lingqi's Journal: August 6th, 2004

August 6th, 2004 (6:57pm)

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Though we had grand plans for that afternoon (after all, we were only there for two full days and two half-days and this was one of those precious half-days) - they were laid to waste as soon as one of us decided to try the bed. The bed had the gravity of black holes and we struggled but could not escape its pull. Eventually after two hours of struggle, three of us freed outselves from its web and went to the supermarket - more precisely, went to find a supermarket, as that actually nothing was around. We figured we were going to go to the beach after we buy some desperately needed water and various things.

The closest real supermarket turned out to be some 20k away.

One thing you have to notice about Okinawa is that it is a serious fruit-producing prefecture due to its warm weathers. Pineapples is among one of the most famous. The supermarket reflects this, as it sported a much larger than usual fruit section. Correspondingly, the cheese section was quite small (almost all diary product in Japan coming from Hokkaido), but the price was not significantly different. However, they did have Dragonfruit (Pitaya) and having had never eaten one I bought one for a massive 500 yen and they were kind to cut it in half and wrap them individually for us.

The pitaya was red inside - actually it would be a dark and slightly transparant version of "hot pink." (i.e. this would be species Hylocereus polyrhizus) littered among the flesh was tiny black seeds, without any discernable order. Disappointingly, the taste of the fruit was about the most bland of fruits that I have ever eaten - though admittably it was slightly sweet. Of course you end up chewing on the seeds - they either crack like seasame seeds or they get stuck in your teeth. Now that I think of it, the pitaya tasted very much like a bland kiwi, and 500 yen is much better spent on 5 kiwis, I think.

One thing that was incredibly cheap was water. 2 litre bottle averaged around 100 yen, while Honsyu would charge you twice that much. I was hungry and didn't pay much attention to much else - but even just hanging out in the store we wasted enough time that 6:00 was coming up fast and we had to rush back to convene for our First Dinner (tm).

Okinawa is famous for pork related dishes and one of the most famous of that is the okinawa soba called so-ki soba. To call it soba is kind of an injustice because to me it tastes dangerously like ramen. (Justifiably so, by the way, as it's made completely from 100% wheat flour and not buckwheat flour - in fact I think some "trade name agreement" had to be reached in continuing to call so-ki soba "soba" due to it's lack of buckwheat flour content.) Tastewise it was very much like ramen except with lots of pork - very good stuff (ahh mouth watering on the thought of pork).

Okinawa is also one of the few places that eats pigs feet. We (the two chinese) ordered some much some to the dismay of our comrades. It was fried to crisp and then dosed in some special kind of soysause. That remains to be one the most memorable meals in Okinawa.

The meal took a while and we missed the sunset because of it; on the way back, we drove slowly - finally it was cool enough to put down the top, and relaxed under the cobalt sky, scarlet highlights westward, and the calm ocean reflecting likewise. quiet waves patted the shore, producing a rhythmic thrashing sound like a lullaby from Gaia herself. We fell asleep in no time; excited for the prospect tomorrow.

(end of July 12th)

-- to be continued --