Coco Neel

First, we live in a beautiful place in Okinawa. It’s called “やんばる” (Yanbaru), which is the north area of Okinawa. In particular, we’d like to introduce a nice restaurant to you. This restaurant is Coco Neel. At the restaurant, you can eat popular western and Italian food.

Menu

At lunch, you can choose two types of set menus. For one lunch menu you can choose one side dish, and the set has rice, salad and Tonjiru. Tonjiru is like miso soup. It is 1000yen. For the other one, you can choose two side dishes and the set has rice, salad and Tonjiru. It has pork and some vegetables. It is 1200yen. You can choose one or two side dishes from 17 different side dishes. For example, hamburger steak, beef curry, omurice and many kinds of side dishes. We ate some dishes and we understood the reasons why this resaurant is popular.

When we ate there, we noticed a few things First, we noticed that the place is very reasonable for us. We ordinarily think that over 1000yen is very expensive, but almost all the dishes in the restaurant come with a lot of food, so we didn't think it. Secondly, the taste is delicious. Especially, if you were starving when you went to this restaurant, you will like it even more than if you were not starving. If you eat the dishes, you will be satisfied.

Information

Lunch time has very heavy traffic. (15:00-16:00)

Coco Neel has a variety of customers: ex) locals, tourists, foreigners, young people, and families.

We recommend all of Coco Neel's menu: all the food. So, the people who run Coco Neel have confidence in their menu.

You can see the beautiful sea from the restaurant. We recommend that you go to the restaurant on a sunny day.

Location

We will introduce how to get to Coco Neel from Naha airport. You can drive on Route 58 to Nago from Naha, about 2 hours.

• While driving on Route 58, you can see Super Hotel and turn left at the signboard near Super Hotel. Then, you are driving on Route 84.
• After that, drive until the Nakayama intersection. When you can see it, you have to turn right at the Nakayama intersection.
• Go straight toward the Nakijinn Village Office and then turn right at the corner before the park. Then, drive on Route 72. 
• Drive on  Route 72 about 10 minutes.
• You can find signboard of Coco Neel, so follow that board.

Address: 408-9unten Nakijin village Kunigami gun Okinawa (沖縄県国頭郡今帰仁村運天408-9）

Tel: 0980-56-5526

“やんばる” (Yanbaru) has many beautiful and nice places in addition to this restaurant.

We recommend for you to come to “やんばる” (Yanbaru) and enjoy it!

Mangrove Park in Higashi

People in Okinawa often go to the Mangrove park in Higashi village on school trips and so on. It is difficult to go there. That park is far away from our university. It takes 20 minutes or more.

The first time, we drove route 58 and then, there was nothing around the road. Along the way, we drove down a very narrow alley. That road was surrounded by a lot of forest. Finally, we arrived at that park. 

This park is an obscure sightseeing spot and one of the national all parks in Okinawa. You can ride a canoe with a coach. The mangrove root is very different compared to other plants. The mangrove live in brackish water place that mixes fresh water and sea water.

The mangrove grows in the tropics and subtropics. There are 2000 remaining mangrove forest areas of the world, spanning 118 countries and territories. (53.190 square miles or 137.760 sq km).

There are many different creatures. For example, birds, insects, shells, crabs, shrimp and fish. We saw unusual creatures there. We were surprised about a crab. It was smaller than a hand. It was only male. They pursue females with their big arms.

A statue of the crab.

The Mangrove plants.

There isn’t any building, but a small local store is near the national park. Many elders were gathering in a lodge in the park. They looked happy.

The mangrove is a unique plant that helps clean sea water. So it gets more attention from all over the world. But, the mangrove forests are decreasing because they are cut down to use as material for charcoal and farm animals. So, most mangroves are planted by people. For example, Manko Park in Naha City. The Mangrove functions as a brake water. Because Japan has a high possibility of Tsunamis caused by earthquakes, we thought that we should make the most of the mangrove.

Access

From Nago, go north on Route 58. Turn right at Route 14. Go straight on Route 14, till you meet Route 331. There are the park on your left.

Address: 188 Gesash, Higashi village, Okinawa

Orion Happy Park

Entrance

Do you know Orion Beer? It is a popular beer company among Okinawans. It is a local beer company. Orion Happy Park is their factory. Today, we will introduce about the factory.

Beer brewing machine

Did you understand the way to take a tour of Orion beer? First of all, you should check in at the counter. Maybe you need to wait a few minutes. The tour runs every 10 minutes. You feel various things as soon as you go into the factory.

