Kitanakagusku Village & Nakamura House

Nakamura House

Ben and I told each other that after a long week of work and a crazy weekend in Tokyo we would relax and do nothing all weekend.... But surely enough, we found ourselves scheming away Saturday morning for somewhere to poke our heads around with our favorite third wheel Kevin Clark. We all agreed on visiting the Nakamura House in the quaint village of Kitanakagusuku which is conveniently located behind our little town.

The Nakamura house was built in 1720s and belonged to a farmer who was the teacher of the original Lord of Nakagusuku Castle. It's a traditional Ryukyuan style abode with tatami mats (which sadly, aren't original) and beautiful shōji sceens. The mild February weather meant that plenty of flowers were in bloom which added to the charm of this historic house. In addition to the house itself, there is a well, pig stys and plenty of storage space for farming equipment. This sight left me feeling as though we were on a school field trip which had me feeling quite nostalgic.

The beautiful roof of the home

Below the hanging wheel is the home's we'll

Historic pottery that was used back in the 1720s

The pig sty

In any Japanese home it is recommended, if not required, that you take your shoes off

Kevin is clearly loving the Japanese/Ryukyuan culture ?

Gift Shop Goodies

Like most tourist sites, a gift shop was associated with the Nakamura house. I really enjoyed this particular shop though because it featured tons of beautiful Okinawan pottery and canvas paintings. It's almost too hard not purchasing these goodies, but when I remember that we need to ship all of our belongings back across the world in two years I find the ability to resist!

They provided free tea and brown sugar jello. I'm not a huge jello person, but I actually did enjoy this unusual flavor (for jello, that is) quite a bit!

World Heritage Walking Tour

Luckily, the Nakamura house provided free maps that denoted important places across the village of Kitanakagusuku. We had no idea that the village itself was chock full of interesting sites and were so excited that we could now wander around with purpose! Many of these locations were wells, small parks and areas with many shisa dogs displayed. The walking tour was quick, but we all agreed that the experience was worth it. The village is full of charm and it was great immersing ourselves in its history and culture.

This is the season of blooming flowers, this is one of the many beautiful flora and fauna we came across!

Across the street from this cute little garden was the largest, meanest looking Rottweiler that definitely wanted to eat me, Ben and Kevin for lunch. The fence containing the dog was much too short and when it got up on its hind legs it could've easily jumped over into the street!!! Needless to say, we scurried away from this part of the town incredibly fast and never looked back!

So many shisa dogs!!!

Japan's famous Sakura aka cherry blossoms

We saw at least five different wells around this village. Kitanakagusuku is known for being built with an impressive amount of wells which have lasted for 500+ years

Another one of the villages many wells

This particular cat looked so much like our Kitsune that we couldn't help but hang out with it for a bit

A large Buddha head in the middle of a local farm

Until next time, blog readers!