Food, Travelling & Living: Food And Fun Of Okinawa -- Day 2

Time for resting
Image from Locky's English Playground

The day started with the sleep preparation, as we were both exhausted by the dangerous GPS-less night driving. We were lucky to have survived that drive in complete darkness tailing a car in front which had a tiny little braking light. I will remember my first 3 times speeding past red lights happened in Okinawa.

Maybe a nice bath first
Image from Locky's English Playground

The hotel bathtub has to be the best I have ever seen. It was clean and new and big enough for 2 adults and two babies! Its design is simply fantastically caring! With a lower step for adults to climb out or kids to sit on.

Complete set
Image from Locky's English Playground

The Japanese's level of attention to details can be seen everywhere from oral hygiene to hair tidiness...

Look at the sound button
Image from Locky's English Playground

... to psychological comfort. See that SOUND button in the photo on top? You can use that to play fake toilet flushing sound to cover the sound you make during urination and defecation. How cool is that?

Cheap tour tickets for sale at the hotel
Image from Locky's English Playground

They also know that you would be interested in visiting different theme parks and tourist hotspots, so they provided the best price for these familtainments. Turns out they are the same price as you buy from local convenient stores like Family Mart, Lawson and CoCo! So don't bother going to convenient stores, just purchase from the hotel.

Snacks for the night
Image from Locky's English Playground

And whenever one goes on holiday, they tend to get hungry much more easily, snacks are highly advisable.

Panoramic view from the hotel room
Image from Locky's English Playground

Light through the curtains and it was hello to the first sunrise in Okinawa. The view from the room balcony was amazing!

The hotel's beach
Image from Locky's English Playground

Too bad we were here in the wrong season, the strong cold sea breeze turned out to be a good opponent for my 90% down Uniqlo jacket.

Round 1 of the western breakfast at the hotel
Image from Locky's English Playground

Breakfast came in two choices, western and Japanese. Day 1 we had western and thought it was a safer choice, didn't think the food would be barely considered warm enough.

Round 2
Image from Locky's English Playground

Taste-wise, the food was a little towards the bland side, but the health-conscious will not mind.

Round 3
Image from Locky's English Playground

As for the yoghurt, well, can simply forget about it.

Panorama of the chapel of the hotel
Image from Locky's English Playground

Before my wife's best friend's wedding began, we took time to have a stroll.

Hotel from the chapel
Image from Locky's English Playground

It was a nice day but the wind was almost the speed of typhoon 8 in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Fallen cove by the beach
Image from Locky's English Playground

The strong wind explains why the trees are mostly growing sideways.

Panoramic view of the beach
Image from Locky's English Playground

Another panoramic shoot
Image from Locky's English Playground

The sand on the beach was so fine, felt really comfortable to walk, even with shoes on, I could feel the softness and fineness.

Porous eroded rocks by the beach
Image from Locky's English Playground

The porous eroded rocks by the beach must have got a high composition of sandstones, creating a very interesting shape for the shoreline.

Piece of dead coral
Image from Locky's English Playground

The night before must have been a very rough sea, many corals and sea creatures were washed up.

Some sort of sea cucumber-like creature with a very hard back
Image from Locky's English Playground

Including this sea cucumber-like creature with super hardback but a much softer belly,

An near-death drying up baby sea snake
Image from Locky's English Playground

and this poisonous baby banded sea krait sea snake, almost dried up on the sand.

It was still moving defensively when I first found it, but it had no hope of returning to the ocean on its own.

So, how can I not save it from near death?

Chapel front door
Image from Locky's English Playground

The chapel is beautiful from the outside,

Image from Locky's English Playground

and is even better from the inside. Too bad the priest was too much of an actor than a faithful father.

Graves by the Cape Manzamo
Image from Locky's English Playground

One of the most eye-catching things in Okinawa is the abundance of graves, surprisingly rather semi-Chinese and semi-Japanese style. They are almost everywhere, including two right beside the hotel.

