Hachiren Ramen Yomitan

Last week, when I had a day to myself, I decided to find what is supposed to be the best ramen in Okinawa. The place is Hachiren Ramen inYomitan, and it didn't dissapoint. I got there early at about 11:30, and there was already a line-up to get a table. You have to order and pay for your ramen using the machine outside, and be sure to write your name on the waitlist so you will get called when a table is ready. They offer tsukumen and ramen, and even though it was a scorching day, I opted for the spicy ramen. 
The inside of the restaurant is really small. There's only three low lying tables on tatami that would fit a maximum of four people around each, and then counter seating for about 8 people. I think if you come with a group bigger than 4 people, your only option would be counter seating, which I think would take quite a while to get unless you were the first ones there at opening time.
If you want a ramen fix and you're in Okinawa, I think this is the place to go! But hey, it's also the only ramen i've had in Okinawa, but I can say it definitely compares with the good stuff i've had on the mainland.

The menu

Behold, the deliciousness


The entrance, with the ticket machine on the right


Summer Vacation Day - Nabee Beach

Last Friday I took a summer vacation day, the day before a typhoon was due to hit. It was gorgeous, warm and sunny so I headed straight to the beach for a morning swim.
I love Nabee beach in Onna. It's great at low or high tide, the water is always clear and nice and cool, unlike some of the other beaches that seem to get bathwater warm. Also, they have music playing over the loud speakers, and this particular day was a perfect selection of 90's hits (think The Sign by Ace of Base, Mr Vain by Culture Beat and Wannabe by Spice Girls).











Okinawa sunsets

Coming from the east coast of Australia, and now living on the west coast in Okinawa, the sunsets over the ocean are really beautiful to get to see every night. My phone and camera are full of these photos, but I was surprised to see just how much variety there is! The post-typhoon sunset which was incredibly pink and purple this last weekend was probably the most spectacular. Our whole house was lit up pink/purple. Love it!

This view really amazes me every day.



Post-typhoon sunset. The colours were unreal!



I loved that I could see some stars in the sky while the sun was still setting



Zakimi Castle Ruins

Today while we were out and about we saw the sign for Zakimi Castle Ruins, so decided to check it out before lunch. Okinawa seems to be full of these castle ruins, and it's taken us 6 months to get to one, because honestly, the idea of castle RUINS kind of bores me. I actually really liked these ones though. It was a nice little thing to do while we were waiting, and G really loved having a run around on the grass. Apparently the castle was built in 1416, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I like this pine forested path up to the ruins


Griff loves castles

I wonder how old these walls are

Me and G


Griff had a good run around one the grass

Onna no Eki market 恩納村の駅

Just down the road from our place is a market place that has a fruit and vegetable market, tons of Japanese food stalls, souvenirs and even a french bakery. It's a great place to take visitors because there's a lot to see, and I love that all the fruit and vegetables they sell is only what is currently in season, which at the moment, is mangoes and dragon fruit! The have the cheapest mangoes I have seen so far in Okinawa. In Australia you can get mangoes as cheap as $1 each, usually around $2, however, over here, they're more like $6 each! Today I managed to find some for $2.50 each so I finally bit the bullet and bought one. I hope they live up to the hype.

http://onnanoeki.com/


On crazy hot days (like today) they have mist in the air because all the seating is outside for food

So many tasty summer treats
Dragon Fruits!

I'm hoping this sign means that the eggs I bought are from happy chickens

Souvenirs galore! 

Milkhall Cafe

While H was back in Australia over a month ago, little G and I decided to venture out to try a new cafe in Yomitan called Milkhall. It was such a cute little place, with a really child-friendly interior. The menu items all centre around popover bread. I had never heard of this bread before, but it's an unleavened bread made with milk and egg, and tasted kind of like a cross between bread and an omelette. It was very eggy. I had ther Milkhall special breakfast, that along with the popover bread, came with eggs, homemade sausage patties and vegetable soup. It was really tasty, and very filling!

Such a cute interior

Some of the menu

My breakfast! It was delicious!


Muruku Beach - Hamahiga Island

This past weekend was a long weekend due to Marine Day on Monday and we were really excited to get out and have some adventures. Mostly, I wanted to spend a lot of time on the beach. Saturday morning we woke up, and decided to take G to get a haircut and do some groceries, however the weather was looking lovely, so we decided that after the haircut we would take a trip out to Hamahiga Island and see if we could find a new beach seeing as we had never been there before.
We stocked up on picnic snacks on the way and when we drove over the bridge, we took the road to the left and ended up at Muruku Beach. 
We had the whole beach to ourselves, so we set up our beach tent and got in the water. The water was amazingly blue, and refreshingly cool, which was fantastic, because sometimes the water is so warm over here it's not really refreshing at all on a hot day.
I'm so glad we made the effort to get to the beach because after we'd been there for about an hour, the grey clouds started coming in and it started to rain, so we packed up our things and headed home. It rained heavily for the rest of the long weekend. I would have been so devastated if we hadn't gotten to the beach this weekend! I feel like i'm constantly looking out longingly at beautiful sunny days when i'm at work, and then as soon as the weekend comes it's cloudy and raining! 


Muruku Beach - Hamahiga Island


I love the colour of the water here - so different than Australia

We had the beach all to ourselves
 
Our beach picnic.






Rain clouds rolling in



Hermit crab

6 months living in Okinawa

So today is 6 months since packing up my whole house and life and moving to Okinawa. On one hand, it feels like we've been here for much longer than 6 months, but on the other hand it feels like it's been not long at all. 

One of the deciding factors in making this move was the proximity to the ocean, and we were lucky enough to rent an amazing house right on there beach and only a 5-10 minute drive to work. Let's face it, there's absolutely no way we'd be able to afford a beachfront house in Australia, or any other time in the rest of our lives, so we're making the most of this one. We have put the effort in to making this house our home, with the idea that we will ship anything home that we have bought over here and love. 

Our house, and seen by me floating in the ocean



Having a picnic dinner on our beach



Looking down at our living room/kitchen/tatami room from upstairs

Griff's giant room is really long.