Pancakes and a Castle

Sunday dawned hot and rainy. We made our way to church at the regular time, 8 am. Once we finished our 45 minutes service, I think the priest had somewhere to get to, we decided to go out to breakfast. Which brought us to a quandary. Okinawa does not have a denny's or an ihop. When breakfast is desired it's usually found at a buffet at one of the officer clubs. However with the help of my favorite website in the world, okinawahai.com we found a pancake house. Now when someone in the states thinks pancake house, they think of a restaurant with lots of tables and servers. When Okinawa says pancake house they mean just that, someone's house where they turned the front room and kitchen into a restaurant. Jackapoos pancake house was delicious. It was located in the middle of a neighborhood, inside the front room of someone's house, the bathroom I imagine is probably the one they brush their teeth in at night.  The pancakes were delicious, I had spam and eggs with mine and Greg had his with sausage and eggs. He said the sausage reminded him of the farmers sausage we had once upon a time at Niagara Falls. Gabriella had the kids pancakes which were topped with m&m's. While we were there we saw a book on the counter called Takaka and the Great Typhoon. Greg had heard it was written by a local American, when we paid for our meal we bought a copy of the book. We were then informed that the author was sitting not 10 feet from us with her husband and son. She graciously signed Gabriella's copy with a beautiful personal message. Of course we didn't bring the camera into the restaurant so we have no photographic proof of the encounter or the delicious pancakes. But I assure you we will return to Jakapoos soon, to try to work our way through all the different types of pancakes. Personally I'm looking forward to the meatball pancakes. 

Since we were in Yomitan we decided to stop in and see their castle. Zakimi Castle is located at the top of a big hill, like every other castle we've gone to.  It has amazing arch ways which are unique to this particular castle. We climbed to the top of the walls and got a wonderful view of the surrounding areas. Located next to the parking lot was the Yomitan Folklore and Art Museum.  We went in, paid a nominal fee and were treated to a brief but informative look into Okinawa's history. We were able to see pottery which had been unearthed in Yomitan, view farming equipment, tombs, fishing boats, and an Okinawa house. The art museum was full of Ryukyu glass and pottery. They even had a section about Okinawa during the war. We were able to see cans of rations and old uniforms of both the Japanese fighting forces as well as the Americans. The museum was fairly small, but they had a guide in english that allowed us to know what we were looking at and a small explanation of how things were used.  

As we headed home after a brief stop the heavens opened up and it began to pour. We managed a day full of fun before the rain started. Note: The picture of me and Greg  was taken by Gabriella.