Orion is Okinawan for beer

On Saturday, Benny and I tried for a second time to travel north to Nago. The first stop was the Orion Brewery. Orion, whose slogan is "For Your Happy Time," has been producing beer in Nago for more than 50 years. The hops are German, so the taste of this Japanese is much better than the other Japanese beers we have been drinking.

I forgot to call ahead, requesting a tour in English, so we were handed a flyer explaining the brewery that we could read. The office clerk asked which one of us was the driver. Benny raised his hand.

She handed him this sign to wear for the rest of the self-guided tour, while I was handed my card for one free beer. Clearly there wasn't going to be as fun as our afternoon at New Belgium Brewery in Colorado with Glenn and Heather or even the Budweiser tour with Colleen, Adam and Rachel.

We walked through the brewery alone, which Benny thought was odd. I reminded him that Japanese culture is very trusting and the company trusted us to stay on the tour's path.

When we reached the tasting room, I enjoyed my classic Orion beer while Benny drank a can of oolong tea. We browsed the merchandise store. We bought some Orion snack mix, which are the best thing at the brewery in my opinion.

After the brewery, it was relatively early in the afternoon, so I told Benny let's look at the Nago castle ruins while we are in town. I didn't know anything about the castle ruins, except that there was a sign on Highway 58 pointing for this street to the castle ruins.

But after that one sign, there wasn't any more signs. So we drove up and down the streets of Nago. I looked at our maps, which are not very detailed. We crossed a green bridge and drove up a hill. We met a tour bus on the highway. This must be that the castle ruins are up this hill. We drove for a while, Benny took a left on a road he thought matched the one on the map. We drove around a hill, up and down a narrow road. Over and over again. We saw a white Buddha on a hilltop, but it was roped off and there wasn't a parking lot, so we didn't stop. Finally we saw a major road ahead of us. We were back where we started. This is when I started giggling uncontrollably.

It is moments like this where I feel that living in Okinawa is truly a test of one's self and one's marriage. It could be a test of one's navigational skills if the maps were accurate. I like to think that days like Saturday are preparation for Benny's and my future victory on the reality television travel show, The Amazing Race.

So we drove back down the hill and crossed the green bridge again. We saw a park on the right side so we turned into the parking lot there. Maybe this was connected to the castle ruins somehow, we thought.

We saw this fake waterfall, so we stopped for a photo.

We walked up 385 steps, which Benny called the Stairway to Heaven. It must lead to something important, right?

We came to a clearing where there was a stone shine. Was this the Nago castle ruins? We had no idea. We walked up some more steps and saw this shelter protecting a tree stump.

What was the significance of this tree stump? It must be important because there was a lengthily sign written in Kanji telling Japanese visitors about this place. We had a nice view of the city, but that was about it.

We walked down the stairs and ended up in a different parking lot than where we left Favre. And finally we find a sign that is translated in three languages. That shrine we saw is what remains of the 14th Century castle. And there was another part of the park with cherry blossom trees, tropical gardens and a swinging bridge. Benny wanted to check it out, but I simply said "Domo arrigato kekko dess."

That means "no thank you" in Japanese.