Road safety reminder statue of a matchman and a cross above a stone stand
Image from Locky's English Playground

Another would be how common it is to see statues reminding drivers to drive safely on the road. They come in all sorts of appearance, mostly cute matchmen and cartoony devils in underpants.

Lawson outside the entrance of Cape Manzamo
Image from Locky's English Playground

And I just love to see convenient stores with free parking spaces, so convenient!

Huge rock with Kanji engraved on it at Cape Manzamo
Image from Locky's English Playground

Image from Locky's English Playground

The view at Cape Manzamo was stunning!  I have never seen anything like this, so majestic, yet looked so vulnerable before the crashing wave.

Cape Manzamo
Image from Locky's English Playground

I took several soundifferent and shot photos but can only be listened to on Samsung phones. But here are the photos anyway.

Crashing blue
Image from Locky's English Playground

It is not a place you can stay for too long due to the gale force wind, but definitely a place one must visit.

Crystal and deep blue sea crushing on the cliff
Image from Locky's English Playground

There were times when I thought the whole cliff would collapse when the waves broke at the bottom of the hanging cliff. And I am pretty sure it will, just may not be any time soon.

The other side of the Cape Manzamo
Image from Locky's English Playground

Looking towards the other end of the coast stood Sun Marina Hotel. The bay is protected by rocks and corals. An unreal creation of Mother Nature.

Is that a light tower in red? Or a tsunami warning system?
Image from Locky's English Playground

Leaving Cape Manzamo
Image from Locky's English Playground

Driving in Okinawa was lovely, carless,  like the road was private.

Famous cake and pastry shop
Image from Locky's English Playground

Not so long of a drive after leaving Cape Manzamo we arrived at 御菓子御殿 (okashigoten) 恩納店 (tenpo onna), the biggest confectionery chain store in Okinawa.

Panorama of the shop and private car park
Image from Locky's English Playground

It was way past lunch time and we were desperate for food.

Lunch time
Image from Locky's English Playground

On the second floor, there was a cafe with a dream-like decor that commonly appears in Japanese comic but never in Hong Kong.

Triple layer pork with Okinawa noodles
Image from Locky's English Playground

Triple layer pork with Okinawa noodles stole the sight but it was the warm comforting dried bonito soup that stole the limelight in a cold afternoon. That aroma still tales up a huge part of my fondest memory in the entire trip.

Soft pork ribs udon
Image from Locky's English Playground

Even though the soft pork ribs tasted fabulous, the soup beat everything else.

Dinner
Image from Locky's English Playground

For dinner, everyone gathered at 農園炉端しまぶた屋 (nouenrobata shimabutaya). An all pork restaurant.

Wife's best friend prepared this table paper
Image from Locky's English Playground

The place mats were specially designed for the married couple. Pretty nice.

Interesting peanut tofu
Image from Locky's English Playground

Appetizers did their soury job well, which included a very chewy peanut tofu, umibudo seaweed, and seaweed in lime vinegar.

Pineapple juice on the rocks
Image from Locky's English Playground

Pineapples are very famous in Okinawa, so had to be my drink for the night.

Layered pork
Image from Locky's English Playground

Multilayered pork were alright, not exactly my type of meat for the health conscious me. I did not eat the fatty part.

Ham, intestine, liver and heart
Image from Locky's English Playground

People who like pig's internal organs would be happy, I am only a fan of the ham.

Raw pork in a bamboo rack
Image from Locky's English Playground

Raw pork in bamboo rack is this restaurant's signature dish...

Steaming in sake
Image from Locky's English Playground

Add saki to it and the hot pot below will immediately steam. Close the lid for about a minute,

Done!
Image from Locky's English Playground

and the pork slices are ready. Gimmick 100%, taste 100% bland.

Pork chop
Image from Locky's English Playground

I preferred the common type, pork chop /fillet. Simple and yummy.

Pork spring roll
Image from Locky's English Playground

But if you ask me to choose the best of the night, I will choose this pork spring rolls. I even devoured a whole tube even when I was 99% full! That pork juice all soaked into the rice, that charcoal aroma, that saltiness at optimal balance.... hm!!!!!

