Nakayoshi: 宮古そば なかよし

宮古そば Miyako soba


Near to the university, on a back road, there is a small local restaurant called Miyako Soba Nakayoshi. As my sensei is from Miyako-jima, he is partial to this place, so of course one sunny day he treated us students to lunch and kakigouri (shave ice) かき氷.

When you see the place, you know it is a true mom&pop type shop, filled with regulars. Inside, it seems everyone knows everyone else. Anyway, we all sat down and checked out the menu; mostly the typical shokudo stuff, including a type of Okinawa soba (suba) popular in Miyako-jima.

Well, being as I don’t eat meat, sometimes eating Okinawan food can be a bit of a challenge. But the owner is very kind and made me Goya Chanpuru without the pork. Funny enough, one of my lab-mates ordered the same as me. For dessert, my sensei ordered us all Okinawa zenzai, which is basically shave ice with sweet red beans.

Everything was delicious and cheap, as expected from a  small place like this. Anyway, if you find yourself looking for small hole-in-the-wall places near Ryukyu University, this is a place to check out for some local hospitality.


address: https://goo.gl/maps/S84Uu4H88zx

Mother Leaf Shave Ice

かき氷 kakigouri: shave ice. Or snow cone, for those of you from other places.

Anyway, rainy season has ended and summer time is upon us in Okinawa. Today was pretty darn hot, so I decided to make a short trip to the central portion of the island north of where I live. My main goal was to try a different shave ice shop: Mother Leaf.

Mother Leaf is pretty popular, so this is not necessarily a “hidden gem” (it even has English on the menu). But it is tasty and so refreshing on days like today. Apparently several other people had the same idea as me. Even though I say it was busy, there was a decent amount of parking and the line goes pretty quick; also the inside had plenty of seating. I had no issues on a hot Sunday afternoon, so I can recommend stopping by even at the busiest of time since this shop can clearly handle it.

I ordered the shirokuma-mango 白くまマンゴー at a whopping 650 yen; everything else was actually much cheaper and reasonably priced, but I really wanted the mango. It is a mango and condensed milk kakigouri. Anyway, it was really huge and quite good, but next time I would stick with a cheaper item.


address: https://goo.gl/maps/oEP4fsPS4gD2