Hiji-Otaki Park

            Each year, about 35,000 visitors drive cars to get a glimpse of the breathtaking waterfall that is a wide curtain of water and straight down to a rock surface. And you are able to enjoy an adventurous landscape from the suspension bridge on your way. It is a little bit necessary to endure the hardship of the walking trail for about two hours round trip. If you can immerse yourself within the quiet forest and listen to the harmonies of the waterfall and birds, you will surely be healed and be energized for tomorrow.

            The Hiji-Otaki Park is located about 30km North from Meio University. To drive through Hiji-Otaki Park is to wander into a tropical landscape on a curving road along with the shoreline and a comfortable zephyr from the East-China Sea. The spectacular fall and a stunning view from the suspension bridge are waiting for you. This park was maintained in 1995 by Kunigami Village Government together with their historical ruins where their rituals take place.

              Before you go to the waterfall, there are some points about which you have to be careful. First of all, you should wear comfortable shoes. One of our member's shoe bottoms peeled off his shoe. Without shoe bottoms, it is hard to walk the path. You had better check your shoes before going to the waterfall. Second, you should prepare a towel and water. While walking the path, you sweat very much. You had better bring some towels and a 1 liter bottle of water at least.

              After paid admission; 500 yen, there are some sticks which you can use if you need. It helps you go to the goal. Through the camp area, you can chose a path. I think you had better go to the new one because it doesn’t have a steep slope. You can walk without getting so tired. On the right, you can see a clear river. It is cool, so you may want to swim. Walking along the way, there is a lot of nature. You can refresh yourself. After going over the bridge, there are some steep stairs. You have to go up and down again and again. It is hard for the person who has a lack of exercise. After about 40 minutes, you can go to the waterfall.

              Beyond the halfway point, we arrived at the suspension bridge. How about having a break there? There are two reasons. Firstly, I want you to see the Hiji River flowing through the Yanbaru forest from the suspension bridge. It is magnificent scenery which cannot be seen usually. So, you will be able to know that it is important to protect the beauty of nature. Secondly, I think there is a comfortable place. There is usually a cool breeze here and one can hear only the sound of wind and birds and the river. So, you could feel refreshed easily. By the way, the suspension bridge is swaying by the wind. Please be careful because the height is about 17M.

              Arriving at the waterfall, we were overwhelmed by it. Then I think it will be one of the most beautiful places among other waterfalls in Okinawa. This is because the Hiji-Otaki waterfall is the largest waterfall with a drop of about 26m on the main island of Okinawa. Furthermore, we were not tired after walking up to it. Because this waterfall was so beautiful that we couldn’t take our eyes off it. This will be the opportunity to reconsider yourself who spends time without any inconvenient things.

              We were sitting on the bench and having lunch in the Halfway Point. The wind felt nice. We bought lunch boxes on the way to Hiji-Otaki. We bought them in the “Co-op” which is a supermarket, but you can buy anywhere in Nago city. When you buy a lunchbox, you might just make sure whether chopsticks come with it. Actually, our lunch boxes didn't have them. We saw various plants and creatures. We could see a snake, and a Noguchigera which is a nationally protected species of bird. Some people who brought a big camera came to take the Noguchigera's picture. There are Yanbaru kuina (Gallirallus Okinawaw) and Ishikawa's frog, which are nationally protected species, but we couldn't see them.

              We stopped by a cafe after going down the mountain. The cafe is in front of the entrance of the campground. We ordered “Zenzai”. “Zenzai” is an Okinawan sweet food. It is shaved ice topped with “Azuki” which is made of red beans and “Shiratama” which is made of flour. Since we were exhausted from hiking, we can feel more taste than usual. “Zenzai” is 380yen. And also there are also a Curry, cake and so on.

During your daily life, you may be tired sometimes. Then we need time to rest. If you need it, how about going to Hiji-Ootaki? You can have the opportunity to reconsider yourself without any inconvenient things. Let's get the energy for the future in great nature.

How to get the Hiji-Otaki Park from Nago City.

There is only one route.

1.  Take Route 58 North through the Okuma intersection, just before FamilyMart Okuma.

2. Find the direction board for Hiji-Otaki Park above the road.

3. Make a Right and head East.

4. Follow the direction boards above the road.

HP:http://www.yuiyui-k.jp/index.php?section=4

Address:781-1 Hiji, Kunigami-village, Okinawa, Japan

TEL: 0980-41 3636.

