Naha, Japan

In the late 17th century, pottery making was centralized in Tsuboya, now part of Naha. Over the centuries a distinct Ryukyuan style evolved. Also, pottery!

We started at the Tsuboya Pottery Museum, which was a pretty decent museum. Most of the signage was in Japanese however they did have a good self-guided audio tour in English. The museum was built over a historical climbing kiln (built into the side of the hill) which was part of the exhibit.

Now knowledgeable of the differences in firing between Jo-yachi (glazed) and Ara-yachi (unglazed) pottery, we checked out the studios and stores that line Tsuboya Yachimun St.

The pottery district includes some side streets so we wandered down those as well. Stumbled across Nuchigafu, a restaurant with local specialties. It was exactly what we were looking for for lunch and we weren’t even really searching!

We both ordered a combo meal so we could try out Goya Champuru (bitter melon), Rafute (braised pork belly), Mozuku (brown seaweed), Jimami Tofu, Okinawa soba and Okinawan salt-cookies-flavoured ice cream. It was all really good, and a great way to sample Okinawan food. It was a more formal restaurant where removed our shoes to enter the dining area and sat at lower tables.

Literally across the street from the pottery district was an entrance to the extensive covered arcade market. There were three souvenirs I was looking to get for our key shelf: a Shisa (mythical Okinawan creature), Maneki neko (lucky cat) and a Daruma doll. We had bought a ceramic Shisa from a pottery place so just had two items to find.

You can find everything in this market from souvenirs to bars and cool hole-in-the-wall restaurants to everyday household goods. Everything, that is, except for a Daruma doll. We asked around, and it seemed that we could find it a place called Don Kee, with some hand gestured directions from other friendly store owners.

Finally a store worker showed us a department store on a map. We went to check it out, it’s actually a popular department store chain, Don Quixote, which is nicknamed Don Qui here. The store itself is several floors selling everything with no order or organization. A store worker told us we could find them on the 4th floor. And there they were! It’s not a tourist thing so it was a harder item to find.

That was it for our day. The full day was a good amount of time to spend in Naha. Tomorrow we leave for Taiwan!