This will be the third and final part about our weekend in Okinawa. On Monday morning, we woke up and packed our things. Unfortunately it was raining, so we had to lug our things in the rain to the nearest monorail station. Our flight wasn’t until 2:30, so we had a few hours to play around with. We didn’t get too wet on our walk, but the greatest concern was having damp clothes and THEN going home to cold, cold Kumamoto where those wet jeans suddenly become freezing jeans. We dumped all of our stuff into two lockers and decided to divide and conquer and meet back up for lunch. Amanda wanted to go sit and relax in Starbucks for a while, Justine, Mary, and I wanted to do a little tourist shopping, and Ian and Melissa B. wanted to try to find a bar that was showing the Super Bowl (remember that we are 15 hours ahead of the US, so kick-off was at 8AM our time).
Luckily the rain stopped. I bought a few touristy things—a t-shirt, a glass blown from Okinawan sand, chopsticks for a friend, and omiyage to bring back to my co-workers. Melissa B. and Ian were unsuccessful at finding a bar that was showing the Super Bowl, but they did find a great cactus themed restaurant where we had lunch. Everyone was so tempted as to what we should order because this bar had everything—pizza, burgers, tacos—everything sounded good!! I think most of us settled on a big, fat, greasy burger (bottom right). One thing that I did get to try at the restaurant was goya. It’s a bitter gourd vegetable that grows in Okinawa. It’s supposed to be super healthy, but not many foreigners like it because it is so bitter. I didn’t mind the taste. It wasn’t my favorite, but it’s no where near as gross as natto!
We took one last group shot (above left) before hopping on the monorail and heading back to the airport. We actually met a group of American basketball players on the monorail. It was so funny to see them because by Asian standards, we’re tall. However, these guys were REALLY tall. 
At the airport, all of us lamented about the fact that we were going back to the cold and that our short vacation was over (bottom left). 
I told Ian that we HAVE to go back to Okinawa. I felt like we were barely even there and definitely didn’t have enough time to see or do everything that I wanted to. We have a three day weekend followed by a four day weekend at the beginning of May (known as Golden Week). I wish that I had enough vacation days to take off the couple of days between the two weekends, but I’m burning a lot of vacation days to come home this summer, and then I have to make sure and save enough days for the whole driver’s license process. Anyway, I told Ian that we should think about coming back to Okinawa on the four day weekend. Originally, I wanted to go to Hiroshima, and there are tons of places the I want to go to in Japan, but I really, really want to go back to Okinawa at some point in time!
In wasn’t fun AT ALL to come back to the cold. We actually landed in the overcast skies of Fukuoka, and even before we got off the plane, we knew it was cold. It just LOOKED cold. We layered up while waiting for our baggage. It rained the whole way back to Yunomae, which really didn’t help the mood. : Until next time, Okinawa……until next time!
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