Gushikawa Park

Yet another beautiful, new location for our Stroller Warrior ladies to run at and a great park for the kiddos.

Gushikawa park is located near the bridge leading to Henza, Miyagi, and Ikei Islands on the East Coast of Okinawa. A lot of my friends say this bridge kinda reminds them of the Golden Gate Bridge. I've only ever seen it in pictures, so I'm not sure how accurate that is...  I read somewhere that the bridge is 4.7 miles long.  That would explain why we didn't make it to the other side on our run today, lol.

Anyways, the kids had a lot of fun at the park.  Most of the little kids stuck to the smaller play place on the left.  It is similar to anything you'll find on base, but still fun.  The other structures were pretty cool.  The rope thing on the right kept many of the older kids occupied attempting to climb it and provided me with much amusement while I was there.  There is a decent sized roller slide back behind the pavillion too.

It was a Japanese National Holiday while we were there, so there were tons of Japanese kids at the park that day.  O got abducted with her stroller by a few little girls who basically used her as a real life doll.  They took her for rides, passed her around for holding and rocking, and shared some of their candy with her.  :D

Big Band @ Camp Hansen

The big band performed an awesome concert for the Kin town public in the local square just outside of Camp Hansen.  It was a great way for the Japanese community to interact with the local Marines in a positive setting.  Not to mention provide some good entertainment for the guys up North who miss out on the many happenings down South.

I was personally really glad I could park at the USO on base and walk over with O.  Sometimes finding parking out in town can be a real hassle.  And O made friends with a little Japanese girl.  They were super cute to watch dancing and playing O's little toy trumpet together.  :D

Zakimi Castle

Zakimi Castle is one of the 9 World Heritage Sites on island.  Near Cape Zampa (Zanpa), one could make a day trip out of these two locations.  The castle itself is small and only takes about an hour to explore.

The castle was built by Gosamaru in the early 15th century.  He helped unite the many waring kingdoms of Okinawa and the other islands under one rule.  For his loyalty and bravery, Gosamaru was declared Lord of Zakimi Castle, where he kept a watchful eye on the warlords to the North.

Shuri Castle & Nearby Shrine

We got a little lost on the way to Shuri Castle.  We drove in circles for a while until I finally just needed to pull over and get out of the car.  I didn't care where at this point.

The next place I saw happened to be a large parking lot next to a beautiful shrine.  Even though my husband wasn't comfortable getting out there, I went ahead and stopped anyway.  He could wait in the car if he wanted.  I was going to walk around.

The gate structure was fascinating.  Although I'm certain many shrines use this architecture, I had never seen it before.  They even had the striking mechanism hooked up to ring the bell.  And I still wish I could read half of what the little scrolls and boards say that you can buy for worship.

As it turns out, this shrine was just down the hill from the castle.

 

Upon reaching the castle, we opted to walk around the grounds instead of going inside.  We had limited time and just wanted to enjoy being out in nature.

Other posts from visits to this site:

Shuri Castle

Big Band @ Koza Music Town

The band loves to do performances for the public as often as possible. Especially if the local Japanese community will be able to attend.  That is why they were honored to have their big band play at Koza Music town on Gate 2 street.

Koza Music Town is located on route 330 on the corner of Gate 2 street (I'm not sure the name of the actual road, but if you go directly out of Kadena's Gate 2 you are on it.)  Koza is another name for the city of Okinawa.  This particular street offers lots of shopping opportunities, food, and MUSIC!  Several parades and other special events happen here throughout the year.