Okinawa World

I had the opportunity to go on yet again another field trip with Saige this time to Okinawa World. It is a cultural learning recreation area/park. It had all the traditional Okinawan art practices (weaving, pottery, glass, & the sugar mill) there is also the Habu museum and a cave to explore. The Habu is the local venomous snake here and I am officially scared of it now. I have never seen one until this trip, but I heard stories about it's "bee sting-like" bite and how people don't realize it's a habu until their tissue starts to erode. I am already a snake-a-phobic as is and this did not help. I jumped out of my pants more times than I would like to admit. And wouldn't you know that the kids were all about it!! I will go on more about that later. The cave was what you would imagine a cave to be...dark, wetness, and slightly cooler than the outside temp. I realized when I walked down those steps that I shouldn't have worn my fee fops!! Here is my group in the cave...
We went outside and explored the area and came upon this cool wood carved shisa dog.

Saige and Kenzie stood by the real deal which was much bigger obviously.

We also came across some turtles that were just chillin for no apparent reason. I love turtles...

I enjoyed watching them make the Ryuku glass there. These guys work really fast. In a matter of 5 minutes I saw him make two of these.

While we were eating lunch, we heard the Eisa dancers beating their drums outside. I rushed out there because they are so neat and I love to hear them get all riled up with their performances. I had never seen this size drum before...it was awesome!!

So it was inevitable that I finally had to make my way to the Habu junction. They had a "show" where they obviously brought out a habu for everyone to see and then he assumed we needed to see it's teeth and venom...

I did not need to see that and that picture was 10x optical zoom by the way. No surprise I was in the farthest row back. These habu do serve some good by being an addition to making sake. There was a distillery there where they concoct this traditional alcoholic drink. This is their fate...

The kids were freaking me out when they volunteered to go up on stage and cradle the Burmese Python. What brave souls. I tell ya, I was so far back that if it had started squeezing I might have had to meet up with teacher with one less kid. LOL! Serously, is this really necessary??

I had a good time overall with the kids and on the trip. It was nice to hang with the bigger kids for a change. Of course they think they're bigger than they really are, but good kids.

I have to end the post with a recent pic of baby Camille. She looks so gorgeous with her pinky bow. Kisses to Camille...