The Dillers are in Japan!: Cape Hedo

We were able to explore Cape Hedo, the Northern-most tip of Okinawa, with our good friends, the Worthington's in January. We originally met them in Iwakuni when Brandon was a contractor, but now both our families live in Okinawa. Sometimes, us civilians can feel like Marines... it's bound to happen that we eventually see each other again at another base. :)

They are a delightful family with two amazingly bright, funny, Star Wars loving girls! Trust me, our conversations were DEEP. Can't wait to watch the new episodes with this family and have the girls help me dissect the movies!

Cape Hedo is about an hour and a half drive from our house and we live just about in the middle of Okinawa... getting a taste for how small the island is?!? We started our adventure by doing some hiking at Daisekirinzan!

A bus takes the hikers to a drop off point up the hill. Apparently, this bus was WAY nicer than the old, dilapidated school bus the Worthington's rode when they were here previously. They prepared us for an Indiana Jones-type adventure bus ride up this hill, but it was pretty anticlimactic in a bus with AC and seat belts, LOL. Still bumpy though... that part had not changed.

Notice anything missing?

For some reason, an "a" was missing from each of these signs... there were more, but I only took pictures of two! GREAT name for a hiking trail though, right?!

As you can see, there were definitely a few "strange and big rocks".

Amelia and Aria are great hikers! They were super prepared with their Camelbacks and wealth of nature knowledge.

Quite a few rocks had signs depicting the "animal" we were supposed to see. This one was pretty clear , but some of them, we never could figure out.

There's supposed to be a stallion's head at the top, see it?

View of Cape Hedo from the hiking trail

But, wait.... what's this?! Is that a GIANT CHICKEN off in the distance?????? Wait and see...

Such a fun family!

I felt a connection with this statue. Maybe, this is how I look when Joel ticks me off? ;-)

Towards the end of the trail, there were LOADS of Banyan trees! These things are SO cool!

So, after the hike, we hopped into our vehicles and went to see what I assumed was a giant chicken. Turns out, it's a giant Rail, a type of bird with whom I am unfamiliar. It looks like a sand piper/chicken hybrid to me and is apparently THE Okinawan bird. They love it.

View from behind.

The girls posed for me as I attempted to snap a picture that represented the scale of this thing. It was quite large.

Difficult to see because of the sun, but that's a two story building next to the Rail. Pretty neat and something you can only expect to see in Japan.

Next, we went down to Cape Hedo. It was so stunning.... this part of the island is untouched by residences and commercial buildings, so it is ALL natural and ALL beautiful.