Creatures.

Cats roamed the hotel grounds.


Every morning, I would take a couple extra pieces of fish from our breakfast buffet and feed a cute momma cat and her two kittens:



This pair made an abandoned store in town their home.


But other creatures were not so cuddly:





Except that little crab. It was kind of cute.

Flora.

Or as Yoron calls it: pana-uru.





Funky tree roots:


Plants of dragonfruit:


And.. bananas.


And apple mangoes. If I heard that right.

And now for something completely different.

Yoron Island:


A tiny little gem of an island -- only 8 miles in diameter -- north of Okinawa. Population: 5,000. And even that number seems too high.

A view of the beach at Pricia Hotel, where we stayed.



A walk to town along the coast:


And lots of farms. Yoron grows sugar cane, among other tasty things.

Heading home.

I'm flying back tomorrow! This will be my last post while in Japan. Obviously, I wasn't able to keep up with blogging about the whole trip. But once I'm home, I'll finish up my posts.

The trip went by fast, and I'll miss Japan. I definitely want to come back someday...... in the very distant future, as I am currently broke as a joke. But I am excited to come back home and see my loved ones. And eat a big fat juicy burger with fries. And a burrito.

Thanks for reading, and please visit back to read the rest!

Okinawa.

We took a plane from Haneda, Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa. It is super humid there and reminded me of Indonesia.

Okinawa is a whole 'nother side of Japan -- one that is tropical and even has Mexican influences (i.e. "taco rice").

More photos and commentary on Food Blahg here.

After one night there, we took a giant ferry out to Yoron Island. It took freakin' 5 hours. And it rocked, and not in a good way. In a very seasicky way.

I stayed on top of the boat for half of it, and went down to take a nap for the second half, after my Dramamine kicked in.


But not before I saw this:


Yes, it seems like just a bunch of water and sky, but look closely. It looks like we're nearing the edge of the world. Kind of mysterious and cool-looking, if you ask me.

Kabuki and Karaoke.

We visited Kabukiza Theater in Ginza (still Tokyo), where we watched one act. It was just beautiful. The quick costume changes -- that take place in a fraction of a second -- were especially spectacular. I wish we were allowed to take photos inside the theater.



We also had our first karaoke night to say goodbye to Mitsuro.

I sang "Livin' On A Prayer." Of course.

My second time around, I sang "Stairway to Heaven." Two minutes into the song, I realized that this genius of a song is probably not preferred for karaoke, considering it is nine minutes long. Oh well.

Katie brought out her inner Britney Spears:


Javier featuring Lisa as a back-up dancer.


Even Sensei boogied. And got a little tipsy.


Thank you, Mitsuro!


(And also, thanks to Sho for these photos of karaoke, which are so much better than mine.)

Friends.

Part of the Bridge to Japan group:

Mitsuro, one of our fab tour-guide-Japan-navigators, and Britt. Herro prease.


Neil and David. With me and Victor, we make up group "Oishii Neko."


Javierrrr, Michael and Tiffany.


Sho (me the Sho), our second Japan navigator, with Katie and Buruuusu (Bruce).

Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

Ghibli Museum features the anime works of Hayao Miyazaki, creator of anime films Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle.



I've only seen Spirited Away out of those three, but the museum was interesting nonetheless. If I had kids that were fans of these films, I'd definitely take them here. It was like walking in an interactive fairytale world that showcased how Miyazaki's beautiful animated works are born. We weren't allowed to take photos of the inside, unfortunately.

Cable car ropeway.

Everyone knows that I'm scared of heights.

But hey, you only live once, right?

In Hakone, we took a cable car ropeway to the top of the mountain.


It was pretty incredible. Too bad it was also pretty rainy.



Peering at the sulfer mines down below:


Did I mention that we were really high up?

When we got to the top, the views were pretty, but much too foggy. At one point it was so foggy, it felt as if there was nothing around us.




Oh, and of course, as soon as we got back down, the sun came out. And the next day, the weather was perfectly sunny. Our return to Tokyo felt like it came a little too soon.