June 22
Butterfly Garden and Glass Blowing
We planned to take a ferry to a small nearby island Ie Shima, but misunderstood the ferry schedule and missed the opportunity. We did manage to enjoy the Ryukyu Butterfly Garden, which housed many beautiful butterflies, caterpillars and chrysalis. Outside was a lovely winding garden walk, planted with flowers and things to attract local butterflies. The wind was still a bit breezy, but that helped against the hot sun.
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| The Butterfly Whisperer |
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| Chrysalis look gold plated! |
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| Chrysalis of another variety |
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| Can you see the caterpillars? |
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| Can you see these caterpillars? |
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| Not a butterfly |
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| A tadpole - this particular one has two hind legs. |
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| School of tadpoles |
Glass Blowing
Jim had spotted a place advertising "Glass Blowing Experience" while driving and we marked it on our nifty smart phone to find again later. What a good idea that was! For a reasonable price, we were able to pick from the shop what kind of item we wished to make. These items were priced according to size and difficulty, and came in a large variety of colors. Olivia chose an adorable pitcher, I chose to make a cup with swirly detail, and Jim chose to be the videographer. Maybe we'll go again and put him in the creator's ring? Thankfully, Jim was able to capture some great videos of the process. The products take another day to finish before we can pick them up.
The room was VERY hot. The instructors were kind and patient, one seemed to know more English as he gave each of us instruction for what to do at each step. The process wasn't too complicated, but I can see how it requires a lot of practice to be able to move quickly and keep the item well formed. A very memorable experience, now we have our very own home-made souvenir!
WOW how cool is that!?! Awesome experience and very neat that you were able to capture the experience with video! Can't wait to see the finished pieces, Liv- your's already looks great!!
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