Ice cream
Image from Locky's English Playground

And the dinner was nicely summed up with an ice cream of some taste which I cannot remember.



Vocabulary:
familtainment -- (n)[C] family + entertainments
peanut tofu
umi budo seaweed -- (n)[U] "sea grapes"



Resources:

Food, Travelling & Living: Food And Fun Of Okinawa -- Day 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/12/food-travelling-living-food-and-fun-of.html

Laticauda colubrina +Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laticauda_colubrina

Sea snake at the Hotel Monterey Okinawa Beach @YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV7ZlqHaEVA

Saving baby seasnake in Okinawa @YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYoj2iVpF1g

御菓子御殿
http://www.okashigoten.co.jp/

御菓子御殿 恩納店
http://www.okashigoten.co.jp/tenpo_onna.html

農園炉端 しまぶた屋 @gurunavi
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/f316202/lang/tw/

Food, Travelling & Living: Food And Fun Of Okinawa -- Day 1

Image from Locky's English Playground

Went to Okinawa for 5 days 4 nights with my wife to attend her best friend's wedding. As inexperienced self-paying guests, we relied much on the experienced bride and groom.

L-shaped gear stick, haven't seen it on any cars other than minivans in Hong Kong
Image from Locky's English Playground

Following a group of 17 people, we opted for a rental car tour by hiring 4 cars. Turns out, we got the oldest car with the crappiest GPS that only had Japanese language, read un-updated phone numbers and rerouted even when you were just 10 metres away from your destination. Fujiren Rental is definitely a candidate on my blacklist.

Huge whale shark toys
Image from Locky's English Playground

Anyway, this is not a post for complaints, so let's return to the food and fun. We went to this souvenir shop on Kokusai Dori (literally "International Road") and I was most impressed with the amount of whale shark souvenirs being sold there. Surely you would think they are very shark conservation conscious, but keeping whale sharks in captivity in the first place is a very wrong thing to do.

Many souvenir shops on
Image from Locky's English Playground

Souvenirs shops are everywhere along the road, so I am betting this must be the last place people go before they head back to the airport, but we went there on day 1.

Ice cream with salts of different flavours
Image from Locky's English Playground

For me, ice cream is the most impressive thing in Okinawa. Extremely milky, and it comes with salts of different flavours, most famous is their sea salt and purple sweet potato. Lick the ice cream and try another salt flavour, quite a fun thing to do.

Tree ring cake
Image from Locky's English Playground

We walked into a shop that sells tree ring cakes, tried several types but the sweetness is a tad too much for our liking.

Takoyaki
Image from Locky's English Playground

Takoyaki was excellent! Fresh, hot and oh that sauce!!!

Mini-pineappel for sale as gifts
Image from Locky's English Playground

Little new-born pineapples for sale at 100 Yen, another great buy as souvenirs.

Exhibition of the history of Makishi kōsetsu shijō
Image from Locky's English Playground

Ceci and I wandered into Makishi kōsetsu shijō (牧志公設市場), a market established since the end of WWII. There on the ground floor, there are fresh seafood, meat loafs for sale and Okinawa's unique seasoning for sale. On the first floor, there was a possibly permanent exhibition of photos talking about the history of this marker.

Ganjuu Dou, a very nice open restaurant
Image from Locky's English Playground

We went to Ganjuu Dou (がんじゅう堂) on the same floor, a very homely-looking restaurant with several families dining.

Famous visitors?
Image from Locky's English Playground

On the wall there are a number of signatures supposedly written mostly by famous baseball players.

Pickled ginger, pepper powder and awamori
Image from Locky's English Playground

Below the wall was our table, I tried the famous awamori without knowing what it is, then after a teaspoon of it, I felt the burn of alcohol moving both up and downwards of my digestive track.

Triple pork Okinawa noodles
Image from Locky's English Playground

The best of noodles of the entire trip, was this bowl of fat pork belly, pork ribs and pork knuckle Okinawa noodles, and the pork ribs were the best of the best. My wife loved it and could not find anything close to this in the next five days. Okinawa noodles are the harder, chewier type, my kind of texture. I love the soup in particular, the richest taste of dried bonito (aragatsuo, 荒節) I have ever had. Thinking about it now, I should go and get some from the supermarket.

