Okinawa Comprehensive Park

We try to make the most of our weekends as a family here in Okinawa. We've found another favorite spot, the Comprehensive Park. It's the largest park in Okinawa that offers a lot of family activities. The park has three or four playground, all different and fun. You can rent bikes or bring your own for the biking trails.

You can also rent paddle boats to float around the pond in. Kids can feed the carp in the ponds or the birds on the shore. The park is also on the water, (imagine that for island living) so people can comb the beach while visiting the park.

I've noticed tent spots and people with tents set up over a weekend, I'm guessing you can rent a spot for overnight stays. The park is so large that you could get lost! I believe it even has a little history/children's museum? It's hard to tell what certain buildings are due to everything being in Japanese! You can also buy snacks and drinks from a little shop. There are several ballfields as well as a circular bike track that looks more like a centrifuge or funnel?! I guess they have races here.

It has a large water park that we hope to visit in the summer once it opens. The park is pretty packed on Sunday afternoons, but a fun place to visit. We'll be frequenting this place.

One of our many trips to the Okinawan Aquarium

Welcome to the Aquarium!

Girls in their traditional kimono greeted everyone to the aquarium. I snuck pictures of them because I wasn't sure if they would charge you to take a picture of them with your own camera! That's how a few places have been!

The handling pools were great fun for the kids. The workers would push the drifters (runaway starfish) to the kids to be able to handle. The starfish look slimy or squishy, but they are as hard as rocks!

The boys operate the underwater camera, zooming in on different fish. I think they had more fun turning the camera on themselves through the glass and zooming in on themselves and other onlookers! Don't you just love kids?!

Now that's a big ole puffer!

Waiting for the dolphin show! It's Sea World style!

They were fun to watch! This is my favorite part of the aquarium visit!

Uh....SQUID anyone? It was almost as long as Cameron is tall!


I love sea turtles!

A view of the aquarium grounds, it's the third largest aquarium in the world! You can take the four or five flights of stairs for exercise, or ride the escalator to the top!

Okay, why have water fountains if you can't even drink from them?! Who gargles for kicks?!

This was a welcome sight for all the hot tourists in the summer, though the mist hardly even gets one wet! I didn't even get condensation on my camera~! The kids enjoyed it though!

On our way out of the Aquarium

The McGuires at yet another tourist attraction! We get around!

Family picture with the Pineapple! The McGuires were here, again!!!

We rode these little carts around the pineapple park with a little voice recorded tour guide. I guess the carts go by magnets on the road or something, there were not tracks or rails and we weren't driving it!
Taylor, Daniel, and Jonah take the back seat!