Day 13 In Okinawa

So, as the last little "to do" item on our list, we wanted to swing by the Okinawa Grande Castle Hotel in Shuri (on the way down the hill to Naha) for dessert on the top floor.  I had been looking forward to doing something like this since King and I (I think it was King) went up the glass elevator to the top and watched the city of Naha just drop to our feet.  It's quite a view, but we didn't stick around on the top floor lounge as we really weren't patrons, and we didn't want to dilly dally too long.

So, Miwa and I went there.  They stopped serving desserts about 10 minutes before we got there.  So, we went across the street to the Miyako Hotel in search of a decent dessert.  This is the hotel that Quackenbush and I went into as a kyukei just to check out.  This particular hotel, tonight, was taken over by recent high school graduates and their party.  So that was not good.  We asked the hotel guys in the lobby if they knew of a good dessert place in the area, and they were predictably useless, suggesting Kokusai Dori.  No thanks.

With nothing but our wits arming us, we hit the roads of the Naha Higashi area looking for a cafe where we could find something sweet to eat.  We found none.  We did find "O-Haka-ville" (as I called it) in Hantagawa, one of my old stomping grounds.  But, for the most part, we were hopelessly lost in Higashi.  We gave up, headed up to Shuri (on the way back to Nishihara), stopped off at the Ryubo, and got some hyaku-yen ice cream.  It was kind of natsukashii wandering through this particular Ryubo, getting the cheap ice cream I had partaken of so often in the past (ice cream cone with swirled soft serve chocolate and vanilla).

We got in the car, began eating the ice cream and I promptly turned right into the right-hand side lane as we pulled out of the parking lot.  We actually went about  50 yards before we (Miwa) realized that I had made my adjustment back to driving in the United States one day too early.  No matter.  We swerved into the left lane, and we survived this one and only detour into on-coming traffic.  Now I'm prepared for driving in America!

A few other notes about my last day in Okinawa.  Zebra bread: it is still good.  So is melon pan.  Coco Curry Houses still dot the island, making missionaries barf every time they go in for the challenge.  Heated "shower toilets": I think I'd like to have one in my home in America.  

Okinawa: changing in good ways (I think), remaining the same in good ways.  There appears to be a tremendous amount of development taking place in Okinawa.  More bridges, highways, consolidated villages into new cities, new city halls, a monorail, and resorts.  But the villages out in the boonies are still out in the boonies. You can still find the sugar cane fields, the quiet beaches, obaas playing gate ball, shrines/monuments in the most unexpected spots, and missionaries in the Shuri apartment.

All is right in the world.

There are about 20 missionaries total on the island of Okinawa.  That's a decent number, I think.  96 from the Okinawa dendobu jidai was just too many.  The handful of missionaries I met here are good Elders.  The type I'd feel comfortable referring my friends to.  

In speaking with some other missionary buddies back in the States, they mentioned some level of anxiety about returning to the battleground of Okinawa.  Certainly, my mission in Okinawa was a battleground for me.  A refiners fire.  It is where I had to do a lot of growing up, figuring myself out, then figuring out how to deal with others...all while sharing the gospel that I was still sorting out in my own heart.  

But I had no reservations about coming back here.  Indeed, I set about coming back here in earnest in January 2007 when swapping e-mails with Santos Shimai, musing about a visit to this sacred place.  Planning around typhoon season, summer, winter, monsoon season, and finally my own work schedule, there were only a few windows of opportunity, and I chose March of 2009.  In February of 2008 I met Miwa.  In March of 2009 we got married putting off my planned visit for another year.

But there is no better way to visit Okinawa than with a local (and wife) who understands what a battleground a mission field can be to a missionary, and how special it is to return to it, lo, these many years later.