Miyazato Soba

Do you know “Okinawa soba”? Already, have you eaten real Okinawan traditional food?  We recommend for you “Miyazato soba.” （宮里そば）

Miyazato soba has a long history, so it is very famous in Okinawa. You can eat very delicious Okinawa soba and toast.

There are too many foreign and Japanese tourists, so at lunch time it is crowded every day.

If you don’t have much money, don’t worry about it!!! All dishes are very cheap and delicious!!! You’ll be able to feel the tastes of Okinawan traditional Soba. And you can always see tropical Okinawan grandmothers and feel Okinawan traditional style ( = slow life or an unfettered atmosphere) Please look forward to that absolutely. You’ll like it.

Menu

• Soki soba　(ソーキそば)・・・600yen (Spareribs of pork)
• Sanmainiku soba　(三枚肉そば)・・・600yen (Boned ribs of pork)
• Konbu soba　(こんぶそば) ・・・400yen (Sea cabbage)
• Small soba　(そば小) ・・・400yen
• Rice curry　(カレーライス)・・・400yen
• Spaghetti（スパゲティ）・・・500yen
• Toast　(トースト)・・・100yen

How to Order

You have to buy a ticket to order something

So please use the vending machine to order the foods

How to use it??

1. Choose what you want to eat
2. Put in money
3. Push the button
4. Take a ticket
5. Please give it to the staff

Location

1. Start from Meio University, go straight and turn left at Lawson (convenience store)　
2. Go downhill in the direction of route 58
3. Go straight along the road and turn right on route 58　
4. Go straight and turn left at the 4th stoplight　
5. Go straight and Miyazato soba is near 21st Century Forest Park.

It takes about 10 minutes to get there by car. You can see Miyazato soba has a big parking and Okinawan traditional tile roof.

You can use 3 options!

1. Take a bus from Meio University to the entrance to Nago city hall.
2. Take a taxi from anywhere
3. By car from anywhere

  

Additional Info

• Address: 1-27-1 Miyazato, Nago city, Okinawa
• Tel: 0980-54-7444
• Business hour : 10am～sold out

The Green Room Cafe

Why don't you get your appetite filled and become relaxed? 
Let's have a break at the cafe upon a hill!

The Green Room Cafe is in Nakijin village. It takes about 30 minutes from Meio University by car and 11 minutes from Churaumi Aquarium by car. You can go there after you enjoy seeing the World Heritage Nakijin Castle, only 25 minutes to the Café! (By car). This time, we will explain the directions from the Churaumi Aquarium. Take Route 505 for Nakijin-son (village), and then where you pass through the Nakijin Castle, make a right turn at the Nakijin Hope Hills Sign. Then you will be in the summit. When you turn left where you can see the Green Room Café sign, finally you will find the place you want! But since it's a pretty complicated road, we recommend you to use the GPS such as Google Maps. The awesome point is that it's located at the top of a hill! It is surrounded by a bunch of trees; you might feel a little nervous like you're lost in the forest. But you are not! You will see the black house shaped restaurant soon.

The Green Room Café is a specialty restaurant of curries and duchbaby pancakes. They also serve a buffet of some kinds of curries for 840 yen (tax included). At the time we went, there were sweet pork curry, green curry & spicy red curry. 2 of us cannot stand anything spicy, but we could have the sweet pork curry instead of the spicy ones. This means this place is good not only for curry lovers, but also for a family that has children! The curry buffet has salads and fruit punch so that we can have the sweet taste after the spicy curry.

 Duchbaby pancakes are the traditional pancakes in Germany. Their surface is crunchy and the inside is fluffy. There are some dishes using duchbaby pancakes besides dessert such as Duch TacoRice (originally made from Okinawan cuisine), Duch Grill Chicken Rice, Duch Salad and others! Of course we had a Duchbaby pancake for dessert. We ordered Banana-Choco Duch. It takes 15 minutes to be cooked but it's definitely worth it to wait. It came with a cup of really tasty maple syrup and totally tastes amazing either eating it as it is or with pouring syrup. All of their foods are awesome to have and share with your company. 

Here is the menu of the duchbaby pancakes in case if you wonder how much they are!

