Shuri Castle

This last Saturday, Logan and I visited Shuri Castle. It was originally constructed at the end of the 14th century and stood until the battles in Okinawa in 1945 when it burned down. They started restoring it in 1957 and it was fully restored by 1992 and opened to the public. It sits on a hill with several gates and steps that lead up to the main structure. 

This is where the Kings of the Ryukyu Kingdom (pronounced re-you-ku) conducted their politics, foreign affairs and ceremonies. Just in case, I haven't really explained it well, Okinawans do not consider themselves Japanese (or Chinese). The Ryukyu Kingdom was ruled by it's own government and were a important hub for trade between many countries here in Asia because of their centralized location (Geography!). China and Japan at different times have claimed them but it wasn't until 1879 that they were officially taken over by the Japanese. 

I loved walking though the castle and the grounds. It was too bad that we were not able to take pictures of the most beautiful part. Inside Shoin, or King's study, the floors were covered in tatami mats and the most beautiful natural wood. I loved that all the doors were my size and it was so clean (we had to take our shoes off too). As we walked through the rooms, there were little porches that looked out over the beautiful landscaping.

After walking through the castle, we heard music going on and found a little performance. They were fun to watch with their upbeat music and drums. We were still not sure why they were performing though. 

After that, we found a little festival near by and went to try out some food! Ice Cream is always good! It turned out to be a raspberry sorbet, mango and beni-imo (purple sweet potato). We also tried the brown thing that turned out to be bacon wrapped rice with a type of teriyaki sauce - also good - and a pancake that had some purple beni-imo paste in the middle making it pleasantly sweet. 

The dumpling looking things in the container were the only thing we didn't like while trying some new foods. They were called octopus balls and Logan thought they would be fun to try. He ate one and was like "they're not that bad just a little chewy in the middle" so I decided to try one too. Big mistake! It was the worst ever! First off, they are a little big for my mouth and I expected to be like a fried dough with a piece of octopus in the middle. It was more like eating a ball of Elmer's glue with a chew toy in the middle and it tasted like Lysol. I was actually surprised I didn't throw it up but my eyes started to water and had to pretty much swallow it whole and eat the rest of my ice cream to get the flavor out of my mouth. Thinking about them now still makes me feel sick. Logan ended up eating all of them! So when I say that Logan is not a picky eater, this really proves it!