Ishigaki Beef
Image from Locky's English Playground

Going to Okinawa and not try their renowned Ishigaki Beef would be a huge regret to bring home. The beef easily costs 5000 yen a piece, but here, it only costs 2930 with set!

Close up of the beef
Image from Locky's English Playground

And lucky that I tried it, because for the next few days, I could no longer find anything as great the price and quality as this. The beef is so rich in taste, so tender! It is not the kind you expect to the really fatty, but lean meat in just the right amount of bite. If I had brought enough cash, I would have bought a whole chunk back to Hong Kong.

Car park instructions
Image from Locky's English Playground

Not only is the beef amazing, the automated car parking system too!

How the car is parked electronically
Image from Locky's English Playground

It is really interesting to see how the system works. Turns out, when one drives a car into the parking lot, there are about 1 minute or so before the lever is raised to lock the bottom of the car, stopping the wheel. It is not like you cannot drive it over the lever, but your car will suffer more damage than paying for the parking fee. Parking fee depends on the car parks themselves, but the ones I parked over night, cost 1100-1200 yen when I picked the car up the next day. Not too bad!

Hotel!!! Finally!
Image from Locky's English Playground

We reached the Hotel Monterey Okinawa Resort & Spa just before midnight. The room and the hotel were excellent, but my wife and I were too tired to pay too much attention in photo-taking.

Vocabulary:

Takoyaki -- (n)[U] a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan.

Awamori -- (n)[U] an alcoholic beverage indigenous to and unique to Okinawa, Japan. It is made from long grain indica rice, and is not a direct product of brewing (like sake) but of distillation (like shōchū). All Awamori made today is from Thai rice, the local production not being sufficient enough to meet domestic demands.

bonito -- (n)[C] a family it shares with the mackerel, tuna and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish.

Resources:

Fujiren.jp
http://www.fujiren.jp/m/

Takoyaki @Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

Awamori +Wikipedia 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awamori

Bonito +Wikipedia 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonito

Katsuobushi +Wikipedia 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuobushi

Ishigaki Beef @ Bunny Eats

http://www.bunnyeats.com/2008/01/ishigaki-beef.html

Hotel Monterey Okinawa Resort & Spa +agoda 

http://www.agoda.com/hotel-monterey-okinawa-spa-and-resort/hotel/okinawa-jp.html?asq=v0rS0a1OqoRQ7bXy1Mh94p2kCzVRB2sXBxqcn4ezepFozvPhdPOUT08nHla2fPuM

Technology: Amazing DIY In-Car Surveillance IP Cam Combo!!!

Battery-Powered WiFi Netcam
Image from Toms Blog at McLaren Labs

Remember that sometime ago, I wrote a post Technology: How to Use Your Extra Smartphones / Tablets As Webcam? In that post I successfully tested using an old Android phone as IP Cam. Now, it is time to use that for something even cooler!!!

I have always liked the idea of having an IP cam in the car. This is very useful (if possible) because if there is a police nearby wanting to give you a ticket, you can use your app to honk him, open the pano roof, this and that to signal that you are in fact nearby, while at the same time, you run like crazy back to the car trying to save yourself another HK$480 fine.

Or maybe you just feel it is cool to be able to look around the environment from inside your car and get a comfort feeling that your car is still around while you are away on a business trip.

My first idea was to connect a IP cam which can get its power from the USB port in the Model S while the car is 'off', but soon I found out that this is not possible. So to make it work, the power supply for the IP cam must come from somewhere.

Then I found this, Do It Yourself: Battery-Powered WiFi Netcam | Toms Blog at McLaren Labs. A rather easy DIY battery-powered WiFi Netcam/IP cam. Do read the article for specific details, but this part of the problem about power supply is solved, and you get the turns and rotations which can be controlled using apps or browsers on any computers or smartphones.

