Moving On Up

Up north, that is.  Following our now-standard tour itinerary, we head out to beach cabins and Expo Park.

Oura Wan beach cabins this time and we scored the VIP cabin again!

Just when you think you’ve got us all figured out though, we veer off course to check out something we’ve never seen before.  This is actually the official main gate to Expo Park, with Ie Island on the horizon.  (The boy in red is Logan.)

 This would be the one at the top of the pillar on the right.

And this would be the really adorable man that I am married to, along with my daughter showing off her extremely blonde hair.

  Do you really have to ask?  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun on the moving sidewalk.

 
Everything about this courtyard was fun, from the fountain with its ever-changing patterns and promise of summer refreshment, to the whimsical topiary sculptures/flower arrangements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need one of those little features that they use to make map insets.  This  ---> is the blown up version of that ^.

 

Mom, just wanted to let you know that I thought of you when I put this outfit on Naomi.

This wasn’t even the main event of the day.  We’ll get to that next time.  See you then!

Been There, Done That

Not only have we been here half a dozen times, but about half of the people reading this have also been here by now.  So the following will be a limited view, without commentary.  Enjoy!


 





(The green shirt is Erik, holding Naomi and surrounded by more school girls “kawaii”-ing.)  
Thanks for stopping by!

One Last Time

But I don’t want to go home.

Fortunately, the ferry doesn’t leave until 2:00 so we’ve got one more chance to get under the water.

I wish the colors had come through better on this one.  This anemone was incredible—purple with yellow tips.  I just floated and stared at it, watching it sway, for several minutes.

You wouldn’t think there’d be that many cool fish left to see, but there were.

 

Just a few more of the very best.

 

 

 

This particular spot must have been just right for anemones, because they were everywhere.  It was ethereal.

And with that, we depart Zamami.  I’m definitely going to miss this Thanksgiving “tradition”.

Homeward bound.

O Little Town of . . . Zamami

Well, it was our last afternoon/evening in town and we wanted to do a little more (above-the-water) exploring.  Plus, the hotel staff, in a fabulous mix of their broken English and my poor Japanese, managed to communicate that there would be a small festival in town that night.

Ready for adventure!

Shisas outside the village’s one and only grocery store.  There are plenty of dive shops in town though!

Just a picturesque little alley.

Some more local color.

 

 

 

 

We’d arrived in time to take a small hike before sunset and the start of the festival.  This lookout shows you the bay that our hotel sat on—our hotel was not in the village, by the way.  The hotel sat at the top of the bay, just past the left-hand edge of the photo.

Furuzamami Beach

Zamami Town, all of it.  It took us maybe ten minutes, at a leisurely pace, to walk the whole length of it.

Some friends we met on the hike.

    Logan . . . being Logan.

Then it was back down to town for the festival which was held right out on the port.

Something to drink and a quick bite to eat . . .

and then we got to enjoy the show: children’s eisa

and Ryukyu court dance.  Then it was off to get the kids in bed. 

Here, fishy fishy!

If you are wondering what you do with two small kids who wake up before dawn in a hotel, this is the solution: you take them up to the roof and turn on the bubble blower.  (The bubble blower that you packed, in fact, for just this purpose.)

Then you head inside, get dressed, breakfasted, sunscreened and you play with the collection of balloon animals which you have already acquired from the hotel restaurant’s wait staff.  That would be a turtle, a monkey, a giraffe, and a bird (parrot?) on a perch.

Then you make your way leisurely down to the beach, stopping to blow a . . . wildflower . . . grass . . . something.

  And then, well, you know how the rest of this goes :)  

This is the crown of thorns starfish.  It’s definitely one to be avoided—those spines, in addition to being sharp, are venomous.

 

 

Both of these appear to be varieties of butterfly fish.

 

 

 

After some research, it appears that this is called alternately the striped surgeon or the clown tang.  Whatever, it’s pretty!

Okay, this is a sea cucumber.  Normally they are black-ish and kind of gross looking; we see them pretty frequently.  They sit on the bottom and don’t really move a whole lot so you have to avoid stepping on them.  But we’ve never seen one like this before, all covered in little stars and spikes.

I’ve been trying ever since we got our underwater camera to get a really great picture of a Moorish idol and finally struck gold.

Next up: a hike and a small festival!