While you are waiting for your foods, or after you finished eating, the Green Room Café can be the best place to chill, especially on a sunny day. Inside of the Café, every arrangement is fashionably decorated and beautiful as you may want to take pictures of everything inside. But once you step out of the Café, you will see the pretty scenery and beautiful ocean of Okinawa. There is a mini-platform called “the make-your-dream-come-true platform” so that you can look through the city and your dream might come true! Bubbles are all over the place. And there is a swing, too. But we were scared to tried playing on it (maybe we are too heavy!). Anyway there are so many things to have fun besides dishes!

As a result of this café trip, we really had a great time. There are many kinds of food like curry and salad, pancake, etc. If you go there, you will take photos because there is a beautiful landscape. We took a lot of photos. Foods are reasonably priced and the landscape is splendid on a sunny day. You can see the ocean and a lot of greens. Korean artists were shooting their music video there. It means Green Room Cafe is famous overseas. 

      Who do you want to go along with? I'm sure that you will have a great time with some people who are your company. But you can definitely enjoy even if you are alone. The Green room cafe is worth visiting. We recommend visiting there on a sunny day!! Thank you.

ü　✔︎ Here are more details of the café ! Please check this out before you go to the cafe.

◎　Green Room Café

　　　Address: 2088-9 Shoshi Nakijin Kunigami Okinawa

　　　Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

　　　Lunch: [Curry Buffet] 11:30 to 2:00 p.m.
　　　Last Call: Food at 5:30 p.m.

                   　　　Dessert at 6:00 p.m.

                   　　　Drinks at 6:30 p.m.

　　　Closed on: Thursday

　　　Payment: by cash or credit card

　　　Parking lot : 〇 for 10-20 cars

　　　Phone number: 0980-56-5941

　　　Website: http://greenroom-cafe.com/en/

中華そば Motonari

中華そば Motonari

Otokomeshi (Men’s food)

Eating ramen looks tough and wild. For this reason, we recommend Motonari for men especially. But, women can enjoy ramen too! Sometimes, women want to be tough and wild. They are serving noodles. It’s so good. You can go by yourself, with your friends or family. Actually, the reputation was really good on a restaurant website.

MENU

Here are some popular MENU items

Yonabaru Chinese noodles 680(yen)

Chinese Soba (buckwhwet) 650→set 830

Chinese Soba with meat 750→set 930

Thick Chinese Soba 750→set 880
Thick Chinese Soba with meat 800→set 980

Thick immersed Chinese Soba (you can choose S,M,L size) 800

(Only summer) immersed Soba with plum soy sauce 800

Kids ramen free ＊under 6 years old

About Music played there
Various songs played randomly in the store. They usually don't play American music. Mostly, they play Japanese songs. So, I think that you feel cool when you listen to recent music. The song also matches with the restaurant's atmosphere, so everyone can have a meal casually.

Additional Info
There are two free services in this restaurant. First, you can eat boiled eggs as much as you like. There are two kinds of salt to dip the eggs in. Second, you can eat a curry risotto free after you have finished your noodles. The server makes a risotto with the soup in your bowl.

Location

It’s located in Nago.

It takes 10 minutes from OKI expressway.

Please go straight on road 58. And turn right at Minato 1 chyou-me. Turn right again at 2nd corner. Then you can see Motonari on the left hand side.

Here is the map and link below.

Adress     〒905-0015 Japan　1-12-27 Ominami, Nago, Okinawa

http://tabelog.com/okinawa/A4702/A470201/47014064/dtlmap/

Sawakan Cafe

If you want to spend a great time in the morning with a nice cup of coffee and a breakfast, we recommend you to go to Sawakan. You would be able to get them with only 1 coin (500yen).  

Location and Outside of Sawakan

Sawakan is located in, Nago. There is a nearby sea, so especially in the morning you can walk on the seaside and hear the sound of waves.

Almost all of the customers are local. So it is difficult to find it, because the outside of it is not like shop. It look like a house. Also the house is covered by ivy and some plants. That is very mysterious. Fortunately, if you could find it, you must be surprised.

Features of Sawakan 1 (Inside)

However, inside of Sawakan, there are a lot of antique chairs and desks which are made of old wood. It is different from outside. You might feel comfortable because there is the warmth of trees. You would be there long hours. Moreover, there are small aquariums. Some fish are in there, so it makes you relax. The best characteristic is that many comics are set in the rack. The comics are free to read. There is a big gap between outside and inside. This is one of the good points.

