On day three of our Okinawa trip our luck pretty much ran out. We knew prior to going to Okinawa that it would be during rainy season. Even though we were a little hopeful, it still didn’t come as a surprise to us when it rained the entire day during our last full day in Okinawa.

Originally we planned to do this two-hour walking tour around Shuri Castle, but we scrapped the idea early on. Instead of heading straight to Shuri Castle that morning, we took a detour and went to Shikina-en. The gardens were originally built in 1799 for the rulers of Ryukyu Kingdom and were used to host an envoy from China the following year. However, the gardens were completely destroy during the Battle of Okinawa during WWII. It apparently took twenty years to complete the restoration work on the gardens.

After Carmen and I got off the Yui Rail station at Shuri Station, we debated whether or not we would walk to the gardens. Luckily (or unluckily) for us, we decided to take a cab instead because it started raining. We soon realized that the gardens would be way too far to travel to on foot. The cab saved us a good 40 minutes of walking.

Once we got to the gardens we presented our Yui Rail day passes and paid the discounted admission price to go in. Even though we borrowed umbrellas they had out at the entrance, the rain made all the walkways inside extremely wet. We soon realized that we weren’t the only ones on the path as there were an insane amount of slugs and salamanders out. It was a struggle trying to avoid stepping on them!

I’m sure on any other day Shikina-en would be a lovely place to visit, but when it was raining as much as it did that day, we pretty much fast tracked our visit. Carmen and I also had an unpleasant encounter with some killer mosquitoes as we were making our way through the gardens. We had to beeline for the exit after getting bitten multiple times.

After the gardens we took a taxi directly towards Shuri Castle. Again we paid a discounted admission price and made our way inside. Thankfully we were able to stay indoors this time as we toured the castle. Shuri Castle used to be the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom. As with the gardens, it suffered significant damage during the war, so most of the castle had been reconstructed.

We spent about an hour touring the castle and the grounds. I thought the whole building was very interesting because the construction didn’t resemble traditional Japanese castles at all. It’s definitely worth visiting if you are in Naha.

When we left the castle, we were lucky that the rain had finally stopped. We debated whether or not we would splurge again on a cab to take us to lunch, but since we couldn’t use the rain as an excuse, we decided we would walk towards the restaurant. I still hadn’t tried Okinawa soba yet, so that was my main goal while researching restaurants for lunch.

I decided to go to Ryukyu Korai Suba Udonyama when my friend Hiroko-san recommended it. It’s a very traditional soba restaurant with 150 years history and even has an outdoor terrace. What I didn’t realize when Google Maps told me it would take 40 minutes to walk there was that it would be a mostly uphill walk. Lol. At least with the amount of exercise we did we managed to build up quite an appetite when we arrived.

The restaurant itself wasn’t very big but it was extremely cozy. Carmen and I were the only foreigners inside. We noticed a few taxis lined up outside and I guess that’s how most people make their way to the restaurant. While we were trying to decide what to order, one of the ladies working there recommended that we each order a bowl of noodles and a small side dish. However, Carmen and I were more interested in the full set menu with noodles, a side dish, a bowl of jushi and zenzai for dessert. I think the lady was a little skeptical that we could each finish the set lunch but we definitely proved her wrong when we devoured it. That’s what climbing up a hill can do to you haha.

After lunch we made the walk back to the station just before it started raining again. We decided to go back to the hotel briefly to drop off our stuff, then spent the rest of the afternoon going shopping inside Main Place, which is by Omoromachi Station. By the time dinner rolled around, the rain went from a drizzle to an outright downpour, so we had to hurry to get to Makishi Market.

We had already scoped out Makishi the first night we arrived so we sort of had an idea of what seafood we wanted to eat. How to order food was another thing. Basically you pick a stall on the first floor and you tell them what you want. After listening to all the prices, Carmen and I decided on a fish, some shell/conch thing and two large shrimps. The stall owners will ask you how you want it cooked. For the fish we decided to have it three ways: part sashimi, part steamed and the head and fins were used in miso soup. The conch was also half raw and half cooked with butter.

Once we paid for the actual seafood, the owner took us upstairs to the second floor where the restaurants would prepare the meal for us. Basically each person has to pay a cooking fee to the restaurant depending on how many ways the food is prepared. Ours was 600 yen each. Combined with an order of goya champura and a bottle of Orion beer, I think we each paid around 4,500 yen for our seafood dinner. I absolutely loved the fish, both raw and steamed. I guess it was worth splurging on our last dinner. =)

One of the things we found out about Makishi is that it closes super early at 9pm. Last order is at 8pm. For a dai pai dong type of place it’s really early. We were one of the last groups eating and the staff kept taking away all our condiments and our tissue box cause they were so keen on cleaning up and finishing their work for the day. I understand if we were done using them, but our soy sauce would just go missing from our table while we were still eating our sashimi. And this was only at like 8:15pm. Lol.

After dinner we did some obligatory souvenir shopping along International Street. I bought a few things at Donki then treated myself to a mini cheesecake from Pablo. Their Okinawa limited flavour is purple yam. It was so good that I regretted not buying their beniimo cheese millefeuille. Unfortunately I also had zero luggage space in my carry-on so I had no choice but to make do with my Pablo mini.