What's Up Al ? 遊記隨筆 生活點滴

We had a great time shopping in Okinawa, not that we bought too many items but we were so impressed with the abundance of produce from un-ending aisles of sake, stacks of pot noodles, tins and tins of home made jam, endless choices of baseball gloves to the overflow of delicious lunch boxes (便當). Of course, there were the ubiquitous vending machines at every street corner, selling everything from bottled drinks, ice-cream, cigarettes to chocolate bars and snacks. Even more impressive were the fish markets where we found such a large amount of exotic fishes and seafood of different shapes and colors, which we had rarely seen. More famously was the shopping street of Kokusai (國際通) which used to be called The Miracle Mile because of its rapid recovery from WWII; the famous thoroughfare consisted of souvenir shops, ice cream parlors, international restaurants, boutiques and shops selling all manners of local produce. We came across an outdoor screen playing an interactive Ultraman (超人) movie and we became bystanders when the giant hero destroyed the monster in plastic suit (see photo below) ! We also visited the all-weather covered markets of 平和通、牧志市場 which comprised of mainly of local shops and eateries and where most of the local dudes hanged out. Lastly we had to pay a great tribute to our favorite market of 榮町市場 near Asato Monorail Station (安里), which we frequented everyday to buy our tasty lunches and dinners !