From Iowa to Okinawa: Courtney's visit, Day 2

Sunday happened to be Courtney's birthday, so we celebrated with a Sunday Brunch breakfast and a trip to Okinawa world. This was our first trip too, so we were all looking forward to it.

Here we are outside of Okinawa World. Brock is finally looking at the camera!

Our first stop was an Eisa show, which features Taiko drummers, a two-person dancing shisa dog and some other characters. No photos were allowed for the show, but before the show started, this was the scene... Brock and Reagan get A LOT of attention everywhere we go, and today was no exception. Someone recently told me that Japanese people think rubbing a blonde person's head brings good luck. I have no idea if that's true or not, but I certainly think they are fascinated by blonde people. This group of school kids kept wanting to hold Reagan's hand. Reagan is left handed and tends to shake hands with the "wrong" hand, so it looks like she's the queen offering them her hand. I ended up taking photos on each of the school kids cameras as well as my own.

We bought our fortunes for the year at the Futenma Shrine on New Years, but we talked Courtney into getting one here. It took her 3 tries to get a fortune she didn't hate. I'm not sure if you get to keep buying new ones until you're happy, but whatever. Courtney had to tie her bad fortunes onto this thing so that they would fly away in the breeze.

Okinawa world also features a cave system. Here we are descending into the cave.

It was drippy the entire time we were down there, and we came out wet looking.

Underground waterfall

This was such a pretty tidal pool area.

A rare family photo, thanks to Courtney.

Habu snakes are very venomous and are found all over the island. There is a brand of Alcohol that you can buy that comes with a habu inside the bottle. At this factory, you can see the habus that are waiting for their bottle.

You could get your picture taken in Japanese dresses for 500 Y (about $5.00 per person).

Brock, hanging out in the carrier...

Reagan, pretending to blow glass.

These things are everywhere, Reagan and Courtney are testing them out.

Reagan is a snake lover, which drives me nuts! I am so afraid of snakes, as are most people. Reagan was able to hold and get her picture taken with this constrictor. She was in heaven, I was completely grossed out. She said it was very heavy...yuck!

For Courtney's birthday dinner, we headed for Four Seasons for some teppanyaki. We had a good time, but the food wasn't as great as the other times we were there. Next time I think we'll try someplace different.