Coffee and Strawberry Fields Forever (oh, and flying squid too)

It was another road trip weekend for us when we headed north to restock our coffee supply and hopefully pick our own strawberries. 

In Okinawa City, our usual coffee place is Good Company Coffee House, but we have also heard about Hiro's Coffee Farm. Hiro (the owner) grows his own coffee plants here and roasts and sells his product to the public. What a funky place to hang out and you can imagine the coffee aroma is amazing! (Think Hawaiian trailer park, sort of) As soon as we got out of the car, we were greeted by chickens and Christmas reindeer with lights blinking on and off.

Rather than seating us with the slew of other Japanese tourists, they gave us our own special little camper shack...

The inside was all decorated out with coffee bags on the ceilings -

and coffee beans on the floor-

each table had its own coffee pot warmer

and they served us in these flower Victorian style old British tea cups

After fueling up, we went hunting for fresh strawberries. We heard a rumor that a farm existed nearby.

After driving around and not seeing any signs, we were about to give up. However, we stopped at a bird sanctuary along the road near Higashi Village and hawk eye Sean happened to look at an area map and spotted the farm. We drove along a windy country road near the ocean and finally came upon it. Note: if you are in Okinawa and want directions, email us and we'll tell you how to get here.

I never thought of strawberry patches and greenhouses so close to the ocean...

In any case, we got there as they were closing and the cost for picking was a little high for us (about $15/person for 20 minutes), so we opted to buy a carton to take home. The farmer asked us to wait about 10 minutes while he picked them for us and then came back with the most perfect beautiful and juicy berries. So worth the effort to come here. We even wanted to buy more, but felt a tad guilty that he'd have to go in there and pick for us all over again.

Feeling successful on both counts of coffee and strawberries, we headed back home. On the drive, we talked about how we kind of forget sometimes that we're in a completely different country. Many days, major aspects of living here don't seem quite so foreign to us. I mean, we feel like we live in little America often, being so closely associated with the bases and other expats. We can get almost anything we want from home and even eat at A&W Rootbeer if we get that craving...

and then we came upon the most bizarre sight on the road and had to back up the car to check it out--  spinning squid! Never saw that before in the states.