On Saturday, a handful of staff accompanied a few of the "wheelies" of the Track & Field team to Okinawa Ocean Expo Park on the northern part of the island. The bus ride along the western coast of the island was beautiful and filled our time with ocean and shoreline scenery. After a quick bite of Japanese bento box lunches, we headed down towards the Churaumi Aquarium.
As you can see in this picture, the aquarium is HUGE (second largest in the world!) and actually contained two whale sharks along with several hundred other species of marine life. Notice the folks standing on the ground along the bottom looking up at the tank for a perspective on how big the tank and the whale shark are! Along with various smaller tanks containing sea life specific to Japan and Asia, there was also exterior dolphin, manatee and sea turtle pools.
Next on the sightseeing list in the Expo Park was the Native Okinawan Village. It's a reconstruction of a traditional village from the 17th to 19th centuries and represents architecture from the Ryukyu Kingdom period. I loved all the raw wood and paper screen walls that slid open to allow a breeze to blow through the whole structure. I wouldn't be so thrilled about sleeping on the wood and mat floors though! The cooking area was unique, but we had to chuckle at the full circuit breaker panel just behind the wall to this hanging tea kettle room! The whole place was so peaceful with incense burning and little shrines scattered throughout. The village is also used as a cultural center and there were some classes of weaving and string instruments going on with what appeared to be some middle school groups.
From the village, we strolled through the botanical garden to the Tropical Dream Center. I wouldn't have been able to pull my mom from this place had she been here! It was filled with tropical flowers, shrubs and trees. I had never seen so many, nor so many different types of orchids in my whole life. Absolutely beautiful!
We spent the last bit of our time going for a dip at Emerald Beach. The water was so warm and inviting, we didn't want to get out to catch the bus back to base. I would say that it was a relaxing day, but the staff did so much walking and the athletes did so much pushing in their wheelchairs in the heat that everyone was pretty wiped out by the end. All in all, a great day of sightseeing though!
As you can see in this picture, the aquarium is HUGE (second largest in the world!) and actually contained two whale sharks along with several hundred other species of marine life. Notice the folks standing on the ground along the bottom looking up at the tank for a perspective on how big the tank and the whale shark are! Along with various smaller tanks containing sea life specific to Japan and Asia, there was also exterior dolphin, manatee and sea turtle pools.
Next on the sightseeing list in the Expo Park was the Native Okinawan Village. It's a reconstruction of a traditional village from the 17th to 19th centuries and represents architecture from the Ryukyu Kingdom period. I loved all the raw wood and paper screen walls that slid open to allow a breeze to blow through the whole structure. I wouldn't be so thrilled about sleeping on the wood and mat floors though! The cooking area was unique, but we had to chuckle at the full circuit breaker panel just behind the wall to this hanging tea kettle room! The whole place was so peaceful with incense burning and little shrines scattered throughout. The village is also used as a cultural center and there were some classes of weaving and string instruments going on with what appeared to be some middle school groups.
From the village, we strolled through the botanical garden to the Tropical Dream Center. I wouldn't have been able to pull my mom from this place had she been here! It was filled with tropical flowers, shrubs and trees. I had never seen so many, nor so many different types of orchids in my whole life. Absolutely beautiful! 
We spent the last bit of our time going for a dip at Emerald Beach. The water was so warm and inviting, we didn't want to get out to catch the bus back to base. I would say that it was a relaxing day, but the staff did so much walking and the athletes did so much pushing in their wheelchairs in the heat that everyone was pretty wiped out by the end. All in all, a great day of sightseeing though!
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