Okinawa

Made it to Japan finally and am definately fed up with japanese keyboards already, however the rest of the country is amazing so far, and I have definately had some different cultural experiences already.

The first night I went out to eat we found some really traditional Okinawan style food, which is different from Japanese. It would be comparable to a Japanese/Chinese blend. Some of the more distinct dishes I tried were：rafute - a local dish once served in the Ryukyu court which is pork (complete with fat slab still on top) in a sauce of ginger, brown sugar, soya sauce, and awamori. Awamori is the local firewater 30%-60% and has a Habu snake coiled in the bottom... another dish was mimiga - raw pigs ears sliced very thinly and marinated in vinegar. You mix this one around with the vinegar, ginger and bean sprouts and cruch up; it is served cold.

The next day was shower day...Japanese style. I visited the local bathhouse. It was great, and I think it would be very healthy for north american body image ideals. It is definately one of the best experiences I have had and will do it again. There were all these hot pools with jets (including a bedae style one) and electrodes, along with a cold pool and three different hot rooms, wet heat, dry heat, and a salt scrub/exfoliation sauna. Before you go into any of these though, you must clean yourself thoroughly at one of the little vanity stations along the wall. There is a very small stool) quite slippery once you are soaped up... along with shower head, tap and bucket, water temperature control, soap, etc.

It was lovely and I do not think I have felt this clean since before I left Victoria!!!