Tourists in Our New Town

How long do we have before we aren't considered tourists anymore?  I hope we can be considered "permanent tourists," since we do reside here, but really only temporarily.  I'm going to go ahead and take the liberty to classify us as that.  I hope that means I can always take pictures of restaurant menus and funny Japanese people without feeling a little bit corny.  That being said, here are a few places we've gotten to explore in our new country.

Adam happens to be a connoisseur of aquariums so last weekend we took him to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.  This aquarium boasts several firsts:  The world's first to successfully birth a manta pup in captivity, the first in the world to house several whale sharks in one tank - maintaining the world record for the longest times kept in captivity, the world's only to hold schooling manta rays (the largest of all the rays) in captivity...the list goes on and on.  Until Atlanta opened, it was the world's largest.  The bottom line is this place is AMAZING.  If it didn't look like this,:

it might still be just as amazing...but probably not.  Honestly, this helps a lot.  Here are some highlights of the tour:

This is us near the entrance of the aquarium.  Really, I needed a break because the walk from the parking garage was a little long, so it was a good excuse to stop and take a picture.

 

At the first exhibit, Adam got to pet a starfish...

...then strangle a sea cucumber. That's Alan reaching to release the death-grip

This is a Japanese Spear Lobster.  The educational sign next to it (loosely translated into English) says it doesn't have any claws...as if that should make us feel better about a chance encounter.  Seriously - bigger than Adam.

Next came the Whale Shark exhibit.  I like this picture because it shows the whale in relation to the people standing by the glass.  There is really no relaying how big these things are.  But, if it helps to imagine it, here is also a shot of Alan and Adam standing in an open jaw:

Next, we ventured outside the main building, where the sea turtle pool, dolphin pool & theater, and manatee pool were.  Here are some sea turtle shots...of "Crush," of course:

Finally, we were just in time to catch the dolphin show at the theater, which included a "False Killer Whale."  Here's what we saw when we paid attention to the (completely Japanese-narrated) show:

Don't get me wrong - the show was really cool, like one at Sea World.  But here's what we saw if we turned our head to the left, which was way cooler:

Here is the obligatory belly shot of me outside the manatee pool, at 24 weeks:

A Few Other Firsts & Some Random Funnies

McDonalds:

American Village (think Chinatown, but for us):  There's a big ferris wheel that we haven't been on yet, but Adam insists he wants to, and a place called "Yogurtland" that's like Maggie Moos, but with frozen yogurt.

Seriously, why do they have this?

We Americans would call this "Cat Karaoke"...not sure what it really is called, but I'm pretty sure it's karaoke and it might also be a restaurant.  We also have "The Monkey Man Store" and "the Bunny Store" only because those animals are on the sign.

To end, I give you a picture of my first meal at Mike's Tex-Mex here on Okinawa.  It's no Alamo Cafe or el Jarro de Arturo, but it was a "happy ending" for me: