Castle ruins and my favourite izakaya in Okinawa 沖繩城堡和我最喜愛的居酒屋

Last time I mentioned two other castles in Okinawa, the Shurijo Castle near Naha, and the Nakijin Castle remains near the Churaumi Aquarium. Let’s go there today!
上次提到沖繩有另外兩座城堡,那霸市的首里城和水族館附近的今歸仁城。今天就去逛逛吧！

Shurijo Castle is the most famous and intact castle in Okinawa, its also very close to the centre and is accessible by public transport so attracts a lot of visitors.
首里城應該是沖繩最有名和保存得最好的城堡。它離那霸市中心不遠，坐單軌電車然後走大概十分鐘就到，所以吸引不少遊客。

On my trip there, there was some sort of celebration going on, and since I’m the type of traveller who doesn’t do any research beforehand (nor afterwards in this case), I had no idea what was happening. Anyway, there were a group of people there, some had drums and others were balancing a massive pole using their belt as a support. I could tell it wasn’t easy, so hats off to the guys for a fantastic performance.
我去當天剛有慶典表演。我是事前不做功課的遊客(之後也無翻查)，所以實際上不知道當天是甚麼慶典活動。大部份是壯男，有幾位在旁打鼓。中間一位用腰帶借力舉着一根大柱，其他人用繩子協助他。這項表演看上去絕不容易，要很好的平衡力才能成功。 他們的表演真的很棒!

After the celebration, I wandered around the castle for a while, Being in the center there wasn’t much view so to speak, so I left quite soon.
活動完畢，我在周圍逛逛。城堡在市內沒甚麼風景可看，很快就離開。

Nakijin Castle remains on the other hand was located up on the hills, and has a magnificent view. It was built around the 13th century and is a World Heritage site.
另一邊廂今歸仁城卻不一樣。這座位於山坡上，於十三世紀建造又是世界文化遺產的遺跡，可以一覽無遺的看到四周景色。

There are no buildings left on the site now as they’ve all been destroyed by the wars over the years. Those markers on the ground represents where dwellings would have been back in the days.
經過多年戰爭，遺址所有建築物都已被破壞，從插在草地上的木條可以看到以前房子的位置。

What remains of the castle is just a 1.5m km wall that runs around the site. From this direction, you can see the East China Sea. If you keep going straight ahead for another 800 km, you will eventually get to Shanghai. To get to Tokyo from Okinawa you have to travel 1500km!
現在剩下來只有一道 1.5公里長的圍牆。從這邊看是南中國海。一直往前走800公里就可以到上海。但從沖繩去東京卻要走 1500公里噢！

Apparently, if you come at the right time of the year, you get a great cherry blossom viewing, though of course I had no such luck. All I saw was what’s left of this stunning fortress, so I’m not complaining.
聽說在櫻花盛開季節時到今歸仁城，絕對是全年最佳的時候。 可惜我沒有這麼幸運，只能看到遺址剩下宏偉的景觀，所以我也覺得很滿意。

I’m going to leave you with my absolute most favourite restaurant in Okinawa. I have written about this in the past, but I think it deserves another mention because its so good.
最後我想介紹我在沖繩最喜愛的居酒屋。 其實我已講過，但我覺得這家居酒屋實在太棒，ㄧ定要再介紹。

This restaurant is an izakaya (an informal Japanese pub) called 大衆御苑足立屋 and is nestled down a little alley way at Nago. Here it is on the right hand side.
這家居酒屋名叫大衆御苑足立屋，在名護市一條小巷子裏面。

There is no English of even Chinese menu here, and everything is written on the board. Since Japanese use Kanji (Chinese characters) in their language I could guess some of the dishes but had no idea what some of the ingredients were or how it was cooked. For example, the first item on the menu below says ‘since the beginning of the business’ so if something has been on the menu since day 1, I figure its got to be good.
居酒屋沒有中英文餐牌，所有菜式都是寫在牆壁上。 我從一些漢字中，約略猜到一些菜式，但實際怎樣煮用什麼材料就完全沒有頭緒。 例如餐牌上第一項寫上”創業以來”， 意思應該是從開店那一天已有這道菜式吧。不用多想馬上點。

And here it is. It turns out its braised pork knuckle, looks simple but that’s the beauty of it. A simple dish that stands the test of time.
上菜時原來是一碗燴豬手。看上很簡單的菜色卻很美味。 可以經歷這麼多年，不愧為創業以來的菜式。

So all night long, I just looked left, right and center picking out random things from the menu.
結果，整個晚上我就望著三面牆壁亂猜，隨意點了不同的菜式。

My verdict? Nothing disappointed me at all. My evening was full of little surprises that’s why its my most favourite restaurant.
我的結論?整晚沒有一道菜讓我失望。喜歡這居酒屋就是因為這種喜出望外，有意外收穫的過程。