Features of Sawakan 2 (Menu and Time)

There is a morning menu and a lunch menu. You can enjoy meals two times in one day. First, the morning menu has five kinds of dishes. And there are special options so you can choose bread or rice and the style of eggs. You can eat the special morning dishes by 500 yen. It is very cheap. Moreover after the meal you can choose to drink a cup of iced/hot tea or coffee.

Morning time is 7:00-10:55.

We went  at 9:00 before our classes. It was not crowded and a few people were in there. We ordered Bacon and eggs and Wiener Eggs with bread. That was a great morning. We could concentrate at class because the perfect breakfast.

Second, the lunch menu has 22 dishes.

Especially steak is our recommendation. The price of lunch is usually 580 yen, but steak is 780 yen.

Also there is a drink menu, and especially coffee is great. You can drink not only there also your house because you can buy coffee beans there. You can enjoy a great coffee time in your house. The opening time is 7:00-19:30. Morning is finished in 11:00. If you want to have a breakfast, you have to get up early in the morning. You might start  a nice day with 1 coin (500 yen).

Comment

Sawakan has a lot of good points. That is not only for the place and meals. The workers are also very kind. So we enjoyed talking with them. Overall the experience at Sawakan was wonderful. We could find a new great place to have a breakfast and lunch.
This time we went to in a group (Jina, Saori and Haruka). But if you plan to go to there by yourself, you would not feel lonely because there are some cute fish in small aquariums and many comics so it would helpful to your meal.

Details

・Address/ 905-0021    5-7 Agarie, Nago, Okinawa

・Opening Time/ 7:00am-7:30pm

・Closed /Sunday

Todoroki Waterfall ~The Best Place to Visit in Nago~

The most beautiful place -Todoroki Waterfall-

l  INTRODUCTION

              Nago city faces the beautiful ocean and a lot of tourists come here to enjoy playing, swimming, diving, watching the ocean and eating fresh fish. However, it is famous for not only the ocean but also land and nature. The waterfall is one of the famous places in the land. In Sukuta, there is a waterfall whose name is “Todoroki Waterfall.” This waterfall streams from the sea of trees of Kushi-mountain. So, that is surrounded by forest. This place is very beautiful. Many people watched it and made many poems and ryu-ka a long time ago. We think that the scene as fantastic as what can appear in animation. Also, this place makes us cool and give us a good feeling because the spray lowers the temperature and makes negative ions. Unfortunately, a lot of tourists don’t know it but we think that is a good place. Children can enjoy exploring, adults can relax and enjoy watching the nature. “Todoroki Waterfall” is the best place and suitable for all ages to visit in Nago. Now, we want to explain more details.

l  ACCESS

"Todoroki Waterfall” is located near the Kyoda Interchange. First, you should go north on road 58. A short time later, you can find the sign of Sukuta, and the Sukuta gymnasium. Next, you should turn right at that corner and go along the river to the waterfall. Then, you arrive at “Todoroki Waterfall”. We recommend to go by car or motorbike because this place is a little far from an urban area. You can use the parking area located near the waterfall.

l  FIXTURE

A thick rope is set up on the way to the waterfall, because it is covered by moss and you have a risk to slip. This rope is robust enough to climb, so you don’t worry about slipping on a rocky place. In addition, there is a small square located in front of the waterfall. You can rest there whenever you want to. If the weather is perfect, we suggest that you take a picnic with your friends in this square. Also, vending machines are not set near the waterfall. We think that you should bring water.

l  DETAIL of WATERFALL

The scenery of the waterfall is very magical. There are two factors. First, stones and trees are weathered by nature. In other words, the scenery was generated by nature. Second, you can see scenery like in animation. Especially, we think that the scenery resembles a scene of “the garden of words.” That is a Japanese animation whose theme is a love story. If you watched this animation, you could watch a love story and splendid scenery. However, you can experience it if you go to “Todoroki Waterfall”. And you will want to go to the waterfall, won’t you?

l  CONCLUSION

“Todoroki Waterfall” is one of the greatest waterfalls in Okinawa, and it makes us so fantastic and fresh. Furthermore, this waterfall’s name is familiar for Okinawan people. The name “Todoroki” is used in awamori, which is a local alcohol in Okinawa, made by Helios Sake Brewing. There are many Japanese style bars near the waterfall, so you can see it and drink awamori. If you have an interest, please come here!