Cultural Crafts Tour - Mommy Time! Ahhh...

Today I went on the MCCS Tours Plus Cultural Crafts Tour. Since Lonnie is deployed I have a card from the MCCS (Marine Corps Community Services) that gives me discounts on a lot of things. One discount is 20% off of tours. I sign up at the office and the day of the tour meet the bus and go from there. Today is going to turn into several posts. The first place we went was to a bingata factory. Honestly, it's way too much to go into so I highly recommend the link I've highlighted. I made my own bingata today. It takes several days to process so I won't be able to post pictures of that until later next week. It was soooo much fun!

After that, we had time to squeeze in the awamori factory. It wasn't on the scheduled tour but, it was right next door. It had been a part of the tour and they took it out. While we were there they let us put on kimono and wear the light fixture I've been wanting for the dining room on my head. Hahaha!

It was free! After we got back on the bus I found out there are places that charge up to Y3,000 or $30.00 to do the same picture.

Next on the itinerary was a stop at the mall. Oh...my...gosh! A MALL! I haven't been in a mall in almost a YEAR! And there were stores I recognized! There was Croc, Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Swatch, Armani and a bunch of other ones. That was the lunch stop. Then we hit the Ryukyu Glass Factory. I LOVE that place and let me tell you why. They Y300 or $3.00 for 5 ping pong balls. I figured I would go for broke and get 10. The object is to toss the ball into the area where the glasses are and IF your ball lands in a glass then you get to keep it. Well...not only did I have 2 balls land in glasses I had a ball land in the MAC DADDY GRAND SLAM NUMERO UNO PRIZE!! This is what I won...

It's 20 inches tall. So, I came home with a haul of glass worth more than $52.00 and I got it for $6.00. Every time I won a glass they rang a bell. I almost passed out when I won the big one. That's not an easy thing to do! I wish it would've been a blue one. I REALLY hate orange! Sorry Christina. :)

You're right. It's really not my thing. Just a few minutes ago I was looking to see if Larry Hagman was sitting on my couch waiting for Barbara Eden to pop out. Hahahaha!!

Now, we're on our way to the lacquerware factory. This stuff is made out of WOOD! It's from a LACQUER TREE! Who knew?! I'll have to break that down in a later blog too.

The best part about this tour? It was my alone time. Today was about the most fun I've had on Okinawa since we've been here. It was GREAT! I almost felt like I spent a day at the spa, speaking of which...later on in August there is a tour to an Asian spa. Hmm...