One Last Outing

Today is going to be a day of packing, obsessively checking OCD-fueled lists, and trying not to think about the fact that my time on Okinawa is really over. Tomorrow, I fly out. Yesterday, though, I squeezed in one last outing with my friend Elisa, this time to the Yomitan Pottery Village, a small village of local artisans who make pottery (duh), glass, etc.

This will be a very photo-heavy blog post, but hey, it's my last Okinawa post, so...indulge me.

The glass shops at the start of the village. The building on the left with the orange crates is where they were blowing the glass, but I couldn't get a decent pic of the inside of the shop. The building on the right and the second from left are where they sell the glass, and the second from right is, I believe, the owner's house.
Shi Shi dog outside the glass shops:
The outside of one of the shops:
And if you're twelve like me, you totally see it:
Elisa sees it...
I have no doubt this place had a "you break it, you buy it" policy. I'm surprised Elisa let me go in:
Pretty vase:
Another glass and pottery shop:
Okinawan pottery:
Pottery shop with the obligatory Coke machine:
I saw this and immediately thought, "Franken-shishis?"
Huge sake flask with a dragon sculpted onto it:
So cool...
WANT:
Ark of the Covenant? Is that you???
OMG AWESOME WANT:
Okay, maybe I don't want them THAT bad...
(That translates to about USD$750-775)

Unfinished bowls:
For the record, but this point, my long-dormant itch to sculpt was coming back with a vengeance. Methinks I'll be digging my sculpting tools out of storage and buying some clay when I get home.

Random chickens are random:
Insert cock joke here.

The village kiln:
They be cookin' it old school, yo:
I just thought the kiln was pretty cool. Sue me.
The ass end of the kiln, photographed because it looks like a Samurai helmet to me:
Mining for clay:
Bananas!!
Some strange hangy-downy plant I've never seen before:
A lotus in a pot outside one of the shops:
Another lotus:
For all my Magic nerd friends, I'm afraid there wasn't a black lotus in sight.

And I thought my old MR2 was impractical:
"Sup."
Gratuitous cicada pic...
I've been here for three years and only occasionally seen the odd gecko. Now I'm suddenly seeing these everywhere:
Figures they'd wait til I'm leaving to come out. Bastards.

Happy dog is happy:
"Two girls/One cup" reaction:
More shi shi dogs:
Please tell me I'm not the only one who notices:
And there you have it...my last Okinawa outing. Tomorrow, I go from the Land of the Rising Sun to the Land of the Falling Rain, so expect at least one semi-coherent, incredibly jetlagged post in the next few days.

Goodbye, Okinawa!