Saturday was another day of checking off to-do's. First up was Fukushuen Chinese Gardens. We tried to find this place several months ago and searched and searched for it. We finally gave up and stopped at a park to play. Sadly, we discovered yesterday, that park was literally right across the street from the gardens. I still don't know how we missed the giant pagoda that you could see from the street. Oh well, we found it yesterday.

The turtles were definitely a favorite of the girls.

The whole place was quite beautiful and relaxing.

Next up was the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters. Ed has been reading a book about the Battle of Okinawa and we felt it was important while we were on this island to understand some of the history of the place. I was a little worried about taking our innocent girls to a museum dedicated to portraying the grisly effects of war, but they handled it with dignity.

Going down into the tunnel - on the sides are a few of the 1,000 origami cranes that were made as a wish for peace throughout the world.

The officer's room where the Japanese leaders in the battle made many of their decisions.

War is horrible. It's hard to look at the Okinawans and imagine that they were once "the enemy." I'm so glad they aren't anymore.

A security guard stopped us as we were leaving and wanted to take our picture. He pointed out the kanji at the top of this picture and told us it says "Japanese Navel Underground Headquarters." We're glad we went.