What's missing now is the connection between the IP cam and your phone -- you need a modem connected to LAN. Since the cam itself has only a limited range for its WiFi capability, you will not be able to connect the IP cam with a modem unless your car (with the IP cam inside it) sits nearby the modem. So, to provide a 'modem' that moves with your car going anywhere you go, you need a smartphone with at least 3G enabled on WiFi hotspot.

So, here goes the route of connection.

Battery-powered WiFi IP cam <--> WiFi hotspot on 3/4G smartphone as server <--> Smartphone / PC at home or office

How do make such connections? Well, here's a tutorial by Zedomax, who gets High On Android everyday!

I have tried all steps except for the battery-powering the IP cam, if you have tried all the steps and you like this idea, do leave a message and let me know!


Resources:

Technology: How to Use Your Extra Smartphones / Tablets As Webcam? @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014_05_02_archive.html

Concept: In-Car Surveillance IP Cam Combo @TMC
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/34413-All-Model-S-Mods-Go-Here/page6?p=825636#post825636

How to Recycle Android into Security Camera Liveview! +YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwdWMTICnYQ

Technology: Remote Desktop With Google Chrome Remote Desktop and App!!!

Image from Locky's English Playground

Say for some reasons, you need a higher power computer to do some lengthy and difficult calculations but your PC at home just isn't fast enough, or you need a faster network but your home just doesn't have it, or the most unfortunate of all, you have left some important documents back in your office but you don't want to or can't afford the time to travel to your office on a Saturday or Sunday, here's something you should know.

In the old days, I will use Remote Desktop, or that mstsc.exe that comes with Windows, check your IP address, set up group name, blablabla..... However, the setup was tricky and the response is often very slow. Luckily, the world is different now and we have Google and Chrome, and with that you can gain near real-time control of a remote computer!

You don't need to do tedious installation and setup of software, all you need is to do the following on your computers

1. Go to your target computer (eg. office / school computer and home PC),
2. Install Chrome browser from Google, run it and log in with your Gmail account,
3. Download Chrome Remote Desktop from Chrome web store,
4. Follow the instructions and install what has been downloaded next,
5. Create a pin of your choice for login, confirm that pin,
6. Leave your computer on.

The nice thing about this set up is that you need nothing but internet access, a Gmail account and a pin to control the machine you want.

"Apps" icon on Chrome
Image from Locky's English Playground

To control your office computer remotely now, you just open your Chrome browser, click the "Apps" icon on the top left corner of the bookmark bar. If you don't see it, you can simply type chrome://apps/

Can you find the Chrome Remote Desktop icon here?
Image from Locky's English Playground

and then your browser will show the page as seen above. Simply click onto Chrome Remote Desktop icon to activate connection to your office PC. You can even bookmark it like a normal webpage for faster access next time.

Controlling office computer from home through Chrome browser
Image from Locky's English Playground

Take note of two things:

1. If you are at your home PC and all you see is a black screen even though it is connected, simply go to the top blue bar in the middle of the browser page, click onto it and "Send keys" then "Send Ctrl-Alt-Del" and the black will disappear and your office computer is yours to control.
2. The number keypads on your PC keyboard does not work, so use the number keys above the letter keys.
3. Note that by default, as you happily control your office computer remotely, people in your office can see what you are doing on the screen like a ghost is controlling it. To avoid this, simply download and install the registry file from here onto your office computer then reboot. When it is done, your computer will be on Curtain Mode and no one can see what you are doing on your PC, provided of course, you have a password set up on your office computer in the first place.

Wanna control your office computer and home PC on the go?
Image from Locky's English Playground

How about if I want to control both my office computer and home PC on the go through my smartphone? Well, yes you can! Simply download Chrome Remote Desktop from Google Play onto your Android phone, then log in with your Gmail and PIN, and Wah-La!!! You have all your machines and devices in your hands!

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think about my recommendation!

Resources:

Chrome Remote Desktop @Chrome Web Store
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en

Chrome Curtain Mode for Windows registry +Google Groups
https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/group/chrome/attach/4adfbca404287d2c/ChromeCurtainMode.reg?part=0.1&authuser=0