For lunch today I went to ポトス, an Okinawan restaurant just round the corner from my apartment, next to Tomari port. It was a recommendation on this blog from a guy who has seemingly eaten at most if not all of the Okinawa Soba restaurants in Naha.

Check out his map of them all here. There are quite a few in the north of the island too.

It was very good, probably my favourite of the soba dishes I've had in Okinawa so far. The meat was lovely and soft and very flavoursome. A reasonable price too, at ¥550 (£4).

島田紳助の沖縄についての本に載せているオススメのレストランの中に「亀かめそば」と言う店があります。今日は自転車でそこに１５分走って、勧めた軟骨そばを頼んだ。おいしかったけどやはり骨が付いている肉はちょっと苦手だと思い出した。肉の味は甘くておいしいけど、骨は本当にめんどくさいと気がついてきた。値段は５００円で安いけど、次回たぶん普通の沖縄そばにしようかなぁ。

Today I cycled about 15 minutes to the south, to a soba restaurant called 'kamekamesoba' recommended by Shimada Shinsuke in his book about Okinawa, and ordered the dish he recommended, the soba with beef cartilage. It was pretty tasty, but I realised again that I'm really not a big fan of meat on the bone. The meat itself had a really nice sweet flavour, but the bones are a pain.

It was a popular place, and very reasonably priced at ¥500 (£4). The next time I go I will try the plain Okinawa soba.

This morning, while I was sitting in Starbucks reading my book on Okinawa, an older lady who was sat beside me got up, and came back with two cups of water. The next thing I knew she had put one on my table and said 'どうぞ' ('there you are' or 'please go ahead and drink'). Her name was Nakasone Toyoko, and she lived just outside Naha, where she's lived for a lot of her adult life. She was born and grew up on Miyako-jima, one of the islands of the Yaeyama, in the southern part of Okinawa, before moving to Tokyo for work. We chatted about Naha and Okinawa, and during this conversation she mentioned that she'd found a single cherry tree in blossom, just around the corner. She said that it's early even for here, where it's warm all year round, as some of the flowers were already out of bud.

I then asked her about good places to eat, and she started telling me about a place very close by, just off 国際通り (Kokusai Street, the main shopping street in Naha) called むつみ (Mutsumi), a place that's been around since 1958, serving their ¥500 (£4) daily-changing lunch dish. She offered to take me there, via the park around the corner, so I could see the cherry tree. Not being one to resist the offer of being shown somewhere new to eat, I accepted, and we left.

Sure enough, along one side of the small dilapidated park, there was a single dark pink cherry tree. And cats, lots of wild cats around the place. She offered me some satsumas and green tea, to take back with me.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the main street, and around the corner to the little eatery. Today's lunch dish was sukiyaki; meat, tofu and vegetables, cooked in water in a pan, and eaten by dipping into raw egg first. The portion size was large, and afterwards, because the old lady knew the owner, we were given iced coffee. A great place to know, and I'll certainly be back! As for Nakasone-san, well she apparently goes to Starbucks five times a week, so I've no doubt I'll meet her there again.

My rental bike for my time in Okinawa; so named as it's been designated "No. 6" by the apartment block I'm staying at, with a label on the rear mudguard. A definite mamachari ("mama's bicycle") with a lack of gears and a basket on the front. Still, it's useful as somewhere to put my bag!

大盛りにして750円。

Beautifully presented within several layers of wrapping, Bunmeido's sponge cake is famous in Japan. It reminds me quite a bit of a buttery moist English madeira cake, quite dense and very delicious.

A friend of mine also pointed me to a video of the 1980s Japanese commercial for Bunmeido's sponge cake.

The words they sing are: カステラ一番、電話は二番、３時のおやつは文明堂。
In English I guess it's something like: sponge cake number 1, telephone number 2, for a 3 o'clock snack it's Bunmeido.