Castle sketch

Nadine sketched this on a morning before we went to church. Love the castle and the blue swirling clouds!

Singapore Comic Con 2019

We went for our virgin Comic Con in December, and had a smashing good time. We were so amused by all the showcases and people who dress up. Aaron probably enjoyed the most, especially when he saw all the Star Wars and lego.

Okinawa - November 2019: Day 6 & 7

We spent Day 6 shopping at Okinawa Outlet Mall Ashibinaa. It was Japan's Black Friday, so we thought there would be lots of good deals. There were, but it was winter fashion. So we didn't buy a lot.

Day 7, we started the day by going to Shuri Castle, to see what's left of it after the recent fire. Not much to see. We could only walk around in the park outside the castle complex, and could only see a teeny weeny bit of the burnt roof of the castle.

So after 15 min, we headed out for our 2nd round of Blue Seal ice-cream.

Next, we went to the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial.

The museum was established to showcase the Battle of Okinawa, the war experiences of Okinawa, and to commemorate those who died during war.

It looked deceivingly peaceful from outside.

It overlooks the Pacific Ocean

But inside the museum, there's just too much details of the atrocities of the war. Too depressing. And one person in our family was not interested at all.

We left the museum depressed, and also thankful that we live in a time of peace.

Back to enjoying the peace and beautiful nature outside the museum ...

Daddy had planned to go to another museum actually. But after the Peace Museum, we thought it was enough war history for the day. Had to cheer ourselves up with a good meal. So we went back to Ashibinaa. Had a very satisfying steak lunch at Donkey Steak.

Then it was back to the Outlet mall. It was happiness for Aaron because there were ATV kiddie rides!

For dinner, we went to Kokusai Street. Aaron wanted teppanyaki. We were about to cross the road to a teppanyaki restaurant when we were approached by a guy touting for a restaurant. Showed us an extensive menu, and said they have teppanyaki. We decided to try, and were led to a backstreet, which got us a bit wary and suspicious. But when we saw this photo wall, we relaxed. Not that we recognised it, but we sort of thought - with such an instagrammable wall, this place must be quite hip.

And it was. It wasn't the typical teppanyaki restaurant. In fact, it looked more like a hip cafe. Food was pretty good, although we were still quite stuffed from lunch. It was a good last dinner in Okinawa.

After dinner, we went into a souvenir shop and bought tonnes of Okinawa goodies to bring back to Singapore. Then it was back to the apartment to pack up, and for a last few games of Streetfighter.

We had an early flight back to Singapore. Had to wake up early to get to the airport, check in, then go to the car rental office to return our rental car, before heading back to the airport for the flight. By the time we boarded our flight, we were all shagged out.

Okinawa was lovely. Very relaxing place, compared to other parts of Japan that we'd been to. People there seemed a lot more laid-out and chill. What surprised us was the number of young families we saw - fashionable and hip young parents, with not 1 or 2, but 3 or 4 kids! I guess the pace and quality of life there must be really good for these families!

Loved driving around in Okinawa too. The drivers there were so nice. Nobody honked and everybody gave way. So even though some of the roads were really narrow, it wasn't stressful to drive there. Only wished we had a more powerful car for the highways!

Will we go back to Okinawa again? Maybe, but not so soon, definitely! And sure hope the next time, weather will be good so that we can head out to the beaches!

Okinawa - November 2019: Day 5

Day 5, we went to Okinawa World, a theme park with traditional Ryuku culture and craft, snakes, turtles, insects and a massive limestone cave.

After 4 days in Okinawa, we finally tried the Blue Seal ice-cream, a brand of ice cream that is prevalent in Okinawa. We had it despite it being a rainy and slightly cold day. It's a nice soft serve, but not very unique.

We saw glass-making ...

the kids "picked" pearls...

and Nadine dyed her own bag.

This form of dyeing is based on the Ryuku Ai, a plant with a deep blue color resembling Okinawa's ocean and sky. It was interesting to learn the process of dyeing

Voila - the end product!

Meanwhile, Daddy and Aaron were roaming around, discovering other parts of the park.

And we did something we'd never done before - dress in traditional costumes to take photos! But Nadine was too cool to do that with us. And we took some incomplete family photos.

Next, was the Habu Park, featuring different types of reptiles, and a snake show.

After Okinawa World, we went for dinner, before heading to our next accommodation - our Doremon Home.

The apartment is a bit old, but the owner is absolutely thoughtful. She included so many amenities, it was better than a hotel!

And the kids went crazy playing with the old school playstation! Their favourite game - Streetfighter!