Bise Village

About a month ago I came up with an Okinawa bucket list, a list of things we haven't done but wanted to, or things we've done and loved and would like to do again. Honestly, there's nothing on the list that I feel like I HAVE to do, but it helps us decide if we have some spare time what we might want to do. Bise Tree Village is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now but it just never felt like a good time. It's a bit of a drive and with naps, etc was hard to combine with the aquarium or anything else we might do up that way. So...on this day we decided that it would be our main event of the day. I didn't really know exactly what to expect, but as soon as we got there I was so glad we decided to come. We pulled up and found an easy parking spot and walked across the street to an area with a bunch of bikes for rent. They had kids, adults, different styles, different kid seats on them, etc. They were 300 yen ($3) and they let us just take them out, no name, no deposit, etc. I love that about the culture here, honest and trusting. 

The village is lined with fukugi trees which provided amazing shade and made the heat tolerable. Boden and Rowan both had an awesome time getting to ride these tree lined streets with us.

We even spotted a water buffalo cruising the streets :)

We rode to the end of the tree lined streets and then through some farm land over to a spot of beach we saw on the map...what we found was simply amazing! These giant rock formations leading out to an amazing picturesque beach. If we had planned accordingly, I could have stayed there all day. We played for awhile, found some hermit crabs, dug in the sand, etc.

Then we jumped back on our bikes for more fun riding...back through the farmland, through more trees and then along the seawall. The sun was bright and hot but it made for some gorgeous ocean water.

Ie island in the background

I LOVED these shady streets with the beach poking through at the end. This village was truly adorable.

We worked up an appetite while riding around, so decided to check out a place we hadn't been before, Hammock Cafe. It is right next to Pizza in the Sky, where we have eaten before, so the view was familiar, but food and atmosphere was new...and I was a BIG fan. Eating at new places here is always a little scary because I don't always love a lot of the food, but this place was really good. And, on this sunny day it was beyond beautiful.

The kids were definitely ready for a nap at this point, so we headed to Kouri Island (another one on our bucket list). We thought about staying to play at the beach but it was getting a little windy and they were still asleep so we decided to just drive around and take in the beauty. It was gorgeous. It bosts the longest bridge in Okinawa...fun to drive over because of the amazing water color.

Summer is hot and humid but it really is gorgeous on this little island of ours.