Shuri Castle!

So today was filled with many good things! First we went to Shuri Castle, which was outstanding. It is a world Heritage Site, and absolutely amazing. Thereafter Sensei Clarke and dad trained for awhile, and I got to sneak away with the women and so some folk dancing! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I'll have to wait until I can grab pictures from someone else. Thereafter we went to dinner with Paul's friend Natsuki, because she is just fun to hang around :o) She took us to a great restaraunt where we ate alot of meat on skewers. It was, needless to say, delicious. Afterwards we walked around and she introduced Beth and I to japanese photoboothing. (taking pictures in a really swank photobooth). Again, much fun was had by all.

So here are some pictures from today!

Wall outside of Shuri Castle:
Gardens leading up to the castle:
Old original dragon-water fountain which was a gift from China around the 16th century. Much of the castle was destroyed in World War II, thus the fact that it is original is fairly significant:
So the stairs going up into the castle are pretty steep:
View from the wall. Here are myself and my dad!
Inside the castle gate. This is also when it began to rain. (Side story, when it was raining we stopped into the information building. There we bought umbrellas from a vending machien and learned how to make origami boats from the woman running the information counter! It was fun).
Inside the castle. Cannot quite remember what this was, but it was on the second floor! And I believe the king sat here for some purpose or another, although this was not his throne.

Walking around the administrative building. We had to take our shoes off to go around the museum, which I thought made alot of sense! Kept the floors clean.
So the faucets in the bathroom were really cool. Note how they resemble the water fountain I mentioned above!

We took the train back, and Beth had the great idea to sit in the front of the train!

And on a completely different note, I got a new gi :o) It is my first one since I got my original one! I pulled it out of the packaging tonight and had to snap a quick picture. Beautiful!