I'm going to pretend I'm fully caught up now and dig into the real fun with photos of our first major excursion into Japanese/Okinawan culture (sans Logan even!). Jake and I took an all-day tour which included Shuri Castle, a stop at Kokusai-doori for lunch, Fukushu-en (Chinese garden), and Naminoue Shinto shrine.
Translation and explanation:
--Okinawa and the surrounding islands were once their own kingdom and Shuri castle was the home of the Ryukyu kings. Shuri Castle, along with every other castle on Okinawa, was destroyed during WWII but Shuri-jo has been entirely reconstructed as it stood in the 15th century.
--Kokusai-doori (Kokusai Street) is a bustling street in Naha (Okinawa's capital city) with a very international flavor--Indian and Mexican restaurants, a German pub, a Hawaiian steakhouse, etc., intermingled with lots of shopping. Jake and I chose to stick with a traditional Japanese meal this time around: shoes-off, cushion-on-the-floor, and, thankfully, pictures in the menu!
--Fukushu-en ("en" means garden) is a Chinese-style garden. The Ryukyu's did a lot of trading and political negotiation with the Chinese (as well as with Japan and other Southeast Asian countries) and this garden is one example of the Chinese cultural influence.
--A Shinto shrine's most characteristic feature is always the torii gate entrance. Shinto beliefs combine animism with ancestor worship, and it is quite common to find a bit of Buddhism mixed in as well.
Oh, and about the pictures: I tend to find the details more interesting than the standard, full-frame, guidebook-style shots. If you want to see the full front of Shuri Castle, check out Jake's album on Facebook. And thanks for reading!
A Shisa lion guards the entrance to the castle. Btw, you see these things EVERYWHERE in Okinawa! 
The front on Shuri Castle's main building, the Seiden, where the king conducted business.
The Shurei-mon or Shurei Gate at the castle--one of many impressive gates.
One of the central features of Fukushu-en is a waterfall down the front of this pile of rocks--the waterfall is just around the corner, you can see the base of it in this picture, where the woman is standing.
A piece of cool statuary on a bridge in the garden.
One of four dragon pillars decoarating one of the garden buildings.
After the bird of paradise shot and then this one (a hibiscus), I've decided that floral photography may be the one area of photography I actually have any knack for--I'm certainly no good capturing portraits or landscapes!
The rather imposing torii gate at the entrance to the shrine.
This is the same sort of drum used in eisa dance--another Okinawan tradition. I'm not really sure what role it plays in Shinto rituals but it was there in the . . . sanctuary? (not sure what to call it) along with the other religious items.
Statue of the Buddha on the grounds of the Shinto shrine.
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