We woke up this morning and the typhoon had completely passed so the weather was really pleasant and the sky was a little overcast, but it was clear. We packed up our things to travel to Okinawa and then we went down to meet everyone, including Uncle Koji’s family, for breakfast.
The breakfast buffet was really big and there were a lot of
choices. Some of the highlights for me were the mentaiko, grated mountain
potato with soy sauce over barley rice, tomato eggplant & soybean stew,
pumpkin/kabocha salad, and fresh tofu with chunks of aloe in a sweet syrup.
When we were finished with breakfast we went upstairs and
the group from America had a quick Sabbath worship. Then we went back
downstairs and said our goodbyes to all of Uncle Koji’s family. We took the
hotel shuttle back to Fukuoka City and Hakata station, where we caught the
subway to the airport. We arrived to the airport a few hours early so we killed
time by walking around the airport looking at all the stores and souvenirs they
were selling. It almost reminded me of a small shopping center with lots of
little food shops. It was a lot of fun because they were all giving out free
samples of their goodies. Auntie Masumi showed me one shop that was selling one
mango for the equivalent of about $52.
Once we had all looked through the shops and bought a few
things here and there we went to the restaurant floor of the airport and had
lunch. Christal and I shared cold soba noodles with assorted tempura & rice
with pickled mustard greens. After we finished lunch we headed through security
and waited at our gate.
The flight to Naha, Okinawa was uneventful and by the time
we landed in Okinawa the skies had cleared up and it was sunny and warm. After
we got our luggage and walked out of the terminal Auntie Masumi’s Dad and
Step-Mom were there to surprise us. They rode the monorail part of the way with
us to the hotel. The hotel we ended up staying at was called Rihga Royal Gran
Okinawa and supposedly it is one of the best hotels in Okinawa. The hotel was
decorated in a very modern style and it was interesting because the lobby of
the hotel was located on the top floor so we walked from the monorail station
to the hotel building and rode an elevator to the lobby. Once we got our rooms
we had to take a different elevator down to our rooms.
We all got ready for dinner and then headed to the Pacific Hotel
to meet up with some of Auntie Masumi’s family and eat the buffet. We were able
to see Auntie Masumi’s sister and half-brother again and we met, Auntie
Masumi’s aunt, cousin, niece and grand niece as well as her Father and
Step-Mother again.
The food at the buffet was very good. We had shiu mai,
seafood dumplings, clam and chili linguine, fried fish, char siu, Okinawan
braised ham hock, sweet and sour pork, Okinawan chicken and vegetable stir fry,
sushi, steamed konyaku and vegetables with tofu, cold soba and prime rib. For
dessert they had a soufflé cake, chocolate and banana cake, banana cream cake,
neopolitan cake, mille fuille cake, green tea cake, madeleines, Okinawan citrus
jello, and some soft serve ice cream. After dinner and saying goodbye to all
the relatives we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
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