from somewhere. Again, who knows. I don't know what she was saying. She was nice though. We smiled, bowed and were on our way. We had a train to catch!

Before boarding the train we had some time to kill until the next engine came around. There was a little area for the boys to play and some food vendors. Jason was starving and went to get some food. He came back with a hot dog with some animal's bone sticking out of it. He came over by me and said, "Look at this! Try it!" Pass. Needless to say he said it was gross and didn't finish it, which is saying something because Jason eats almost everything he pays for. He also bought delicious Okinawan donuts with pineapple chunks in the batter. Hot out of the grease and just cool enough in time to keep the boys occupied on the train ride.



The train took us all through the park. Mostly everything we had already seen, but it was a nice way to wind down the day. Over all - I think we will be back to Neo Park in the future.