The beer tank

This factory is divided into some sections. In the sake brewing section, you can touch malts. It is hard. The room is filled with a smell like grass. The next room's temperature is 38℃, so you feel so hot!! And you can see into the sake brewing machine. You can also smell malt. Then, you go to the second floor using an escalator. On the second floor, you can see two huge fermentation tanks. They are very big.

The tank for brewing

Finally, you move to a small room. You watch a video about Orion beer there for a minute, and you also can see interesting objects. But we will not tell you. See for yourself!! Afterwards, you can try to drink Orion beer, but only if you are over 20 years old. Other people drink juice instead of that, please. Be careful not to drive drunk!

Cans for each beer they have released

Orion Beer's History

Orion Beer sells more beer than anyone else in Okinawa. This company has only one factory, and it is in Nago City in Okinawa. Orion beer was created in 1975. "Orion Beer" was named by using a contest in the newspaper. The reason why this name was selected is "Orion is a south star, so it matches the image of Okinawa," "a star represents dreams and adoration" and "three stars are a symbol of GHQ." We think this name has good taste. And now, as its name suggests, Orion Beer gives people a dreamy time like a star.

Ingredients of Beer (each company)

Orion Beer's glucide and purine bodies are comparatively lower than other beers. Also, it is easy to drink. But, if you drink it too much, you will get lifestyle related diseases and gout.

・glucide…糖質　・purine bodies…プリン体　・gout…痛風

	Alcohol percentage	Glucide	Purine bodies
Orion	5%	3.0g	8.7mg
Kirin	5%	2.7g	0mg
Suntory	5.5%	3.8g	9.5mg
Sapporo (Yebisu)	5%	3.0g	11mg
Asahi	5%	3.0g	5~6mg

Access

From the Kyoda interchange go north on Route 58 and turn right at the 4^th traffic signal, which is in Agarie town. Drive about one km. The entrance is across the street from the car park. The factory is near the Nago post office and Agarie elementary school. The address is 〒905-0021 2-2-1 Agarie, Nago City, Okinawa. The phone number is 0980-54-4103.

Map

Pocket Marny

We will introduce our favorite place to eat to you. The restaurant’s name is “Pocket Marny.” This shop is located in Umusa, Nago, Okinawa. And this shop is near the Nago bus terminal. This is a map of Pocket Marny.
   

A map for Pocket Marny

The shop's signboard.

It is a curry and rice shop and has many kinds of delicious curry and rice. If you eat curry from 3:00p.m. to 6:00p.m, you can eat curry at a 100 yen discount.

The restaurant is a little small, but it has a calm mood and a homey atmosphere. They have a lot of comics. So you can read them and stay for a long time. If you have enough time to take your time, we recommend you to go there.

Next, we will tell our impressions of the curry we ate.

Dry curry

I ate a dry curry. This is a dish of rice fried with meat, vegetables and curry powder. Usually, if we eat Pocket Marny’s curry, we can choose its hotness. But this curry is not available to choose hotness. However, it was very delicious.

Curry with a hamburger

I ate curry with a hamburger and I chose the normal level of hotness. The hamburger was very delicious. When I cut it, it had a lot of meat juice. However, I thought it was not hot. But, other people said it was a little hot. So, next time, I will challenge myself to a hotter level.

Cheese curry

I tried cheese curry and rice. It has lots of cheese on it. When I mixed it, the cheese was melting and gooey. I thought it was a little hot, but it was really yummy and I liked it. And it comes with salad.

Pork curry

I ate pork curry and rice. My order was mild. It was 300yen. I don’t like hot food. So I thought if I order mild, I can eat it without drinking much water. But I felt that mild is also hot. I drank 3 cups of water. I wish this restaurant served more mild curry.



Here is the curry menu.

We recommend that you eat Indian curry. It separates the curry from the rice. The curry is in a gravy boat. It tastes so good, so many people like it.

Address ▷〒905-0006

                 沖縄県名護市宇茂佐９１３−７ S・Eハウスマンション 1F

                 Okinawa, Nago, Umusa 913-7, 1F

Phone number ▷ 0980-53-5030

Hours ▷ 【Monday ~ Friday】 11:00 ~ 21:00 (last order:20:30)

             【Saturday】 11:00 ~ 17:30 (last order:17:00)

Closed ▷ Sunday and every third Monday