21st Century Park

Growing up on the East Coast, I should be wearing snow boots and mittens by now. But so far here in Okinawa, I only need a light jacket in the evening, and even that isn't always necessary. From what I understand, this is not yet the coldest part of the year, though I expect it won't be much colder than this.

A few days ago, Nathan had the afternoon off, and we decided to explore the northern part of the island. Most of the major sites and shopping areas are south of us, so the north is unexplored territory. We looked at a few attractions online, then decided to simple head to Nago, a major northern city, to see what we might find.

We have made a habit of reading together, especially while in the car. I read as he drove, ending up a little south of the aquarium at a place called 21st century park. Here we saw older men playing croquet, couples picnicking, and counting cats lounging. The park had lots of open grassy areas, and a concrete boardwalk along the beach front. In the water, a large group of young adults were yelling and laughing as bunches of them took turns riding a big floating raft towed by a jet ski. In another area, another group waded and swam. Away from the water, a group of young children played in the grass outside what I believe was a daycare. We walked along the boardwalk and the paths around the open areas, watching the people and smiling at the antics of the cats. It was a pleasant day, and a simple walk was all that was needed to enjoy it.

We left the park to drive further into Nago, but stopped shortly after at a digital camera shop and browsed their selection of lenses. When we got back into the car, it would not start. After some diagnostics, we determined there was problem with the ignition accepting the key, even though the key would open the doors. This wasn't terribly surprising as the key was worn from the previous owner and had given us a little trouble before. With the other key nearly an hour away in our apartment, we had to start making phone calls. By the time things were sorted out, a tow truck from our insurance was on its way. Thankfully I had packed snacks, and we had the Kindle, so the wait for the tow truck wasn't too bad.

After a lot of finagling (we had locked the wheel when trying to get the key to work), the driver got the car onto the tow truck, and we drove back to our apartment. We had decided to have him take us home so we could try the spare key before taking the car to a shop, and happily the spare worked fine, confirming our diagnosis that the old key was simply too worn. It was a bit of a stressful situation because neither Nathan nor I had ever really had car trouble before, so we didn't immediately know what steps to take. Also because it isn't exactly possible to live off base without a car, unless you want to pay for a taxi to take you to work every day. But it all worked out well, and it ended up being a good learning experience for us, though not quite the adventure we had set out to have that day.