While lessons English lessons have officially ended, I said goodbye as a friend to Hiroko and Kazumi on Monday. They treated me to a wonderful Okinawan lunch followed by a traditional drink of buku buku cha.
Lunch was at a restaurant called Ashibi Una, which translates into "playful garden" in the Okinawa dialect. It was a beautiful place complete with a combed-sand Zen garden. We were also not short on food. Our bento box sets came with a variety of things from tempura to eel, purple sweet potato to sea weed, and sashimi to savory custard. It was all delicious and I enjoyed every moment. On the way out, the parking area had the largest most beautiful lillies. Why can't the parking lots in the states be adorned with these?
After lunch, we went to a small cafe specializing in buku buku cha. Buku buku cha is a traditional whipped tea made from brown rice invented by the Ryukyu kingdom before Okinawa became part of Japan. I had never seen anything like it in my life. It felt so silly to be whipping tea, but it's always fun to play with your food and better yet, it was delicious with it's sweet peanut topping.
At the end of the day we shared a tearful goodbye, but I made sure our last words were "mata ne" meaning see you later. Whether it's in Florida or Japan I look forward to seeing my special friends again.
No comments:
Post a Comment