My Dad's side of the family is in Okinawa. While we were there, we got in touch with some folks to figure out where his family came from. We stayed in Okinawa for 4 days,and had a good time there. We met some very nice people, ate some good food, and went to see some awesome places.
We met up with the Gishitomi family, and although their name is slightly different, the chinese characters that make up their name is the same as our family, and it is pretty rare.
(Mom, Gishitomi-san, Rieko-san, Dad at the botanical gardens in Okinawa. They were very gracious hosts to be showing us around the island)
We also caught up with Mr. Takara, that keeps track of families in the Oroku district in Naha, Okinawa. Him and his wife were able to help us track the Uehara side of my Dad's family.
(Mr. Takara and his wife, with Mom, Dad, and Marie)
We were able to visit the Uehara grave site, which looks like a giant retaining wall on the side of a mountain, but it is actually a gigantic tomb.
(The tomb)
(Area to leave flowers)
(Paying respects to the Uehara family)
We were able to see Gishifu-jima, which is an island off the coast of Okinawa, and is probably named after one of my ancestors. That was pretty awesome =)
(Gishifu-jima)
We were able to figure out some stuff about the family, but for more details on the Gishifu side, we would have had to gone to an island called Ishigaki. It was a little too much out of the way, plus it would have been more digging amongst old documents.
(Sata Andagi - Okinawan sweet donuts...slightly larger than donut holes...very good!!)
(Goya Champuru - bitter melon stir fry that has bitter melon, bean sprouts, scrambled egg, and other veggies..yummy as well!)
(Black sesame crusted pork cutlet. It was very tender, and the black sesame had a little bit of salt in it, so it was salty and crunchy...very good as well)
(pigs feet - it's an okinawan specialty. It's been simmered all day, and the fat is mostly gone, and what's left is collagen and the "good for you" parts of the meat. It was tasted ok, but I wasn't comfortable with the texture.)
(Two kinds of Okinawan soba noodles and fried rice. The noodles are flatter than normal soba noodles...very good!)
(umi budou - which translates directly to "sea grapes". It tasted like a caviar, but not as salty)
(okinawa bento lunch - an assortment of veggies and rice and tofu. Across from my tray is a bento that includes pigs feet...again, not my favorite =) But my lunch was awesome!!)
(Orion beer brewed in Okinawa...Japanese beer is very light and not that robust in flavor. I thought it was drinkable, but not really to my liking.)
