Okinawa: Nago Pineapple Park

The last stop on the bus tour: Nago Pineapple Park.

Oh god, look how goddamn bright and cheery it is.  How could anyone resist?

The whole thing is pretty simple, really. You get a tour of the fields and then they release you inside to EAT AS MUCH PINEAPPLE AS YOU WANT. I capitalized that because it's awesome and it's not a lie.

There is a catch though - afterwards the pineapple gets to eat YOU as much as it wants.

OK, you can't eat as much as you want forever, because they shoo you out into the rest of the facility, where you have to buy your pineapple products, but it's pretty close.

A pineapple in its natural environment

They really can't have you eating all the pineapple though, because like most fruits they take forever to grow.

There is a tropical garden (above), a winery, a little shell museum, a restaurant, and a souvenir shop. This being a bus tour they rushed us through a little. Friends ordered a pineapple parfait at the restaurant which we shared; it was pretty good, but I spent most of the time in the souvenir shop worrying about what to get as omiyage. I ended up getting some cookies and wine, and then trying to use a coupon for the shop that I'd gotten at the airport (which is only valid at the airport shop. Don't ask. I'm just stupid). According to the giftees, the cookies were good; but the wine had mixed reviews.

At the end of our tour, we got a little pineapple in a baggie, which I gave to my host sister. It was probably the size of a silver dollar and fifty time cuter.

And thus ended our whirlwind bus tour: Ryukyu Mura, Okashi Goten (Sweets Palace), Manzamo, Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, and Nago Pineapple Park. It was a day full of food, fun, driving, beautiful vistas, and dead camera batteries.