Thursday, March 08, 2007
Nakamura House & Seifa Utaki
It’s another grey day and I expect to be homebound all day but when I return from making morning phone calls Art tells me that Takaaki is stopping by. I am elated! He suggests lunch at a Mexican Restaurant near the Mihama American Village, outside of U.S.M.C. Camp Foster.
The enchilada I eat is a welcome break from the Okinawan cuisine, but it’s a far cry from great Mexican food available to us in Santa Cruz. We go to a travel agency nearby to check on Island packages to Kume Island and Ishigaki Island. There is an American Book shop next door and Art is able to buy several reference books. This shopping center is near Camp Foster and caters to Americans.
It’s a 20 minute drive to the Nakamura House, a well preserved example of a wealthy farmer’s residence and a government designated culture asset. Construction of this house began in 1720. The house is surrounded by a stone wall. A huge horizontally placed stone slab sits just inside the stone gateway. This slab is called a Hinpun, or Spirit Wall. It is believed that the Hinpun will prevent evil spirits from entering into the house. We have seen smaller spirit walls behind the gateways of some of the remaining old houses, both in town and on the islands. The present roof of the Nakamura House is traditional Okinawan red tile, but generations before it was thatched. We walk through the lush garden surrounding the house and then remove our shoes and step up onto the smooth wooden planked floors of the veranda that encircle the entire house. There are 8 rooms in the main house. With the exception of a large gathering and dining room all of the floors are covered with tatami mats. Shojo screens work as partitions between the rooms and can be slid open wide to create communal space, or closed for privacy. The kitchen area is off to one side of the house, at ground level, with a dirt floor and a hearth for cooking. There is a small loft above the kitchen where the servants most likely slept. Stone pens for the pigs are directly behind the kitchen. The Takakura, or raised store house is one of the few remaining examples of this style of food storage building. We spend an hour wandering the house and the grounds and then drink complimentary tea in the gift shop while John feeds the Koi fish in the pond outside. The Koi fish literally beach themselves in desperate attempts to get at the pellets he throws.
Although it’s after 4:00 P.M, Art and Takaaki concur that we drive south to the district of Chinen and visit the Se-fa Utaki, declared by UNESCO as one of 9 World Heritage Sites on Okinawa. The Se-fa Utaki is the sacred ground of the creator goddess Amamikyo and I am told that we will see Kudaka Island from this Utaki. It’s after 5:00 P.M. when we arrive and the light is fading. We walk up the clearly designated pathway towards the Utaki. There are other late visitors to this site, but the walk is lovely and serene. There are three different prayer sites in this Utaki but the most impressive of the three is the Sangui where a massive wall of stone has broken and slipped apart to form a triangular opening where, when the sun is just right, light will enter this open corridor and illuminate this sacred place. This sacred spot was a ceremonial place used by the high priestess of the Ryukyo Kingdom to pass on the title of Kikoe Ogimi to the future kings. On this cloudy day there are no rays of afternoon sunlight to illuminate and bring magic to this spot, but it is impressive nevertheless. A group of future tour guides are being briefed on the history of this place, and as Art asks them questions, I step up to the opening that faces out to the sea and take pictures of Kudaka Island. My photos are less than impressive, but I am happy to have visited this sacred spot.
Takaaki drives us back to Naha in the dark and suggests a simple Chinese Restaurant for dinner. He has just heard about a small place, has never eaten there before, but the food is supposedly delicious. It is a ½ block off of Kokusai Street. Without Takaaki, I would not have been brave enough to walk into this tiny, dingy, hole in the wall restaurant with seating for less than a dozen people. There is nothing charming about this place, except that it has no charm; which in itself is the delight! There are 4 tables for two set along the wall, and we take up two of the tables. The counter seats 4 or 5 and faces the kitchen where the owner, a smiley eyed, Chinese man with his hair tied back in a bandana; cooks over a gas flamed stove. The one large table up front is occupied with 6 men dining and drinking. They look up and stare when we enter. Takaaki orders for us. Woks spit and sizzle and within minute’s plates of food are set before us. There is no waitress, but one young woman sits at the bar and when our plates of food are set on the counter before her, the “cook/owner” motions for her to deliver it to our tables. There is barely room to turn around in this restaurant and it takes me a few minutes to realize that she is just another customer who has been called into action and is graciously delivering our many shared dishes to our tables. The food is quite good; the chili shrimp is excellent and we inhale all that is set before us. Cold Lemongrass tea is poured generously. Art pays the 3,300 Yen check ( $28.00) for the 4 of us. Takaaki drives us home but not before warning us that we shouldn’t go into this area after midnight because it is a dangerous place to be late at night.