Waterfalls and Hamburgers

I'm back after my couple day blogging hiatus. It was nice to spend some time with Jake and do wifey things again. Sometimes I have a hard time adjusting to him coming back, especially because it usually looks like the Marine Corps threw up in our house whenever he is home. Not complaining though, it is good to have him back!

Jake had been sick all week and so all he wanted to do on Saturday was rest. Sunday he was feeling a lot better and we were itching to get out and explore. I had been so busy I hadn't been doing much exploring and Jake hasn't been around to explore. It is easy to forget to appreciate this place we live if you are just going to work and back every day. As soon as we hopped in the car and started driving up North, I began to remember how wonderful this place is and reminded myself I need to appreciate it more. We have a tendency to just drive and find random places. We planned on going straight to a waterfall,  but got distracted by beautiful beaches, got lost on top of a mountain, and then finally found the waterfall.

There are quite a few waterfalls on the island, but we decided to start with the one that didn't require much hiking. You have to do some extreme hiking to get to some of the other ones, so we decided to do those another day. This waterfall was right off of the road and didn't take much climbing to get up to. The small swimming hole was kind of gross looking and there were a significant amount of spiders, so we decided to pass on the swimming. It was rumored that the swimming hole had doctor fish, the fish that come and eat the dead skin off of your feet. I stuck my feet in for a bit, but no doctor fish. 

After the waterfall, we decided that while we were up north we should try the burger place that everyone raves about. Some places here get a lot of hype from Americans and end up being somewhat disappointing. This place lived up to every single expectation. The place was like a lot of cafes here, random stuff all over the walls, an interesting assortment of old furniture, and oozing charm. The burgers were fabulous! They put some sort of awesome sauce and load it up with all sorts of goodies deepening on what you order. Life changing burger I tell ya!

Love this "humburger" sign!

On our way home we decided to take the scenic drive along the Eastern coast of the island back down to our little city. We got lost down tiny dirt roads and found some great views. We also discovered something very interesting. The Okinawans bury their families together in large tombs randomly dispersed all over the island. They vary in size and extravagantness and some are very old. They were also hiding places on the island during World War II. We even have a few tombs back behind our house which creeped me out at first, but now it seems fairly normal. What we discovered this weekend is that the families go to the tombs and have parties. There were tables, coolers and tons of food set up around the tombs and the families were mingling, eating, and having a good time. It was very odd to me, but it is so interesting to learn about different customs. 

Every day living in another country is an adventure. I learn something new every single day. We have a few adventures lined up for the coming weekends and I cannot wait!